A lot of you will recognize it. When you hear the word ‘world trip’, you think: ‘Ahh, how cool!’
You have a nice job, good friends, a dear family and once a year you make a beautiful journey to a faraway place. So you’re living a good life! How would you reply if someone asks: ‘What would you do if you won a million?’ Exactly, there I own up.. Because I would reply: ‘I would have continued doing this work (maybe one day less in the week, because there are a lot of things that I like doing), but first I would go travelling!’ Recently, I came to realise that.. So out of the blue the nice man sent me this message, if I would like to join him on a world trip.
When I have the feeling that my heart is jumping, I go for it for 100%. Because my ‘dream-button’ was pushed (for which I thanked him a lot anyhow) I got a boost of energy. Before I’ll tell you what I did first, I think this is a good moment to tell more about myself.
For those who don’t know me, I’m 32 years old and after two longer relationships (4 and 6,5 years) I’ve been single for 4 years now. I won’t discuss definitions of ‘single’ here, to keep things easy. During these 4 years I’ve discovered how it is to travel on my own. Riding a hand-geared moped by myself through Laos, working as a volunteer in Uganda and Sri Lanka, having a good conversation at a campfire with another backpacker, or reading a book in a hammock.. Above all: doing what I feel like doing.. To me that’s the ultimate feeling of freedom! And it’s quite addictive.. You can read about those experiences in my travel reports. And believe me when I say that I also felt reluctant to having dinner somewhere all by myself, etc.
In the weekend following the Wednesday on which I got THE app, I started to formulate my plans more concrete. When my heart jumps there’s a big energy boost involved! How this looks like? My head is taking a sort of creative fast train and I’m coming up with all kinds of things that have to do with my jumping heart. In this case: going on a world trip. Okay, I will try to decribe what’s happening 😉 While typing this I see a hamster running in a wheel. I’m laughing and thinking: yes, it’s something like that.. I need less sleep and I’m full of energy!
And so in a few days time a savings plan, a world tour ladder, a moodboard and a world map appeared on the wall. I now see some frowns and questioning faces, so I will explain this. The first thing I did was making a moodboard. Why? Because I believe that dreams come true more quickly the more you see them with your eyes. Also, looking up pictures and texts related to my future journey just makes me very happy. It’s getting more real. I also had an old world map that I had bought in a cosy bookstore in Boston, USA, in May 2015. I can be quite organized, but I can also be a bit less organized, so to speak. So where was the world map? After a short look I found it in the back of a closet. The next evening I happily hung the world map in my kitchen, and above it my personal moodboard.
After that I made a start with my savings plan. First, a financial update: what comes in, what goes out and what is it spent on and… which spending is necessary. Oops, anyway it gave me useful insights. I already knew I wasn’t a saver. I enjoy the moment and spend my money easily: being sociable (gezelligheid), dance parties, travelling, clothes, dinners, travelling and more travelling. Ehm.. I sometimes think there’s too many things I like. And my mindset of ‘I’m living now’ doesn’t help either.
Follow your heart, but take your brain with you.
I find it important to stay realistic. Yes, I want to save quite some money, but I also want to be who I am. With this plan I made clear to myself how long it would take to be able to start travelling the world. The outcome was: August 2018. So I am focussed on August 2018. In relation to that I made a world trip ladder. This may be a real teacher’s thing. I’m used to making trajectories and goals clear for pupils. I did this in the form of a ladder; an overview of the money that I saved on the way to the end goal: my world trip. Here I can keep track of the savings of each month and that way I can see if I’m still on scheme. The ladder is on the inside of the bathroom closet, so that I can see it twice a day. That’s good for the focus.
In the meantime I informed family and friends. Which reactions did I get? You will read it in my next blog..
