Traveling is important to us – but why? What are the reasons why we are traveling half around the world? Is it longing for ultimate freedom or the desire to escape to a hammock somewhere on a lonesome beach staring at the turquoise ocean drinking strawberry margaritas? In this blog post we shed some light on what sparks our Wanderlust, why we get bitten by the travel bug, so to speak. The following 6 reasons might be the ones why you should plan for your next travel adventure, too.
1. Getting inspired
We are entrepreneurs. The thing we love most about traveling is finding inspiration. The change of our usual environment almost instantly triggers new thoughts. Over time new ideas spring from constantly facing new perspectives on life. Traveling pulls us into a creative zone, where we can cultivate an ‘outside the box’ thinking. Getting inspired I put as our number 1 reason for traveling. It is the fuel that propels our business.
2. Leaving our own comfort zone
Traveling requires taking some risks. It means stepping into unknown territory and leaving your comfort zone. Learning theory suggests that personal growth happens in a zone between the comfort zone and the risk zone. That sweet spot to find is the goal of our travel half around the world. Getting ourselves exposed to new environments that are both strange and stunning yet not dangerous we aim to learn new things. However, safety always comes first, especially when we travel with our children.
Learning new things over time leads to personal growth which ultimately creates wisdom. Traveling causes personal growth as learning is fast tracked and you are gaining knowledge and soft skills which others who have no travel experience have not got. This realization can (mis-)lead to arrogance, the demonstrated behavior of thinking to be superior, of being better than others because of whatever (having traveled to exotic places in this case). Personal growth however, is a very individual thing. Every person learns at a different pace and different people chose a different route to learn new things.
3. Diving into new cultures
It’s now easier than ever to visit even the remotest corners of the world, and although we like visiting famous monuments just like the average tourist would do, we derive pleasure in the exploration of a different culture. Actually, getting to know a new culture is one of the best parts of our travels and what sets us apart from regular tourists. The tourist on the one hand, visits a strange place to enhance his or her knowledge but the engagement level with the culture remains superficial. That´s because the tourist doesn´t care to meet the locals, he/ she doesn´t like to taste the local cuisine, he/ she is not interested to get to know the way the locals travel. This is because all this is beyond the tourists comfort level.
On the other hand are explorers like us. We love to witness the way how the locals live and interact with each other, what they love, what they create, how they make art, how they spend spare time, how they travel, how they define community, what they value, what they fight for, and what they believe. We are interested to find out how people define the standards of their life and as such create a culture. With diving deeper and deeper into a strange culture, we experience more and more new parts of ourselves. This gives us a new perspective on our own culture, our virtues and shortcomings. When we come home after a long trip it almost feels like traveling to a new place. To us traveling provides a macroscopic lens with which we can see and think about who we are.
Traveling exposes us to new cultures and thus widens our horizon of the world that we know quite literally. It also teaches us things, firstly humility and gratitude. Once, we have visited our foster child in Vietnam and were invited to their home in the countryside. Seeing how little people have but still share and live happily makes us wonder. You come to conclusions for instance that happiness is not a function of possession but of sharing. You can read the same in religious books probably, but reading is different from seeing and experiencing yourself.
Intellectual insights are papers. Trust always has the one who speaks of experience.
HErmann Hesse
We try our best to avoid racism, but we know that we have subconscious preconceptions about other people and cultures. We acknowledge that our own culture has shaped our view of other cultures. Traveling reminds us that everyone of us is a foreigner, almost everywhere.
4. Getting out of the hamster wheel
Routines are important and helpful. Solid routines gives your life structure and stability. By making certain actions habitual, such as when we get up in the morning and what we eat, we can allocate willpower and discipline toward the unexpected variables that life inevitably throws our way.
At the same time, routine becomes a box with limited views. One day starts slipping into the next, and before you know it a year has passed by and you start wondering where the time went. Doing the daily routines after a while makes you feel weary of life. It can easily feel like a hamster wheel you can’t get off.
I need fresh air. So that I can breathe again. Be somewhere where I’ve never been. Take my jacket and just start running. I need fresh air. So that I can breathe again. When something ends, something new begins. Just believe in it and then everything will be fine. I need fresh air.
Wincent Weiss
So even though we enjoy little routines to structure our daily life, once in a while we need to get out of the hamster wheel and breathe again. Traveling for us is a time of changing things. When we leave our comfort zones we give our mind and body a break from the routines. Traveling for us means a soft reset for our troubled minds, it is our ticket off the hamster wheel.
5. Finding ourselves
When you travel you meet a lot of people who claim to be on a spiritual journey. What does that mean? Life can be confusing at times. As humans we want clarity and safety as they give us a sense of direction and stability. We want to have a purpose in life, setting clear goals and to walk on a safe path meeting these goals. Life however is chaotic by design. Change is the only constant. As such it is no wonder that sooner or later the path we are walking on comes to an end and there are no signs telling us where to go next. That´s life telling us to start playing. It´s the point when a lot of people start traveling or go on a pilgrimage, to figure out what they want to do next in life.
After some time of traveling, some people just drop the idea of traveling, they shift their attention from the outer world to the world within, they start connecting with their soul, they start praying to a higher being. Those people you meet in ashrams practicing Yoga, meditation or other religious ceremonies.
I don´t want to sound mocking. The time people take looking inward is a time well spent. After having meditated enough, often people leave the ashrams claiming to have come to a realization, like clarity on the next step in life that they want to take. Others have opened up their minds and have fallen in love, like the plot goes in the Hollywood blockbuster „Eat, pray, love“.
We are spiritual and mindful people who believe in the wisdom of the teachings of Jesus and Buddha. However, we are not following the strict rituals of a specific religion. To be spiritual we mean to be open rather than to build walls, to connect with other people rather than to seek separation, to see other races as equal, rather than to imagine to be somehow better because of a specific skin color. We look for sharing truth and love in the world rather than fake news and hate. By practicing kindness we find ourselves.
So on our journey half around the world a longer stopover in an Ashram is not planned, as it is not needed. However, we love to visit Buddhist temples or Hindu shrines whenever there is a chance. We are beauty chasers.
Life is what happens to us while we are busy making other plans.
Henry Cooke
6. Spending quality time together
We are traveling as a family of 5. This is, besides Irka and Marcell our children Lily and Nisha as well as their grand mom Karla, who at an age of 79 is „fit like a sneaker“ as I usually say using this German proverb, and she shares a similar world view than we do.
While traveling we spend quality time together as a family and create memories and awe-inspiring experiences that knit our family closer together. Creating and sharing memories has two different meanings to us.
Firstly, while traveling half around the world a lot of experiences will be first times for all of us. From surfing on a tropical beach in Sri Lanka to crossing the Western desert of Australia in a camper vehicle. From spotting wild orang utans in Borneo to swimming with giant manta rays in the Atlantic ocean. From exploring sparkling cities like Singapore to spending nights under the stars of Bali. We will experience a lot of exciting moments and enjoy life as intensively as we may have never done before. These memories will last forever and we will talk about a lot when we return home.
Secondly, and perhaps even more important than the picture book memories is the quality time we spent together as a family. This journey half around the world gives us 3 months to get to know and connect with our children on a deeper level. No more talking about assignments, homework and other projects around the dinner table. Instead, we will have time to collect sea shells on the beach with them, pay a visit to sea turquoises while snorkeling. We will watch our children play with other children so they learn diversity is a lot of fun. We will meet other travelers and share our travel stories with them. We will watch many sunsets together sitting in the sand talking of dreams, goals and aspirations.
Lily is 13 years old now and starts thinking about future career options. I wouldn´t be surprised if she wants to become a surf teacher, animal rescuer or just a travel blogger. Let´s see. There will be a life after our journey.
Why do you love to travel? Leave us a comment and share your thoughts with us!
