One of the biggest questions that I receive from people who have just met me or already know me is – how do I possibly travel the world without yet having an income from traveling itself? They get it that at some point you can be getting paid to travel, earning passive income, and/or working while you travel. Which is no doubt a big goal to accomplish, but what they really want to know is how to enter that travel lifestyle, where to begin, and how to maintain it.
I can say that my answer will mostly apply to people who are still early in their career, haven’t created a family yet, and are interested in starting a travel lifestyle. This is the best type of advice that I can offer because it’s what I personally experienced and am still going through. I’m not rich, my travels aren’t funded by my parents, and I certainly didn’t need to quit my job to begin traveling. All I did was take my time designing my lifestyle to be able to pursue my passion for travel.
4 Factors to Creating a Life of Travel
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Life Circumstances
You can’t just pick up at any moment and begin a travel lifestyle. You must create the right circumstances for yourself and wait for the right moment to begin making moves. Here is an example of how I created the right circumstances in my life to begin traveling:
During my time in college, I realized that I had a hunger to travel the world, but I couldn’t just begin doing it because of how locked in I was with a part-time job as a server and going full-time to school. So, I told myself that after I graduated, I wouldn’t take on a career job right away and instead travel. From then on, I had that thought drilled into my mind. Now all I needed was to find a way to fund my travels after college. I began searching for a restaurant that would be aware of my goal to travel and knew that I required periods of time off when requested. I chose to stick to the restaurant industry because of the schedule flexibility it had, and honestly it was the only job that I had any real experience in.
During my senior year of college, I found a job that was willing to agree to my conditions and thus became a bartender. I made sure to prove myself as a good employee for the owners to see how beneficial I can be to the business. Hence, making it easier for them to approve my requests. Â As soon as I graduated and after a year of working at this restaurant, I made a request for my first time off which was 3 weeks to go to Thailand. Since then I have been coming back to the restaurant, slaving away, grinding up money, then rewarding myself with time off to travel.
Two years down the line, I’m still working at this restaurant and have traveled to over 20 countries. It took me a couple of years of designing my life to create these circumstances that would allow me to begin a life dedicated to travel. Now I’m off to the next step which is to find ways to continue traveling the world without having to work in the restaurant industry anymore. I’m building the appropriate skills, bettering myself in different aspects, and doing everything capable to create these future opportunities for myself.
Always plan ways to create opportunities for your future self. Take your time, keep your eyes on the big picture, and make sure to take that leap when you see that the time has come.
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Passion
The only way this whole thing can work depends on how passionate you really are about traveling. When you’re truly passionate about something, there should be nothing that can stop you from doing it. This passion is the core and source of everything. Motivation to not give up, dedication to commit to a goal, and willingness to do everything in your capabilities to make it happen. It’s very difficult to begin any journey without passion. That is why you must question whether this burns deep inside you and the best way to do that is by just giving it a shot.
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Sacrifices
If traveling is something you really love, you’re going to have to make some big and small financial sacrifices to your everyday life. That daily coffee from Starbucks before work, the 2 times a week of going out with the boys, and those monthly subscriptions will have to be cut off. I know, it can hurt to even think about it, but if you have a bigger picture to look at, it becomes a lot easier to deal with. After your first travel experience, you’ll see how far a dollar can really take you. Cutting out all these expenses adds up to what could potentially be an extra couple of months on the road. You will also have to sacrifice luxury while traveling and live on a low budget. However, in no means does that make traveling less enjoyable. If anything, it could make it into a better experience. Here is a post on why budget travel is worth doing.
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The Big Picture
When you have a place in mind that you want to travel to, make it a goal that you must reach. You will need to motivate yourself to the extent where it becomes something you’re always conscious about for every decision that needs to be made. When you have a bigger picture to look at, before making any purchase you’ll be second-guessing whether you really need it and if maybe you should put that money to the side towards that bigger goal. It’s a reward for all your hard work that you’re putting into your life to make this travel thing happen.
Everyone has their own way of getting to the point of starting a life of travel. I just hope that these 4 factors that helped me could also be beneficial to all of you.
