Every year, people create New Years Resolutions in an attempt to make (insert any year) the best year ever!!!!
What is the most common New Years Resolution? Well, it is absolutely no surprise to say it is in the “Health and Fitness” realm. After all, we all want to look and feel great. But what if I told you (brace yourselves….) that maybe weight loss isn’t the best New Years Resolution you can make for the upcoming year?
So, this year, I want to encourage you to think outside of the weight-loss box of the typical New Years Resolutions. (Don’t get me wrong, I ALWAYS include a health and fitness goal every year, as health is one of the most important things in your life!)
However, if self-acceptance, feeling amazing about yourself, the way you look and the way you feel is a top priority, I encourage you to look to a completely different goal:
TRAVEL
Why should travel be a top New Years Resolution goal for you? And HOW can you actually make your goal a reality?
1) Self- Acceptance
If weight-loss or fitness is a goal of yours because you want self- acceptance, travel would be an ideal addition to your goal-list. There are all sorts of kinds of travel, but if you are a globe-trotter, travel can mean learning to love yourself.
For example, when you go to a nude European spa where everything is hanging out, for ALL to see, it is completely liberating to see all the shapes and sizes of bodies. Without all those spanks and push up bras, you see what REAL bodies look like. Not what magazines show off.
When you spend time meditating in a Thai Buddhist temple, you take the time to focus on your inner being and becoming the best you there is. You learn to accept you for who you are…all while becoming the person you want to be.
No matter WHERE you go, there will be different cultures and people. Learning about these will show you that everyone is different and perfect in their own way!
2) Feeling Amazing About Yourself
By traveling, you learn things about yourself that you never knew existed! Maybe you surprise yourself by being completely independent and going on a solo travel. Having to figure out transportation, getting un-lost in a new city or simply just enjoying a cappuccino on a side-walk cafe without relying on someone else makes you realize you really are capable of anything! It feels so amazing doing something in a new place all by yourself!
By traveling this year, you will feel a sense of accomplishment in doing something new and exciting and that, in and of itself, will make you feel a wealth of pride in your achievements.
3) Pushing Yourself
Traveling can be a scary, intimidating and wonderful journey. Sometimes it is that the cultures, people and locations are so different from that of your own that you are forced to stand outside of your comfort zone. You don’t have the choice but to push yourself to see outside of your own little bubble. Sometimes pushing yourself is tasting a new food or trying a new activity that you’ve never done before. Or maybe, you decide to be a dare-devil and take on a new extreme sport while traveling, like SCUBA Diving, Bungee jumping or Paragliding! Take the (quite literal) leap that pushes you to new limits that you may not have known you could extend to.
4) Becoming Less Self-Absorbed
All too often, we become self-absorbed in ourselves. We only focus on our own lives and our own problems.
There is nothing more humbling than seeing the thousands of people living on the streets of New Delhi or few things more powerful than watching a Balinese family do their daily offerings to their Gods. These encounters unveil a completely different way of living that no longer focuses on oneself .
It is so easy to feel lost, empty and disconnected if we can’t check our smartphones every 3 minutes and therefore, we become unable to see much further than our own personal problems and issues. However, by isolating ourselves with technology or by getting too caught up in ourselves, we risk missing true connections in life and living in the moment. By traveling, you meet new people who have a completely different life than the one you are used to living. This can be an extremely powerful thing.
[Tweet “By isolating ourselves with technology or by getting too caught up in ourselves, we risk missing true connections in life and living in the moment”]
5) Becoming a Global Citizen
When we don’t get outside of our own neighborhood, city, state or even country, we don’t REALLY know what the world is like. Sure, we can see movies and think we understand. However, until you actually experience travel and a new land, it is easy to forget that things like running water, electricity, paved roads or a pillow-top mattress are actual luxuries compared to what many other people in the world have. In fact, you don’t even have to travel around the world to see this issue. You don’t have to travel far to be effected by other lifestyles. By traveling, we are forced to see how others live their daily lives. Depending on the location, this can be a fun and eye opening experience or a moment that shakes us to the core that has us rethinking our own lives. Regardless, it helps us to realize our place in this small world and realize that we are all apart of a much bigger picture.
The key to this is to take these experiences and moments back home with us, even long after our suitcases are unpacked. Remember to not be wasteful, find new ways to give back to those less fortunate (near or far), be grateful for what you do have and share your knowledge and experiences with others so they can do the same.
If you are looking for a New Years Resolution Goal that has you becoming a better and stronger person, I can’t encourage you enough to consider making travel one of your top goals and priorities for the New Year. Regardless of if you are wanting to travel for fun, luxury, personal growth or any other reason, I guarantee that if you go into it with an open mind, you will discovery amazing things!
LeAnna Brown
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good call we travel with our kids in hope they become better global citizens, become more accepting of different cultures and different customs.
Lil B is due in March and everyone keeps telling us we will stop traveling once we have kids. I know it will change, but I sure hope we don’t stop! There is SO much to share with our children via travel!
More travel is always a good resolution that has huge benefits for your health and well-being (if done right), so I could not agree more with this post.
Unfortunately for me, sometimes health (aka not eating right) while traveling takes a back burner. But health is not just physical, it has done WONDERS for my mental, spiritual and emotional health as well!
This is all so true! Traveling is eye opening because you experience so many things and meet so many people with different backgrounds. I think a huge part of traveling is getting to know yourself – maybe even a bigger part than learning about other cultures. Travel is most certainly on my bucket list.
All these things you can learn while traveling so I agree, these should really be part of everyone’s new year’s resolution. Travel does teach you a lot.
Travel more is always my resolution. The benefit of traveling is more than what anyone can think. You can find yourself and as you said become a world citizen
Travel has been on my list a long time and because of that, I’m a better person for sure. My friends always talk about travelling more, but for them, it’s often a new years resolution that fails which is a pity.
Well then my follow up post on actually HOW to accomplish your travel resolutions would be perfect for them! Feel free to share both for any wanderlusters you may know. Here is the follow up: http://www.economicalexcursionists.com/travel-new-years-resolution/#.VovpECCrRpg
My resolution is a little lame compared to these but I want to learn how to make real French madelaines. I know it’s a small project, but sometimes even meeting little goals can feel like an amazing accomplishment.
Not lame at all! Goals/ Resolutions are all about doing something that makes YOU happy!!! Send me some of those madelaines once you’ve got them perfected! 😉
A lot of great suggestions, however I have never been in the habit of making resolutions. I would set long term goals and try to execute them in a reasonable time frame.
I couldn’t agree more! Travel needs to be everyone’s new year resolution. It makes you feel confident in your abilities and challenges you to be in situations that you wouldn’t normally be in at home. It opens your mind and your eyes to the world and other people. I think its helped me not to worry as much about small stuff and be more tolerant. Great post