Beyond self-discovery

If you talk to anyone about travel, you'll discover each person has a dream destination. The reasons people why come to define dream journeys vary widely. The person may have visited a special place and hopes to return, or, the person may even imagine a desirable paradise that was seen in images, heard about or simply conjured up in the mind. Don't forget travel to improve a sense of security. Some of us are forced to migrate as refugees, traveling due to events beyond our control.

People also dream of travel to leave what they know behind or as a way to courageously face uncertainty. You may think of travel as a way to avoid as the life you've known has been difficult or painful. You may not choose to pinpoint the influence of your emotions. You may also sense very strongly that any happiness you associate with visions of travel would only really be a side effect of a deeper longing to settle down or, the result of self-delusion that settling anywhere is possible. 

Whatever your particular dream destination, the journey is incentive to develop your abilities and insights into your motivation. You may assume you have the right or duty to travel to help someone other than yourself. Most physical trips require money or other means to realize them. Where will that funding come from? How long will the journey take? Do you sense your final destination? Does a strong sense of direction even matter?

You may venture from place to place because or you actively seek a sense of progress. In a brief survey, the 10 most popular reasons people said they travel were:

1) To escape fear or troubles;

2) To experience freedom & make a living;

3) To learn new things;

4) To visit friends or family;

5) To interact with honorable people (shared cause);

6) To seek self-discovery;

7) To support eco-tourism;

8) To build self-confidence;

9) To survive a crisis or disaster;

10) To relax or promote healing.

Travel is a means to learn about yourself by yourself or with others. You may have choices to travel or you may be forced to travel due to adversity. What kinds of reasons have you had for travel in the past? What about escaping the results of a hurrricane or earthquake? You may seek to find a place to build a new home.

Hope is the foundation of your personal growth. Thoughts of travel enable you to learn from what you've done and evolve to better understand why you seek new experiences. How would you like to experience future journeys? Where would you go if you had no restrictions? Why? What would you hope to gain from this travel? Determine how your emotions factor in to your perception of travel. Whether you have expectations for others during travel will influence your satisfaction.  You'll learn travel is more than a journey of self-discovery.  It prompts new understanding.