The world is our oyster!  It is full of incredible treasures that will enrich our minds, hearts and souls.  Exploration invigorates and stimulates amazing creativity! 

Where would the world be today if brave men and women never set out into the unknown to discover new frontiers?  Open up your plans and you will unlock the greatest bounties ever imagined!

The excuses we use to avoid traveling abroad

The world is a huge place and there is so much to learn from the diversity of its people.  I’m amazed when I meet others that seem to have no desire to travel or explore.

I suppose there are a number of reasons that people resist traveling abroad.  Some of the common excuses include:

• Cost
• Safety concerns
• Lack of time
• No travel companion
• Don’t speak the language

Others just say they have no interest in going beyond certain boundaries.  They like staying close to home where they feel safe and in control.

I’ve even expressed my own excuses for remaining in a rut before.  It is easy to get lured into this type of thinking.  However, I also believe there are a ton of reasons to push ourselves beyond these excuses to explore brand new places.

Smart living: Three benefits of exploring strange new worlds

Sometimes there is some validity to our excuses, but in my mind they generally do not outweigh all the benefits.  When it comes to living life to the fullest, I believe exploring the world is an essential element.

Here are three of the greatest benefits of traveling abroad as it relates to smart living:

1.  Expands your view of yourself and the world

It opens your eyes to the number of possibilities that exist.  Different cultures have a very different view of the world.  They have different priorities and tastes.

This is expressed in their food, their clothes, their homes, their architecture and so many of the other details of their lives. 

It is easy to start believing that everyone is just like you when you stay close to home.  Like it or not, we are heavily influenced by the norms of our society.  With time, we all tend to look and sound alike.

Traveling to a new country exposes you to a wide variety of new things which broadens who you are and your ideas about who you can be.  It also helps you to see that people in other countries that look and sound different are real and valuable individuals.

2.  Allows you to disconnect and relax

Our normal lives can be overwhelming and stressful at times.  A good trip abroad helps us to breakaway for a period to collect our thoughts and relax.

We can focus on other, more positive things and forget our problems at least for awhile.  This often gives us the chance to clear our minds.  I find that this usually helps me to see solutions I couldn’t before.

A little distance between you and your issues provides valuable perspective.  Our problems can seem large and insurmountable when we face them up close and personal every day.  Backing off a bit through a trip is the perfect way to regroup for another go.

Getting away also gives us the chance to relax and unwind.  Stress is bad for our health.  We often need more than a weekend to truly let go of all the things that keep us wound tighter than a new girdle!

3.  Provides inspiration for greater creativity and resourcefulness

The combination of seeing so many new things and allowing yourself to unwind leads to the third benefit.  We grow in our creativity and resourcefulness.

Getting out of our ruts gives us the opportunity to use our minds in new ways.  We gain confidence by facing the small challenges that inevitably arise with travel.

This invigorates me!  It makes me feel more alive and better able to handle whatever life throws at me next.

Being in new situations gives us the chance to improvise and exercise our creativity.  It opens our minds to see new solutions and wider possibilities!

Assignment: Travel, explore and try new things

I hope you can see that travel has some fantastic smart living benefits.  Here is your assignment to help you begin to implement this rule in your life:

1. Open your mind to the possibilities – Sometimes we can get stuck in our thinking about travel.  We get locked up on one certain idea or perspective.  I suggest reading the articles below to help you see things in a new light.

   11 Adventures Anyone Can Use To Spice Up Their Life
   How To Break The Habit Of Staying Home
   7 Life-Changing Vacations To Help You Regroup and Rethink

   Putting a little adventure back in your life doesn’t have to be a big and expensive endeavor.  Start small and work your way up to more daring travels.

2. Start spicing things up a bit – Begin to try some new things in your life.  Go to a new restaurant with worldly cuisine, take a day trip to a place you’ve never visited or buy a book that will feed your desire to travel. 

   Once you are ready, then plan a trip to the place of your dreams!  Don’t put it off any longer!  Now is a great time to travel, explore and try new things!

Begin your smart living with an awesome adventure!

I love all kinds of travel!  I hope this article has opened your mind to the possibility of breaking free from the mundane and predictable to explore something truly new and exciting.  Adventure is a great way to pursue smart living!

What is your dream trip?  Leave a comment and let me know!

Photo by ronnie44052

In one story I read, a team of virtual volunteers from seven different countries translated all the resources on the Shine a Light web site, two virtual books, and five DVD courses into multiple languages including Spanish and Portuguese.  Shine a Light is a network of over 200 non-profit organizations in Latin America that serve homeless children.  This project increased the knowledge sharing between the members of Shine a Light which boosted their overall effectiveness.

In another story, a virtual volunteer created a web site for Freedom from Hunger, a non-profit that brings innovative, self-help solutions to several countries around the world in the fight against chronic hunger and poverty.  The volunteer worked closely with the organization to optimize the site for low-bandwidth and to get the site ranked on popular search engines which helps them reach more people with their message.  He also created a maintenance tool so the organization can avoid paying technical support fees to update the site.  This is a great story of how just one person can make a great impact.

Virtual volunteering seems like a neat idea.  I have volunteered in various ways around my community through my employer and my church, but online volunteering opens up many more unique opportunities.  It also provides a way to reach out to people and organizations in other countries.  Having done a little traveling, I have seen just how tough it can be in some of these countries and they certainly do not have a social system like we have in America to turn to.  It seems painless enough and based on the examples above I think it is possible to make a difference.

Here are some links to sites where you can find out more about virtual volunteering and research opportunities to get involved.

1. UN Volunteers – Here you can find volunteer assignments posted by organizations working through the United Nations to aid people in countries around the world.  The first example above won an online volunteering service award from the U.N. in 2007.
2. VolunteerMatch – This site is a database full of opportunities to volunteer online or otherwise.  It also has some great stories about how volunteers are making a difference.  If you are specifically looking for virtual opportunities, then scroll down and click the Search Virtual Opportunities link.
3. ServiceLeader.org Virtual Volunteering – ServiceLeader.org is a community service project through the School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.  This site is packed with information about virtual volunteering.  If you work for a non-profit, it has a lot of good information on how to get started using virtual volunteers.

These are good places to start and should provide you with all the information you need to find a volunteer assignment that fits your skill set.  I assure you that no matter what it is that you do, you have what it takes to help one or more of these organizations.  Volunteering is a super way to help others and make yourself feel better along the way.  Virtual volunteering breaks the geographic barriers and makes all kinds of new and exciting assignments available to all of us that frequent the Internet.  Happy volunteering!

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Photos by PrASanGaM and Kaleo Murrieta