Solo travel offers an unparalleled opportunity to learn about yourself.
To ask yourself questions.
Learning is just asking questions, just finding the right questions to ask yourself.
And giving your mind time to figure things out.
When you're travelling on your own, the first thing you need to ask yourself
Is a simple question, but a very big question: Who am I really?
When you're removed from all your cultural norms,
and all your friendships, and all your routines, and your work,
and everything that you do day to day: Who are you really?
And of course once you get past that first question of who you are,
you get to ask a related question, which is: What do I enjoy doing?
Reflect on who you are, and then find out What you want to do when you have as much
time as you like in a strange city where you know no one.
I've sort of learned that when I travel on my own
I really enjoy people watching.
I like sitting with a cup of coffee, kind of like I'm doing
right now and just watching the city flow by.
Watching the quirky characters and stuff like that.
I've always liked to write, so maybe that's part of it, you know,
always looking for new characters, always looking for new
eccentricities, and stuff like that.
For you, it might be that you really enjoy going for a morning run.
Maybe back home, you lived in a big city and there were no good running paths, so you never
really did it.
Then you start travelling and you realize: this is awesome!
I start my day, I get to see these new cities and feel refreshed every morning.
There's countless opportunities for personal growth while you're travelling.
The flip side of that is, especially when you're on your own,
Things aren't always going to go well.
"We found the problem..."
I say especially because when you're on your own, because...
Things can go poorly - plans fall through, flights could be missed, language barrier
can become a big issue - but when you're travelling with others you're
sort of all together with these problems.
When you're on your own, you really find out... the third question you find an answer to:
How do you deal with adversity?
When everyone else is gone, when you're all on your own,
and you're at a train station and they can't understand you.
Do you start freaking out and saying: "Why don't you guys speak English?!"
Which I hate to say, I've seen some travellers do...
Sorry to non-English speakers, I apologize, on behalf of all of us.
Or, do you problem solve.
You say, okay, I have wifi.
I can use google translate, and we can communicate in a different way.
Or do you use non-verbal gestures to signal that you're late for your train and you need
to find the platform.
There's always a way.
When you're travelling on your own, you very quickly find new ways to find solutions.
You find out what you're made of.
You just overcome more things on a daily basis.
You see more things, good and bad.
And through those experiences you learn about yourself.
You learn what you like, you learn what you don't like.
If you chose, you get to spend as much time as you like
doing those things that you really enjoy.
The final thing that you learn when you travel on your own,
and this is the big one, this is the one that can last the rest of your life.
And that's the answer to the question: Who do I want to be when I come home?
It's one thing to have this vacation and do all these
awesome things, for a few weeks, or even a few months.
But when you come back, are you going to keep that traveller's mentality?
Are you going to be as open-minded, as free-spirited, as go with the flow as you were when you were
travelling?
Or, are you going to fall into your old habits, and disregard
what you learned about yourself when you were travelling?
And fall back into the comfort of routine?
Not to say that there's anything wrong with routine -
I don't want to get too high and mighty here.
But I truly do believe that solo travel is a great opportunity for
self-reflection, self-discovery, and just for...
just for taking a step back from the rat race, and saying, "Okay, this is life."
"This, is an opportunity, too."
The way everyone's living over in Belgium, or Morocco,
or Korea, or South Sudan - these are other ways of living!
And they're not necessarily better or worse than the way
we live back home.
So if I choose, I can take parts of those ways of living and apply them to
my own life.
For example, meditation and stuff like that.
Elements of Eastern Culture that have really taken off in the West.
If you were meditating 30 years ago, people would have thought you were some weirdo in
the park.
Now, yoga and meditation, they're getting more mainstream.
It's more accepted.
But as a solo traveller, you don't need to wait for society to say something's
acceptable.
You can see these elements of other cultures and just apply them to your own life, and
say, you know what: I don't need to be understood
by other people.
Or.... not.
That choice is up to you.
Solo travel won't change you over night, but it will
give you the opportunity to change - if you want to.
That's why I think it's an experience that everybody should have.
Not taking anything away from travelling with friends,
or relatives, or those close to you...
That's an incredible experience that you will have to share with those people forever.
But solo travel, for me, is all about...
Taking the time to get to know yourself.
As always, I'm Dan from The New Travel.
I write about solo travel, and other budget travel tips,
and stuff like that, over at thenewtravelblog.com.
I invite you to check it out, if you enjoyed what I've been talking about.
Or you can hit subscribe...
somewhere down below.
You know what to do.
Catch you next time!