090: Why You should plan a Trip out of your Comfort Zone

On the Passion Design Project website, I not only have the podcast but also keep a Travel Blog on there. I love writing about exploring different places and hope that others can find the blogs handy if they find themselves in the same spots!

Pertaining to business, I think there are a lot of different ways to grow, and they don't always have to do with biz productivity like setting up the right systems. Sometimes, life experiences can help you grow in business, and often does.

Where I grew up (and I know many other places like this too), a lot of people take the same vacation every year. re-visiting their "favorite" spot. I get that some places are awesome and people don't like to quit a good thing once they're found it, and so I understand why people choose to do this.

About 5 years ago, I took a job taking international passengers on road trips across the USA. There were 2 main crazy things that I learned from this. 1. There were way more foreign travelers visiting our National Parks than Natives. 2. There are so many awesome things in the USA that I didn't know existed!

About 5 years prior to all that, I went on my first international experience. A trip to Panama. I remember coming back wanting to figure out a way to have my friends join in what I had just experienced. I couldn't believe how good we had it in the US and how much else was going on in the world.

With these experiences and continued travel through the years, I've come to adore different cultures, crazy foods, and the art of flyin' around the world. I believe that putting yourself in situations that are unfamiliar is what can help you grow the most. Life can be really simple these days, staring at your phone, seeing other people's travels, staying comfortable. But there's something special that comes alive when you decide to partake in a new adventure, and I think it's a sad thing to stay comfortable all life long.

I regularly push people to get out of their travel comfort zone. Many people seem to take it as me thinking my way is better, but that's not the case at all. I simply think that there is way more to experience than we realize, and letting ourselves get lost in unfamiliar territory is not scary and unsafe, it's exciting and helps you grow. It allows you to realize that the world doesn't revolve around American and English speakers (something I learned during my first trip to India). It helps you realize that maybe life doesn't have to be the way everyone around us told us it was (something I learned on my most recent trip to Morocco.) It makes you more interesting (I've been able to relate to tons more people since visiting more places).

I regularly get excuses from people who want to go somewhere but can't find the time or money or whatever. I was chatting with a guy the other night who lit up when he started talking about a 2-month trip he wanted to take to Nepal but then overloaded me with excuses on why it probably wouldn't happen. To which I asked him why he was giving me so many excuses and what was he doing currently to make it happen? He didn't have an answer for that. It's usually easier to make up excuses than take action towards something you want, oddly enough.

I'm not sure who told us international travel is hard, but that guy probably wasn't a traveler. To be honest, a trip like this would be fairly easy. You save up money, just like you would for a new TV, you buy a ticket a few months in advance, and then you save a bit more extra money that you will use while you're there (cheap places make this so easy!) Oh, and if you have kids you find a babysitter. A co-worker of mine is taking a trip to Bali with his wife in a few weeks, and they are pit-stopping in Spain to drop their 1 & 3-year-old off with parents. So don't tell me you can't figure it out too:)

I'm focusing on trips abroad because I really think that different cultures (languages and food) make for a much more intense and unforgettable,