Writing. I enjoy it. I never used to like it, but each time I come to sit down here in front of the computer, I greatly enjoy the process. But the down-side comes under the cover of doubts and questions – does anyone actually read this stuff?
The answer is yes – the stats of the site seem to indicate this, but when I sit down to write an article of a mainly personal nature, I often doubt there’s anyone plugged into this site enough to care. I’ve started and never completed countless articles because after reading the draft, it sounds silly and feels more than a little weird to bother putting it online.
But today see me in a mood of defiance, where I’m telling myself I don’t care.
If you don’t like it, you are free to walk away.
If there’s nothing for you here, don’t read it, don’t bookmark it, and don’t share it.
So there! … but I would prefer you stayed around and got involved.
Sitting in Belfast airport, about to embark on the first leg of my travel for 2011, I’m contemplating how I will approach it, considering what lessons I learned from last year’s travel, and what insights can I bring forward with me on this journey. This article is a product of this process…
Sharing is Caring
I re-watched the movie ‘Into the Wild’ last week and I recommend it to anyone thinking of travelling either alone or in company. Sure, no-one wants to finish up as McCandless did, and we can learn from him, but there’s inspiration dished out in that film by the bucket load.
As he lay dying in the end, he wrote down perhaps one of the greatest lessons to us all. A simple and beautiful observation, and one I realised once I left home a decade ago, but that my inner-introvert often holds me back from. It is this:
“Happiness is only real when shared”
Of course you can have happiness without it being shared, but that kind of happiness is a rare thing compared to the alternative.
My goal this time around is to attempt to connect as widely as I possibly can. Where I might shy away from people I will engage. I will try to say ‘Yes’ before I can think of excuses to say ‘No.’
Like everyone else, I’m most at peace in my comfort zone. Keeping to myself, and sus’ing out people before I engage them is a terribly bad habit of mine. I like to keep a distance emotionally and refrain from commitments until I know for sure I wont get messed around.
That has its perks, but it also clearly has its downside – it means when you travel, you travel alone. Sure, I made some great friends last year as I travelled, but I also missed opportunities. This probably needs another article or two to flesh out, but for now I’m putting it online to get it out in the open, hopefully helping me to stick to it.
The plan: write more of the journey – both travel and business
With this new journey that I start today I’m hoping to throw up more articles in “travel diary” format as I move. I also intend to document in as much detail as time will allow, the path I take into Internet Business which is in itself a big journey for me in 2011. Hopefully it’ll be a raving success and I’ll have heaps of tips and information to share that you’ll all find useful. Or not 🙂
Let’s see if I can keep to it. Fingers crossed.
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Hi, I like your article on Bali, it was quite informative, I have returned from a lovely trip to Bali and it was like re-living the holiday.
I am an avid traveller have travelled quite a lot and intend to travel much more. I have one problem, I don’t have many friends with similar interests or money, my family is pre-occupied and cannot always accompany me. How can I share my experiences? How can I find the right people to travel with who can be trusted? I really need an answer to solve my problem. Can you perhaps help?
Nandini,
It’s a good question, and unfortunately I never found the answer. I think in-principle avid-travellers are a fundamentally a solitary bunch because finding people with the same interest, time and money is difficult. That said, the best places to find them is “on the road”. The challenge here is filtering out the people like yourself and those who are just passing through this stage in their lives.
Oddly, one way to find them is to stop travelling for a bit… to settle a while in a place and attempt to connect with people there. You will eventually see the transient people leave and see who remains.
Hard to answer and I don’t have a firm solution for you 🙂
Hope you’re able to find something that works for you…
Cheers!
Paul.
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