How Long Term Travel Helps Break Down My Mental Barriers

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Prior choosing to pursue this lifelong dream of mine to travel for a long time, I have so many mental barriers that I got so used to living with. I do still have a lot of those mental barriers until now, but slowly, traveling is helping me re-shape the way I think in pursuit of achieving my personal dreams.

I used to believe that a lot of things are not possible until I finally got the courage to try and made it possible for myself. I think that timing also played a crucial role in those circumstances especially when we talk about traveling. Traveling now is more affordable in comparison to a few years back due to the increasing number of competing budget carriers, hostels and also the new roads making remote places accessible to more people.

Travel, aside from being one of my favorite leisure activities also became the platform for me to challenge a lot of my past beliefs and to break down a lot of my mental barriers.

I used to think that Travel is For Millionaires Only

I used to stare for hours at pictures of gorgeous places locally and around the world) and I frequently go to libraries or second hand bookshops to borrow and buy old magazines and old books so I could read about the history and a bit of facts about various places. I promised myself back then that once I get a job, I will work hard, save money and go to these places.

I was already working when I first got on a long trip (Sagada in the Mountain Province). I was 22 years old when I first rode a ferry and a plane and my first trip to Boracay. And I was already 25 years old when I first traveled outside the country (Singapore and Thailand). I started traveling a bit late and waited until the time that I was earning an income already.

I am not rich (quite far from it). My family is also not rich; they didn’t pay for any of the trips that I have taken. I worked hard for every cent I spent on those trips. Looking back and even until now, I always think and believe that travel is the best thing I have ever spent money on. I can still vividly remember bits and pieces of those trips, the missed ferry, and the small arguments with friends, the drunken nights, ATMs not working, losing cash, laughing out loud with friends and so on.

Even when I chat online with my friends back home, those are some of the memories that we always laugh a lot about. Memories that I know will stay with me until the day I die. I didn’t spend a lot on those trips. I only book promo airfares, usually stay in cheap guesthouses and eat in local restaurants.

I used to think that I can only travel Two Weeks in a Year

I was employed for around 8 years before I pursued this location independence lifestyle or digital nomadism or whatever they call this thing. I got so used to believing that two weeks of vacation plus the weekends are the only time left for me to do something else aside from working. And that is something that I have to accept.

And that perception changed when I first traveled outside the country with my friends where we met so many people from around the world traveling for a long time. It was also the time we overheard an old couple who traveled overland from Beijing to Hanoi.

It was an epiphany, an eye-opener, an emotional struggle and the start of my life spiraling into something I wasn’t familiar with as of that time. A sense of adventure got awakened not only in me but with my other friends as well.

I silently told myself, “I’ve only read and watched this before and now I know that there are real people who really go out there to see the world.” Stupid as it may sound, back then, I never really thought it was possible for anyone to independently travel. I used to think that National Geographic Crew and other travel media related companies can only do this kind of vagabonding activity.

Realizing that it’s really possible to travel the world because I saw and met some people who do it, the childhood passion of mine got reignited intensely, so intense that it changed all my life plans.

I used to think that I cannot juggle my responsibility to my family and achieving my personal dream

Before I left for my first backpacking trip (a few years back), my relatives had a small gathering and I had the chance to talk to my closest uncle. He told me that he heard that I left my job to travel and asked why I did that. I told him that I already talked to my mother about it and asked them to just please give me a year. He told me that I should reconsider my plans and just stay and work so I could continue to provide. It was heartbreaking to hear but at the same time I really understood where he’s coming from. Financially I really couldn’t afford to do both things especially at that time. So I asked my mother, if it’s really ok if I they give me a year to pursue a personal dream. My mother said, “Don’t worry and do what you want.” I was very happy that she was very supportive. Before I left though, I took care of some of their other needs and got left with only a budget of P30K which I know won’t really last me that long.

My mom helped me get a cab early that morning for my first flight to Malaysia and that solo backpacking trip took me to 8 countries in six months. I didn’t last for a year as I had to come back home to bid goodbye to my grandmother for the last time.

I got back home in a confuse state. I lost my grandmother who in my whole life acted as my second mom and I also thought that I have to end a dream and just go back to my old life.

I got a job after a few months and went back to the daily grind. But before I applied for a job, I setup this blog. I’ve heard about people who are traveling and at the same time earning and I have decided to give it a try. That was in October 2009 when I registered an account in blogspot and setup my travel blog, FlipNomad.

After a few months of working, I asked my mom again if I could continue where I had left off and that is to travel again. She told me to stay instead because the last time I backpacked, I came home so skinny with multiple scars in different parts of my body which I got from some minor accidents on the road that I didn’t tell them about so they wouldn’t worry. She asked me why I have to trade my then “comfortable and stable life” with uncertainty.

I told her that if she tries to look me in the eye and not look at my scars, she will see that I am extremely happy with what I have experienced and I am very happy with what I discovered that I wanted to do for this phase of my life – to explore and travel.

As my mom is an ever understanding and ever loving individual, of course she said yes with one condition, to never skip a meal just to save money (which I broke a lot of times).

This time around, I left with more ammunition that I know will help me travel longer and at the same time potentially help me continue provide for my family as I travel – and that is this blog and the stuff that I continuously learn about the economics of internet.

I wasn’t able to send back anything on my first eight months on the road as I was struggling with generating an income online. But after the first eight months, gradually up to this day, I’m able to send something back to them on a monthly basis while I still pursue my passion. I was also able to help send my brother to school while I was traveling.

None of this will ever be possible without the help of numerous friends and bloggers who never failed to send motivational comments and encouragements especially during the low points of my time on the road. Some of them even went out of their way and generously gave me tips and suggestion on what to do with my websites. The earnings are still unstable but it’s a bit better now I think.

I used to think that passion and work are two separate things that ought to stay separate

I grew up thinking that passion is the thing you want to do that makes you feel happy and work is the thing you need to do to support your passion and provide for your basic needs. Because of the people that I have met online and offline, I learned that there’s a sweet spot between them where each of us could thrive. Yeah, maybe I will not become a millionaire pursuing it but if it can provide the basic things I need and at the same time make me feel happy, then why not give it a try.

I used to think and just think… and seldom forgets to trust my instincts and my guts that much

I grew up in the era of logical thinking. I grew up in an era where everything is all about the thought process, about the scientific explanations and about the business model. I have forgotten to trust my guts. I have forgotten to listen to that inner voice. I lost the spark in my eyes in pursuit of the logical things. Leaving my previous job to travel is, according to some of my corporate colleagues, one of the most stupid things they have ever heard.

They are completely right, it is a stupid thing.

Even I tell myself the same thing, this is the most stupid thing I have ever thought of and have ever done in my life.

But this stupid thing is also where I felt the happiest. This thing is what brought the childlike spark back to my eyes. That whenever I meet my closest friends and my siblings and every time they ask me stuff about my trips, we got enveloped in our own little world laughing about my misadventures and also getting emotional and inspired by the life stories of the people that I met.

And when my friends have some time, I bring them to those places and I introduce them to some of the people I met in this journey.

I do hope that one day; I could also bring my family with me.

In Pursuing Our Passion

It doesn’t have to be travel. It can never be travel for everyone, different people likes different things. One of my closest friends also gathered all her courage and pursued something that we have always been talking about for the longest time, and it is for her to be a designer.

She was my boss in one of my previous jobs and we always talk about how good the money is in the BPO industry and sometimes we ask each other if we could ever trade it in pursuit of something that we know we love doing, even if there’s just little money on those things. And that was years ago, both of us now, together with two other friends are in the process of pursuing a variety of things that we are passionate about.

We don’t know what will happen. We might succeed or we might fail.

But one thing is for sure, in the future regardless of the outcome of these decisions, we will all look back and say, “I gave it a try!”

My biggest fear in this world is not death. It is the possibility that when the time comes and I grow very old and as I lie on my death bed waiting for my last breath to escape my body… it’ll be so devastating that all I could think of is “what if…”

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