“For every sin but the killing of Time there is forgiveness.”
- Unknown
Have you ever secretly dreamed of traveling the world?
Do you have a secret place of the globe you’ve always wanted to visit?
Planning for the trip of a lifetime is easy enough. It’s getting out of the rat race that’s the hard part.
Begin With a Dream
When I was seventeen, I knew I wanted to live in the rainforest. I grew up hearing so many stories about the rainforest, watching The Jungle Book, and wishing I could be in such a rich place. But I was born in the suburbs, and knew nothing of wilderness. The longest I’d ever been camping was exactly one night.
Still, I got it in my head that I would live at least six months in the tropical jungle. I got online, and researched how I could do exactly that. I found a few farms, and decided that was my best bet. I didn’t bother to call or make contact with any one of them.
I decided I would just show up, and figure things out once I got there. Most importantly, I decided there was nothing I could really plan from home. I resolved instead to figure things out once I got there.
Follow Through With Economy
If you want to do anything great in life, you’re going to need money. So if you’ve got issues with money, it’s time to get over it.
Figure out how much your trip is going to cost.
I created a budget for myself, and decided I needed at least $2000 to get myself down to Central America, and to begin working at a farm comfortably. The expenses I projected broke down like this:
- $380 – Plane Ticket
- $400 – Emergency fund
- $1200 – Four months at a budget of $300 / month
Saving up $2000 became my goal. I knew I could pick up my backpack and things for cheap. I just needed to begin saving, to get to $2000. I set a deadline, 6 months to get to $2000.
I counted everything. I set a budget, and I socked away $340 / month, no matter what. In the process, I learned how to be frugal with my money, and I learned the number one lesson anyone ever has to learn about money:
Spend less than you earn.
I know this is difficult for people to understand, but if you aren’t saving, you are financially dying. You will sink into debt at interest, and get to have compound interest working against you. So instead of just being poor, you will become poorer and poorer.
Break Free of The Rat Race
The first step to breaking free of the Rat Race is to find out how much you are actually spending. Stop and take a look at your bank account statement for last month.
How much money did you spend on eating out? On entertainment? On gas?
Start cutting, and cut ruthlessly. The bigger the trip, the more money you need to save, the more you need to pare down your lifestyle. This is a blessing in disguise, because it prepares you for the traveler’s life.
You learn to live lean. And this is the first virtue of being a true traveler.
Learn To Be Happy With Less
When the great religions and philosophers extol the virtues of poverty, what they are really referring to is the virtue of living beneath your means. It is an undeniable law of the world and economics, you must contribute more than you take.
There is no secret greater than this. Contribute more to the world than you take from it, and your riches will continue to grow exponentially.
Just Leave
With money mastered, and a bit saved up, it’s easy to say: “I just want to save a bit more and be safe.” Don’t.
Leave Now.
With any great trip, there will be a huge amount of fear. When I left to hike the Appalachian Trail, I was dropped off in the middle of nowhere with not nearly enough food for four days in the woods.
But I went, and pushed through the fear. I ended up solving all the imaginary problems I had within my head right away. Most of them never even happened. Which is why now, when I leave on a trip, I just go.
The longer you take to think and plan everything to completion, the less likely it is you will leave. So when you have a chance, take it.
What About Work?
If you’re lucky, you’re just out of school, and don’t have a job to come back to. If you’re unlucky, you’ve got a well paying job that won’t understand your wanting to backpack Nepal for four months.
To which I say:
“Screw them.”
Life is too short to be spent being someone else’s puppet. Let them take your fat paycheck and learn to live on less. Then give back more and watch your finances come back better than ever.
Learn From Your Travels
Living in foreign cultures is the quickest way to learn compassion. Being sucked into a completely different culture, barely able to speak to people certainly chops the ego down a few pegs. Which is good.
A traveler can’t help but turn inward to deal with the shock of being in such strange lands. This journey inward is the beginning of a great opportunity for personal discovery. Do not waste this chance by hanging out in hostels with your fellow countrymen.
I also recommend leaving for at least one trip completely alone. If you don’t feel comfortable alone in the cities, do so in the countryside. No matter what, make sure you experience being alone in a foreign country. You will never approach a foreigner in your own country the same way again.
Share
In this age of everything on the internet, why leave? Why leave the comfort of a computer and unlimited entertainment for poverty and travel? Why do anything?
Share your experiences, and share what has changed about you. Get people you know out of their comfort zones and into adventure. Life is too damn short for everyone to be hunched over computers checking their Facebook status. Get out and make the world a place worth living in.
“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty.”
- Kabir
