Every trip you take is a leap of faith, but each one varies in degree of difficulty. Take, for example, a family trip to the beach: you might not know how the weather will hold out, but ultimately, it’s a safe bet that everyone will have a good time, relax and bask in familiar and loving company.
Now, imagine traveling to India on your own and a feeling will likely wash over you that’s much different than the one brought on by visions of a family beach trip. Alone and wide-eyed amongst a completely new culture, you might feel far from relaxed… at first, anyway. Travel outside of your comfort zone will undoubtedly make you feel uneasy, but this newness also leads you to new and unexpected rewards. You’ll find out about five of them below. You might just find yourself planning that a-bit-too-scary vacation after reading them, too.
You’ll Meet New People
Traveling with familiar faces is, of course, wonderful. Together with friends and family, you will build memories that you’ll retell and cherish for years to come. However, travel with people you know often leads you to being closed off from new experiences and new people with whom to share them. Especially if you’re exploring a new country and culture, meeting locals or fellow travelers can help you uncover hidden restaurants, must-see monuments and bustling nightclubs that you wouldn’t have found traveling with a close companion. And, once you get home, you’ll have the most incredible souvenir of all: a new friendship that you’ll always remember when remembering your trip.
You’ll See New Places
In a similar vein, your comfort zone keeps you close to what you know. Your local beaches, campgrounds and metropolises certainly have a lot to offer, but so do the far-flung towns that you can only read by road trip or trans-oceanic voyage. Whether you hop into the car or stamp your passport, a trip to somewhere scary-new will open your eyes to new customs, cultures, architectural styles, fashion senses, circadian rhythms… everything. You simply can’t do that in your own backyard.
You’ll Be Better Prepared to Take on… Life
Ask any avid traveler, and he or she will have an arsenal of stories about how trips have gone completely wrong. This isn’t to scare you out of taking your beyond-the-comfort-zone trip, and it won’t: instead, you’ll see how adaptable experienced travelers become when plans go awry and they have to come up with option B on the fly. This is clearly something that can and will become an asset in your everyday life, as not everything goes to plan there, either. It is totally natural for even the most avid travelers to get stressed out when their trips go unplanned; I mean, who wouldn’t be bothered by an unexpected upset? However, when you are regularly presented with these tough situations or unplanned obstacles, you tend to learn how to successfully manage your stress no matter how bad it may be, resulting in viewing the the bigger problems as not so big. There’s no better crash course in adaptability than travel, especially when it’s something out of your comfort zone.
You’ll Return More Productive
There’s nothing quite like a change of scenery when it comes to inspiring someone to be more productive — in fact, simply taking your given vacation time is enough to speed up your work flow upon your return. There are even more benefits to taking time off for an exciting new experience, though. Not only will you be more productive in general, but you’ll also be less susceptible to falling into what some experts call the “work trap.” In here, you get stuck doing the same old, same old. Many employees are guilty of this, pretending to be super busy when, in reality, they simply don’t have the drive to push themselves out of their workplace comfort zones and into newer, tougher projects. An out-of-the-comfort-zone trip can solve two problems, then: it can boost productivity and show you that you’re capable of succeeding at something new.
You’ll Return More Confident
Let’s face it: the reason you haven’t left your comfort zone yet is because you don’t think you can. However, so many have done it before you, and many of them did so without the preparation, funds or support system that you have. If that’s not enough to inspire a ticket purchase, then consider just how great you’ll feel about yourself after conquering a lifelong goal like this one. You’ll return proud of your accomplishment and sure that you can handle anything in a place where you’re comfortable, since you did the same while you were away. Your newfound confidence might even inspire you to take another step outside of your comfort zone in the future, which means more memories, more lessons learned and a better, brighter and bolder you coming out on the other side, every time. To that, we can only say: Bon Voyage!
Kacey Mya Bradley is a lifestyle blogger for “The Drifter Collective.” Throughout her life, she has found excitement in the world around her. Kacey graduated with a degree in Communications while working for a lifestyle magazine. She has been able to fully embrace herself with the knowledge of nature, the power of exploring other locations, cultures, and styles, while communicating these endeavors through her passion for writing and expression. Her love for the world around her is portrayed through her visually pleasing, culturally embracing and inspiring posts.
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