20 Ways Travel Will Change Your Life For The Better

If you’ve ever been traveling before, you’ve probably noticed how each trip changes you a little. If you travel a lot, eventually you’ll be a completely different (and better) person than before you set out on your adventures. 

Read on to find out exactly how travel will change your life and your personality! 

1: You become more social

Regardless of how you’re traveling, you’re always going to meet new people. So even if you’re on a solo travel trip, you can expect to come back a little more social than when you set off.

The more you travel, the more used to socialising with new people you’ll be. You’ll be able to make friends within minutes of meeting them, and in developing your social skills, you’ll become a much more approachable person.

2: You become more confident

Almost every aspect of traveling is going to boost your confidence, even if before you left home you were super shy. You’ll be constantly meeting new people, learning to be independent, and problem solve, and by deciding to go traveling in the first place you’ll be pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone.

The more you go traveling, the more confident you’ll start to feel in yourself, as you’ll have to trust your own instincts, and even if you class yourself as an introvert, you’ll have to adopt a few extroverted tendencies for your trips!

3: You learn to problem-solve effectively

Whilst you’re traveling, you’ll be solving problems pretty much constantly. If something goes wrong with one of your bookings, or if you get lost (it happens to all of us), or even if you just don’t know what different food items are, you’ll be constantly finding solutions to problems that arise. Think about the language barrier for example, this a problem you’ll need to overcome daily on your travels.

Problem solving is a skill that will always be useful, even when you return from your travels. Whether you’re self employed, or returning to a job, every life path will involve solution finding and decision making.

4: You become more willing to step outside of your comfort zone

No one particularly enjoys stepping out of their comfort zone, not at first anyway. But traveling will force you to visit new places, try new foods, accept new cultures, meet new people etc.

And once you step out of your comfort zone, so much more of the world opens up for you to explore.

5: You become a much better communicator

Communication is something a lot of people, even seasoned travellers, struggle with when traveling. Most of the time, you’ll be traveling to countries where you don’t speak the language, and so somehow you’ll need to find a way to communicate with shopkeepers, cafe and bar staff, taxi drivers, everyone you come into contact with!

It sounds daunting, but you’ll soon master the art of simple language learning, body language, signs, and of course, Google Translate.

And once you’ve overcome the barrier of communicating with people all over the world, communicating with people who speak your language will be a doddle.

6: You’ll become more employable

All of the skills you learn whilst traveling will boost your employability. Your newly developed communication skills will mean that you’ll become a desirable candidate for any role that involves communicating with people across the company, or even across the world.

And of course every job you can imagine will involve problem-solving, and by the time you’ve finished traveling you’ll be a master at finding solutions to problems in no time at all.

The fact that you’ve been traveling is also something that’s often admired by employers, as it shows that you’re an open minded and confident individual.

7: You’ll broaden your horizons

There will always be people who never bother to venture beyond their front door step. Their jobs won’t be more than a stones throw away, and their friends will all live in the same area. But once you’ve seen some more of the world, you’ll broaden your horizons and the amount of opportunities available to you.

You’ll learn of opportunities all over the world, and you’ll meet people who could potentially be useful business contacts from a whole range of different countries.

8: You’ll develop a hugely diverse group of friends

Everywhere you go on your travels, you’ll meet new and interesting people from all over the world. Even after a short trip traveling, you’ll have broadened your friendship group.

Why is this important? Because by socialising with people from different backgrounds, you’ll learn about different cultures and attitudes. Plus, it’s always nice to have people to visit in other countries!

9: You’ll become more creative

Traveling always involves getting at least a little bit creative. You might have to get creative about where to stay, how to travel around a country, or even what to do from day to day (because if you’re traveling full time, you can’t just be a tourist every day).

The creativity you learn whilst traveling might be something that helps to form your ever changing personality, or something that you use in your professional or personal life.

10: Travel lets you just be human

So many people are falling victim to the system, and becoming more like machines than humans. Working 9-5 might put food on the table, but other than that, you’re not really exploring, or giving yourself a chance to develop as a human, rather than just as an employee.

By traveling, even if only for a little while, you’re letting yourself just be human for a while. Let go of the stress of working life, and just enjoy the world and all of its amazing sights. Have meaningful encounters with others, and even if you’re not a particularly spiritual person, you’ll be on quite a spiritual journey.

11: You’ll become more open minded

In order to travel long term, and to enjoy it, you need to open your mind a little. You’ll have to accept things that might previously have seemed strange, or different, and after a while, you’ll be used to keeping an open mind.

This can make you a much more accepting person, and it can actually make your life a whole lot easier.

12: You learn to appreciate the little things in life

Even those that like to indulge in luxury travel will find that every now and then, certain places won’t have all of the home comforts that we’re used to.

Simple things like clean water, or working toilets aren’t always easy to come by, and after traveling without access to such luxuries, you’ll learn to appreciate the little things in life.

13: You’ll make unbreakable friendships

Traveling with someone else is stressful, probably even more stressful than traveling alone. It puts strains on friendships and relationships and these strains often cause arguments and falling outs. So if you travel with someone, and your friendship survives the challenge, you know you’ve made an unbreakable friendship.

Strong friendships can be hard to come by, but when you make friends whilst traveling, you’ll soon be able to tell which friendships won’t pass the test, and which friendships are truly authentic.

14: You’ll face your fears

One of the biggest challenges a lot of people face whilst traveling is facing their fears, whatever they may be.

Traveling will present you with a whole range of challenges, so you’re bound to encounter something that has previously terrified you.

Whether you’re scared of bugs, adventurous foods, modes of travel, anything, you’re bound to encounter it on your travels, and it gives you the perfect opportunity to face your fears.

15: You learn to appreciate home, and what you have

If you’re desperate to go traveling, the chances are you’re probably also desperate to get away from the boredom of home for a while. But once you’re out and about in other countries, you’ll start to appreciate and miss home a little.

You’ll look forward to returning home after your travels, and you’ll start to appreciate perhaps more than ever what you have, whether that’s a warm home to return to, or a loving family.

16: You’ll realise that you’re actually quite a tough cookie

I’ve mentioned the challenges you’ll face whilst traveling a lot, so it makes sense that in facing these challenges, you’ll actually become a lot stronger in yourself.

Once you’ve been traveling, you’ll realise that actually, you’re one tough cookie, and if you put your mind to it, you can deal with anything the world throws at you!

17: You’ll grow wiser

This is a fact that often upsets people that haven’t traveled before, but it’s 100% true. The more you travel, the wiser you’ll become.

Why? Because you’ll be constantly interacting with different people and cultures, and taking on information and wisdom that you would never have stumbled across otherwise. You’ll grow wiser in your ability to understand different cultures, and in your ability to accept people who are the complete opposite of you.

18: You’ll develop a love of nature and the natural world

The world has some amazing natural sights, and in seeing more of what the natural world has to offer, you’ll become much more connected with the natural world.

In developing your love of the natural world, you’ll also become a lot more mindful, and reflective – nature just has that effect on people.

19: You’ll learn how to be alone

Even if you’re traveling with people, at some point you’re going to experience alone time somewhere completely new, something you might not have done before.

It might sound obvious, but for some people, being alone is something that’s quite daunting. But by learning how to not just be alone, but how to be happy whilst alone, you’ll make yourself a stronger person, and you’ll become much better at coping with stress independently.

20: You’ll learn how to live in the present

Planning for the future is all well and good, the only trouble is, some people spend their whole lives planning for a tomorrow that may never come.

Travelling teaches you to enjoy the present, and just for a moment, take a break from stressing about the future. Plus, only once you’ve actually given in to just living in the present will you be able to clearly see exactly what it is you really want from the future.

So traveling really can transform your life….

All you need to do is start living the travel lifestyle, and you’ll see the world whilst becoming the best possible version of yourself. 

If you need a little help getting started though, why not check out the ultimate travel course?

In this course you’ll be taught by none other than Nomadic Matt how you can leave your 9-5 job, and find freedom anywhere in the world!