Fun and happiness are not the only benefits of travel. Travel makes you a better person as well. You will also discover more about yourself that even you will be surprised to how different you used to be.
1. Amplifies Your Curiosity
Curiosity and travel go hand in hand. Travel reveals the adventurer, the intrepid, and the wanderlust in us. We are curious to know what is on the other side of the world. We are curious to know how far we can push our limits. When travel feeds our curiosity, we learn, we evolve and we become a better person. Once you started traveling, you will never stop wanting it. Share your travel bucket list in the comments below.
2. Improves Patience
Travel involves a lot of waiting, endurance, tolerance, and understanding. Waiting and queuing in line can be so tiring and frustrating if don’t have patience. The differences in culture and people’s attitude can be irritating and even offensive if you don’t try to understand or give a certain level of tolerance. Travels will develop your ability to blend with others even with the worst travelers and locals. You will get used to it because you will realize, there is no point in getting stressed or angry about it. What is the worst travel experience you survived?
3. Open-Mindedness
Exploring the world will not only open the doors of adventure, self-reflection but also opens your mind to all the realities in the world. This is one of the most important benefits of travel. You learn to welcome new ideas, new people, and new experiences. Open-mindedness makes you more understanding, flexible, and less judgmental. Travel makes you accept and respect the differences between all cultures.
4. Develops Your Tastebuds
Eating is the best part of traveling. Food is a big part of a country’s culture. Trying new flavors may not always appeal to your taste but making yourself more familiar with it will develop your taste. Do you ever wonder why you suddenly like sushi? Or other unique flavors? How did you learn chopsticks? Exactly my point. Our taste buds adapt and develop to what you occasionally or usually eat. What is the weirdest food you had in your travels?
5. Having a Friendlier Personality
Even if you have all the best travel apps in the world to guide you, it will not help you with everything. You will still need to ask for help and communicate with other tourists and locals because you are a stranger to the area. You may even ask favors from them. Most importantly, your naturally curious mind will want to communicate with locals so you can learn about their culture. Communication opens the door for sharing, caring, and friendships. No matter how shy you are, as a tourist in a new country, you will learn to smile and participate in their culture and be generally friendly. If you think you are an introvert, try traveling.
6. Greater Independence
Learning to trust your self and do things on your own is a skill that will eventually develop as you keep traveling. You will learn to be responsible, organized, and diligent because you are a stranger in a new land so you must take care of yourself. Your friendliness can help but not all times, people will help even if you sweet and friendly. Relying on others may also cause you harm because there are tourist traps and scams. Have you been scammed as a tourist?
7. Better Problem Solver
Traveling is not a simple walk in the park. There are ups and downs. Sometimes unexpected and unfortunate things happen. Delayed transportation, getting lost, forgetting to bring some items are a few of the not so fun things that can happen on your trip. You will learn to become resourceful, imaginative, and creative to find solutions to your problem.
8. Develop a New Hobby or Skill
Traveling exposes you to different activities, opportunities, new knowledge, and inspiring ideas. People who travel suddenly find themselves having an interest in photography, videography, or blogging. Some people build their businesses from their travel experiences. Travel inspires us to be creative, to share, to develop, and improve. If you can relate to this, share your story in the comments below.
9. Enhances Confidence
Another benefit of travel is that it will make you brave. You learn how to talk to strangers, to survive, and adapt to different situations. It fills your heart with love for nature and culture. It enlightens your thoughts for a better understanding of the world and yourself. Your mind will be filled with the knowledge of the world. All of this will bring you confidence and zest for life.
10. Helpfulness and Gratitude
Travel is a privilege that most people don’t have. There are many people you will meet from different countries who live in poor conditions. Just knowing this privilege makes you feel the need to share and give back. Travel also gives you a sense of camaraderie between other tourists and locals. You feel more involved and connected to others. Travelers rely on the help of fellow travelers and locals. There are many stories of tourists choosing to live in a different country just for the purpose of helping. In fact, there are many international organizations that are built on helping people from struggling countries. Have you helped any stranger in your travels?
11. Learning to Budget Time and Money
Not everyone who travels is rich. Some just choose to travel just because they have enough money for a budget trip. I have seen many tourists in my travels who became broke along the way. Some ended up on the streets, some started selling their own things and some are stranded. Travel helps you learn how to budget your travel funds so these unfortunate events will not happen to you. Whats you broke travel story?
Let me know in the comments below if you have suggestions or stories to share.
