The world is a beautiful place and by not exploring it, you are selling yourself short. Shahriar Ekbatani is a firm believer that it is never too late to start traveling and that every journey is a life-changing experience that you should treat yourself to. A lot of people, however, are afraid that traveling is something that they won’t be good at, that the time isn’t right, that they can’t afford it, that they will be in danger, and so on. There are literally thousands of reasons why you may tell yourself that traveling is not a good idea, but none of those reasons are true.
Shahriar Ekbatani’s Top 5 Reasons for Traveling
1. It increases your confidence. If you are shy, you will quickly find that you will have to break through that if you start to travel. You have to engage with others to find your way, order food, look for places to stay, and so on. This is true whether you are hitchhiking through a war zone, or living a life of luxury in a five star resort.
2. You will make more friends. When people travel, they become more open to things, including meeting new people. This is in part because traveling means experiencing new things, and those things have to be shared. Making friends all over the world is a great thing, not in the least because it means you will never be truly alone.
3. You could fall in love. Sometimes, those friendships develop into something more. Everybody needs love in their life and if you don’t travel, you limit the chances of bumping into your one true soulmate. Do you really believe that the person you were meant to be with just so happens to live in the same village as you?
4. You can volunteer. Traveling is expensive and that is, in fact, one of the seemingly unsurmountable barriers. However, if you agree to volunteer, you can make things a whole lot cheaper. Volunteering is good for everybody. Firstly, it means you can be in a foreign country for much less money than if you were to be on vacation. Secondly, it means that you do something good for a cause that you are passionate about. That, in turn, makes you feel good about yourself and quite rightly so.
5. You pick up new skills. Whether you are volunteering or simply having a vacation, you will always learn new things when you travel. You will pick up math skills because of currency exchanges, language skills by learning to say “hi” and “thank you”, and more. Learning to navigate the entire planet, in essence, is a skill – a life skill, in fact.
These are just five reasons why traveling is so important and good for you, and there are many more. The top and bottom of it is that the world is a very big place, and you should give yourself every opportunity to explore it.
