Why travel? For some, it’s the adrenaline rush – gorilla trekking in Uganda, whitewater rafting the Pacuare River in Costa Rica, cage diving with Great Whites in South Africa. For others, it’s an escape from the digital world – a social media sabbatical, face timing with Mother Nature instead. Some travel to lose themselves, others to find themselves. Some search for meaning, a fresh start, a sense of purpose and perspective.
Travelling definitely makes you a more interesting person. Starting a sentence with “when I was glacier hiking in Patagonia” gives you instant cred, and nostalgia and distance can create spin that makes mundane things like getting your laundry done in Eastern Mongolia entertaining.
Travel makes you happier, not just because you don’t have to go to work and you can have a tequila-enhanced breakfast beverage on the daily. It’s the anticipation, that feeling when you step off the plane, the suspense of adventures to be had, of great expectations, that palpable sense of life. It’s awesome! Whatever your motivation is, whether it’s voyeuristic intent, opportunity for insight, hindsight, or perspective, to challenge, change, or fuel the soul, for altruism, athleticism, aestheticism, or to journey for travel’s sake, it’s an epidemic that you just want to catch!
So, how do you decide where to travel? The world is big, life is short, so make a bucket list. The term “bucket list” entered the vernacular in the wake of the 2007 movie of the same name – things one must do before the proverbial bucket is kicked. Most of us have a list of things we want to do in our heads, but we don’t write them down, make them visual, give them validity, or act on them.
Fun Fact: Someone who knows stuff (psychologist Daniel Kahneman) has a theory called Peak-End, which states that people judge an experience largely on how they feel at its peak and at its end, rather than based on the total sum of every moment of the experience, regardless of whether the experience is pleasant or not. By creating positive experiences and things that make us happy, such as those on our bucket list, we are creating more peaks, leading to more happy memories and a more fulfilled life. Bucket lists, if accomplished, set memories in place that structure life as remembered.
Don’t know how to start planning your bucket list? Be realistic. While summiting Mt. Everest would be totes awesome, the reality is that there is the possibility of acute altitude sickness, falls, avalanches, exhaustion, crevasses, exposure, and hypothermia. And if you do accidentally expire up there, chances are peeps will just step over your frozen carcass to get to the top. So, take this off your list right now!
Be ethical. While running with the bulls sounds like a lit way for you to get your adrenaline rush, the bulls get theirs when a rocket is launched, to terrify them as they are forced onto city streets, mobbed with screaming festival attendees. Frantic and panicked, they often crash head-first into walls while running at full speed, and at the end of the day, they are rewarded for their torture by being slaughtered by Matadors. Off the list!
So, the question remains. How many buckets are overflowing because they aren’t being emptied regularly? Do you have a hole in your bucket, and the ideas keep dripping out before coming to fruition? Take a leap of faith and leverage the law of attraction. Create your bucket list and share it, then others can assist you in achieving your travel dreams. Write it, plan it, live it!
