The 3 lessons that travelling taught me.
Over the past 3 years, I have changed so much that I can no longer remember how I used to be. Looking at old Facebook posts or photos surprises me so much. I guess life is about change, the transition from a baby to a totter, from a teenager to an adult, from being alive to being buried, from being remembered to being forgotten. We are constantly changing and evolving, such is life. During this transition that some may call maturing, I have learned a few big lessons that I wish I have learned earlier. I have heard them many times before, but it's only now that their meaning has sunk in. I remember my father telling me something very similar when I had broken up with my first girlfriend. It made no sense then, but boy doest it make sense now.
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1. Learn to enjoy the moment, and let go
"Everything in life comes and goes, even life it's self. When you find something you are passionate about, be open to it and love it, enjoy it. Don't suffocate what you love for the fear of losing it, rather embrace the moment, because one day it's sure to end. The same goes with the bad times in your life, if you can't change something, no point stressing about it, sometimes it's the best to just wait out the storm, because every storm eventually passes" Reading over it, it looks so simple and might not have a lot of meaning to you, but to me it explains so much. I have always feared loosing my loved ones, always holding onto people, fearing of letting go. Once I learned to enjoy the moment, rather than worry about loosing it, I for the first time felt true freedom and love.
2. You decide how you're feeling
It's so easy to allow your environment control your mood. I've used many excuses as to why I haven't done things, or why I was feeling a certain way. It's true you cannot completely control your mood, sometimes the environment around you has too much of an impact, but this is resolved easily. Change you environment. It's amazing what humans are capable of. One moment I am hugging my little sister goodbye, and a day later I am skyping with her from the other side of the world. We have built machines, traveled to space, split an atom, made languages and so on. There are many great things we have done, so why do we allow something so small to have such a huge impact on our lives.
If you don't like your job, find a new one. If you have lost the spark in the relationship, make the decision. Sometimes it's hard to change what you feel inside, but change the outside and the inside will follow.
I am so grateful for all the people that I have meet during my travels, I have learned so much and experienced even more. I remember having an early morning chat with a baker in Iceland, as we were preparing breakfast for the guests he told me about his life and the struggles. He said "one day I woke up and I said that I won't be this person anymore, I will be happy and positive and I will enjoy life. This decision was made many years ago, but I still live by that decision".
3. Life is too short to be wasted, but long enough to do great things
It's so easy to focus on all the bad decisions you've made, the time you've lost, the money you've waisted, and the opportunities you didn't take. If all you do is look behind you, you will never see the potential ahead. Mistakes are meant to be made, move on and adapt. In an average life span there is enough time to do great things, see the world, help people, make a change. But if all your time is wasted on doing what doesn't make you happy, or push you towards your goals, then you are literally wasting the only thing that was given to you for free, everything else costs something. I've spent 6 years working before I started travelling, and in the 6 years I came up with every excuse why I wasn't doing what I loved, what I was passionate about. In the last two years I have seen so much of the world, experience so many awesome moments. I camped next to a glacier, a waterfall, on a mountain, next to lake, on a dry salt bed, in a desert, in a forest, on a black sand beach and so on. I've learned how to ride a horse, how to rock climb, improved my photography, started learning a new language, went on a road trip with a homeless man. I could go on for days about all the things that I've done since I've decided to stop wasting time. The biggest enemy is within you, don't waste time doing what you don't love. Go out there and do what you love, love who you want, play like a child, live life like a dream.
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