Focusing on what matters
From nudists who don’t care who catches a glimpse of their “goods” while they’re changing into and out of their beach gear for a bit of fun under the sun, to backpackers who hang their freshly-washed underwear off of the bunk bed rails, one of the greatest lessons only traveling could have taught me was that it will do you a world of good to focus on what matters. Don’t sweat the small stuff. If anybody’s watching then they care only for that moment, if at all. Either way, it probably makes no difference to your life, so do what you have to do and focus on what matters.
The discovery of a parallel financial system
Sitting around a table with some budget travelers has opened my eyes up to what appears to be an alternate financial system at play, where value is the main focus as opposed to paper money. For example, it doesn’t take much for a group of budget travelers to realize that they can pool some money together and then basically enjoy all the pleasures of being on the road at a much cheaper price which falls more in line with what the regular financial system would refer to as the bulk rate.
There is more good in the world than evil
Traveling to all manner of different places, whether locally or internationally, has taught me that we generally live in a very messed up world. Perhaps building on from the previous section of the existence of an alternate financial system in operation, one can say that a lot of the evil which exists in the world is as a result of the greed surrounding the pursuit of money.
All that said however, generally speaking there is more good than there is evil in the world. You’ll find that there are more people who are willing to help you out than those who are out to harm you, or anyone else for that matter.
I suppose it’s a lesson one could have learned through other means as well, but for me personally I don’t think it would have been delivered as powerfully as it has been delivered through my travel adventures.
Out of adversity come the biggest opportunities
The story behind this lesson perhaps resonated most profoundly with me because it’s something which I can relate to with regards to the reasons why I chose to travel now instead of deferring it until retirement. Basically I met a fellow photographer who also decided to travel the world and make some money with the professional photographs they snap, but the manner through which he got started is a lot different to mine. Basically this fellow won a sizeable settlement following his consultation with a Florida ERISA lawyer, giving him a nice financial safety-net with which to work as a base for his travels and to get started building up his professional portfolio.
…Different paths, but same destination, demonstrating just how some the biggest opportunities arise out of the most difficult of times to have to deal with.
