Going on an adventure to travel the world has been the most amazing thing in my entire life.
throughout my journey, i've met so many absolutely amazing people. i've tried so many new foods.
learned phrases in so many different languages. experienced countless different cultures.
and visited some of the most breathtaking landscapes you could ever imagine.
someone recently asked me, ‘what is your biggest regret while traveling the world?’
and i thought to myself, ‘well, i'm going to change your question just, like, a little bit.’
rather than ‘what is the biggest regret i've had while traveling..” i would just say ‘what is my biggest regret?’
and my biggest regret in my life today, is waiting so long to start traveling the world.
basically, i had a very large ‘aha moment’ when i was probably 25 or 26 years old.
i encourage you to go to my website, which is linked below. and you can read the about me section,
which explains the timeline of events that took place in my life to get from where i was, to traveling the world.
so, it's a good read. it's only like 10 minutes to read that article. but my biggest regret is simply not leaving sooner.
i left at about age 27 / 28 years old. i've been on the road for 5 years as of right now.
i'm 33 years old. i'm currently sitting in India.
and all i can think about is ‘if i would have left at age 20, i would have had close to 8 more years of travel.’ hindsight is 20 / 20. right?
basically, in a perfect world, i could have saved money at age 17, 18, 19, something like that.
and then hit the road at age 20. i would have had an additional 8 years to try
new foods, to meet countless new people, and make countless new friends, and visit so many different
countries, and learn so many different phrases and languages, and visit so many landscapes and
amazing places. i've only been traveling for 5 years right now. part of me says ‘oh my gosh,
i've been traveling for 5 years!’ and the other part of me says ‘oh my god, i've only been traveling for 5 years!’
i don't know… i don't know how to interpret it. i expected to go and travel for 2 months and then return to start working.
and i just kept traveling and traveling. for me, my biggest regret is that. i wish i would have started traveling sooner.
so if there's anyone who is younger than me, and you are questioning your own life, my god, my biggest recommendation to anyone…
anyone younger than me is when you are fresh out of high school, the first question
that you need to ask yourself is ‘what is your passion?’ like, no joke. what is your passion?
and remember, you cannot choose a passion, the passion has to choose you.
so you literally have to sit there and think for many days, or many weeks, or hours over the course of some time - and
determine what it is that really excites you. i spent close to 2 weeks trying to figure out what
i would love to do for the rest of my life. and you can't look through the goggles of work, like,
what job do you want. no, no. what do you want to do? like, what would excite you?
and the example i usually give people is you have to find something that you would love to do for the rest of your life,
whether you are super rich and you have all the money in the world, and what would you do with your time?
or you are super poor, and you have no money but you have enough food, and water,
and shelter to survive. but what would you do with your time? you have to find something that...
in both scenarios, you would do the same thing. and once you determine that, you know your passion.
because there's not a lot of things that you could do for every single day, for the rest
of your life, and love it. there's only a couple things. and maybe even one. for me, it was travel the world and experience culture.
and so it took me 25 / 26 years to figure that out. and i really,
really, really, wish i would have figured this out sooner. and i would have changed so many
things early on in my life. now, if i could snap my fingers and go back, and relive, i'm not sure.
because within those 8 years, i met a lot of cool people throughout the united states.
i did a lot of cool stuff in the united states, yeah? i mean i lived. i learned. i grew in those 8 years.
but i don't know, something is awfully enticing about snapping my fingers and going back ,and
and living as a… as a solo traveler for 8 more years in addition to my current 5. and don't think
just because you are older than me that you can't figure out what your passion is later on in life.
you can do it today. you can figure it out today. the reality is… i just feel like…
i just feel like people all over the world, unfortunately, we…we
get so caught up with either material items; we need the, you know, the big house,
the nice car, the latest trendy clothing, the… the latest technology, best phone,
and i think we're so trained to believe that is what should make us happy - rather than looking
within, and figuring out what actually would make us happy. yeah?and i think…
i think too many of us just get caught up in marketing and culture, and we we just don't
look at ourselves. and obviously there could be a couple other reasons besides that. but,
i don't know. maybe i'm mumbling right now. but the reality is, once you determine your passion,
once your passion finds you, you then have a choice. you can either choose to continue on the
the life that you're currently living. doing the same thing every day. like, one of the best quotes
i've heard was “if you keep doing the same thing, you're going to keep getting the same results.” so
option b) is once you determine your passion, you develop a pathway to get you from where you are,
to where you want to be. now it doesn't mean that you have to do something crazy, like me,
and like, just get rid of all your stuff and travel the world. no. that was pretty dramatic,
i must say. but if your passion isn’t traveling the world, then it's a little bit easier.
you could probably stay home and do your passion. especially if it's painting. but the key is
to figure out what your passion is and transition your life in a way that includes more of this in
your life. that's basically it. so if you like hiking up mountains. awesome. every weekend go
hike up a new mountain. or every 2 weeks or every month or whatever you can do. and the key is
just do it as much as possible and you'll be happier. so yeah, i did a pretty dramatic move.
i literally sold my car and took everything that i owned, walked into a donation center, and gave
it all away. and then just packed my bags and walked out of my life. that's basically what i did
so. you don't have to be that dramatic. but i do recommend taking some time to really think about
your passion and try your best to include more of that in your life. because there's nothing more
important than your happiness. if you can find something more important than your own happiness,
please share it with me, because i can't figure out what's more important than you being happy,
me being happy. that should be the highest… the highest thing in your life. that should be on
the highest pedestal. so anyway, i think i've started to mumble. i think… i was supposed to
answer the question “what was your biggest regret” or “what is your biggest regret” my biggest regret
is, i wish i would have started traveling sooner. don't make the same mistake i did…
waiting so many years before you a figure out your passion. and b) take action to enjoy your life.