If you thought the best lessons in life were learnt only in a classroom, you couldn't be more wrong.
The best life lessons are learnt a few hundred miles away from your comfort zone (home), sitting on a charpoy (a light bedstead) and sipping tea with a stranger (or a native) who is eager to spill his knowledge to anyone willing to lend an ear. You also have a great learning to do from quietly flowing rivers, massive yet humble mountains, and ultimately Mother Nature, who never fails to awe its children.
HolidayMe.com lists 10 ways in which travel can truly shape up an individual.
1. Travelling makes you more patient.
Varied cultures, different people and complex situations - while travelling you come across all of this and more. Sometimes you compromise, sometimes you let go of the bone of contention. In any case, you will learn to adapt yourself in the prevailing situations and look at the bigger picture.
2. Travelling pushes you out of your comfort zone.
Fear of heights, fear of being alone, fear of water, and fear of unknown - we spend most of our lives limiting ourselves and never really living life to the fullest. Travelling would mow down that wall for sure. When you travel, you invent new ways of dealing with situations and learn to step out of your comfort zone because you know it will only change you in a better way.
3. Travelling makes you confident.
You have scaled great mountains, dived in deepest water, navigated in unknown territories, shared tables with strangers, and conquered fears. If this hasn’t made you a confident person, what will?
4. Travelling leads you to appreciate differences and move past them.
When you travel, you are exposed to traditions and cultures, you did not know existed. A few could be shocking revelations and others would pleasantly surprise you. Travelling teaches you to be more open and easy going.
5. Travelling teaches you to manage your finances better.
From saving for your dream trip to compromising with a deluxe room to accommodate an extra day in the city, travelling can teach you about finances so much better than those B-schools.
6. When you travel you are more likely to succeed as a person.
People management skills, crisis management, conflict management, finances, better utilisation of resources: if you are an avid traveller, you already have learnt the major life lessons that are required to lead a successful life.
7. Travel helps forgive what you can and accept what you cannot.
You have dealt with missed flights, adjusted with a nosy co-traveller, braved bed bugs or had a flat tyre on a road trip. You know there are things that can not be controlled and a few things will go wrong no matter how well you plan them. You whine, you complain and eventually you learn to move on.
8. As you travel you realise that the world is not a bad place after all.
People cheat, you get fleeced, fooled and made fun of, travelling is mighty expensive, if that is how you view the world in general, be ready for that image to shatter. The number of good people will always outnumber the bad. Also, you do not need an exorbitant amount of money to travel.
9. Travelling makes you humble.
“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world” - Gustave Flaubert.
Mighty Himalayas, deep valleys, infinite oceans, endless meadows: a glimpse of this is enough to make you realise how utterly miniscule our existence is.
10. You learn to enjoy the moment.
Probably, the biggest lesson while travelling is to appreciate the moment. We are so busy crying or fussing over things we have little control on, that we forget how to appreciate the life that is passing by.