10 Reasons You Don’t Travel As Much As You Want To, And How To Fix It

By

All it takes is a Facebook feed of photos for people to think that you’re the Travel Yoda. Sure I’m guided by a force – wanderlust – and yes, I travel more than many people I know. But the only difference between myself and travel wannabes are a few, small actions that drastically increase how often I travel.

Small changes add up to a big difference and with a few adjustments, anyone can experience a lifetime of adventure. Here are ten reasons you aren’t traveling as much as you want and how to fix it.

1. You Don’t Believe You Can Travel All The Time

To do what no one else does, you must dream like no one else dreams.

The impossible is accomplished daily by people who push limits and ignore naysayers. You must learn to live as if you can do anything: including travel to every country you want.

Remove any mental limitations that are holding you back. Give yourself permission to believe in your dreams. And watch the miracles that happen as you relentlessly pursue your goals.

2. You Haven’t Made Travel A Priority

If you aren’t traveling regularly, it’s because you haven’t made travel a priority. We funnel more attention, more time, and more resources into our priorities.

Think about how you spend time each day.

We like to think that we put our priorities first, but oftentimes how we spend our time doesn’t align with what we say is important.

Realign your priorities to make sure that travel is among this important group. Make time to travel, pay attention to travel deals, use more of your resources to get into the world and it’s a guarantee that your travel will increase exponentially.

3. You Don’t Plan For Travel When You’re Not Traveling

If you don’t have a travel savings account that you deposit into regularly, you’re not serious about traveling more. The serious travelers I know – the ones who book a flight on a whim to see a concert or celebrate a birthday abroad – have travel savings accounts.
Travel doesn’t compete with their other bills and when it’s time to plan an adventure, they have a pot of money to do so.

Open a travel savings account and fund it regularly. This must be a separate account used only for travel. You get bonus points if you set up a monthly automatic deposit. Get even more points if you pay yourself first.

Investing in travel will benefit you more than any other bill the mailman brings.

4. You Have The Wrong Job

Certain jobs are a better fit for people who travel. If your job requires you to be at a specific location to do the majority of your work, it’s not ideal. The most traveled people work remotely from across the globe. The best of them have careers that are project based instead of time based giving them the freedom to travel often.

If your workload can’t be delegated while you’re traveling, find another job. A neglected (and growing) stack of work is a huge deterrent to traveling. In fact, it’s a primary reason many Americans don’t take a vacation.

A job that prevents you from following your passion is the wrong job. And you know it. Dust off your resume and find work that feels less like the rat race.

Better yet, work towards becoming your own boss. When it comes to working, you have two options: work for someone else or work for yourself. It’s your choice.

5. You Are Living Beyond Your Means

Many people say they can’t afford to travel. In reality, many of these folks don’t know how much their dream trip costs and they let an empty bank account dictate their lives.

Sure I could argue the latte factor, but if you love your lattes, keep drinking them. You don’t have to give up things you love to travel.

Take a look at how you spend your money – I recommend signing up for Mint.com – and you’ll find money vampires that suck the life out of your accounts. Destroy these blood suckers to put more of your hard earned money towards travel.

Opting for a smaller or shared living space (seriously, life will go on) or using public transportation will pad your pockets enough to take several trips.

6. Your Friends Don’t Travel

Since joining the Nomadness Travel Tribe, my travel has skyrocketed. Why? Because I am exposed to more amazing destinations, I’m invited to trips, and unbelievable travel deals are constantly shared through this network.

You are only as awesome as the five people you hang around the most, so if your friends don’t travel, you won’t travel either.

If you want to travel more, find your people. These people are living your dream life. They offer inspiration and insider knowledge to help you boost the number of trips you take.

The more travel superstars you add to your friends list, the more your globetrotting increases.

7. You Don’t Have A Travel Support Group

Opposite of other support groups, a Travel Support Group enables you to travel more often. These are friends and associates that take care of business when you’re away.

They are your cheerleaders who watch your pet, your, kids or your home when you travel. These special people support you and your dreams, and will help you remove the last hurdles from your path.

These people aren’t hard to find. Interestingly enough, they seem to come out of nowhere when you start talking about your dreams and what’s holding you back.

Be brave and start telling the world about your goals. The backing you need won’t be far behind.

8. You’re Waiting For Something Or Someone

How many times have you missed a travel opportunity because you were waiting for a travel partner?

Traveling solo is a huge stepping stone to your travel adventures. Solo travel can seem intimidating. In reality, solo travel is a liberating and fun experience that exposes you to all kinds of new experiences.

If you’re not waiting for someone to travel with, you’re waiting for the right time to travel.

You’re waiting for your bonus or for the kids to get older or for retirement. Life isn’t waiting for the perfect time and if you wait too long you’ll find that the right time has passed. Travel now and travel as much as you can. You’ll wish you’d have started sooner.

9. You’re Afraid

Fear is sneaky. It comes in so many forms that if you aren’t careful, you’ll convince yourself that your fear is justified. Even though most of what we worry about never happens, that doesn’t stop us from imagining wacky scenarios.

The unknown brings with it doubts and uncomfortable situations. When you’re traveling, you must surrender control and roll with the punches. But this uncertainty makes travel amazing.
Each time you enter an unfamiliar situation, you stretch your comfort zone. And a stretched out comfort zone is one of the best travel accessories that money can’t buy.

Get into the habit of scaring yourself daily. Push yourself to do one thing that you’re terrified to do. Do this often enough and before long screaming fears turn into barely audible whispers. Ignore them.

10. You’re Lazy

If none of the above applies, the only answer to why you aren’t traveling as much as possible is because you’re lazy. You haven’t taken the steps to research, make plans and act on your travel goals.

Few people are lucky enough to be born into the lap of luxury and have their dreams tossed into their laps. Most of us work hard for what we want.

We must create our goals and take steps to make sure they happen. Every single day. And those who aren’t actively pursuing their dreams are missing out on the awesomeness that their life could be.

If you fall into this last category, I can’t be mad. That means less crowded planes and more wiggle room on my twelve hour flights.