Wanderlust Struck? Here’s The Ultimate Guide To Traveling More

There’s nothing more frustrating in life than having wanderlust hit you right in the face. One moment, you’re getting on with work or just living your life and then next, you’re dreaming of warmer climates, days spent indulging in new cultures, and a life on the road. I’ve felt so cooped up in Dallas lately, I’m just yearning for a getaway! As much as wanderlust can be a great motivator, it can also remind you of the things you don’t have or fomo as I like to call it. However, you can choose the effect that wanderlust has on you! Miss frowny franny — I’ll pass on that one.

 

Wanderlust still has the uplifting power to bring you a wealth of inspiration. Instead of thinking about all of the things that you want to be doing, but can’t, be optimistic. Wanderlust can be your inspiration, your motivation, and a goal to aspire towards. You can use your longing to travel to actually push you to travel more! I’m so bad about sitting around and wishing to visit places (Rome, London, Iceland, etc) but still haven’t been! So ..how you can go from dreamer to do-er?

 

When you have a full-time job or any other commitments in your life, you easily shake off the idea of being able to travel more – the whole idea of being too busy takes over! But where there is a will, there is a way, as corny and cliche as it sounds. We’re going to walk through lifestyle, attitude, budgeting, and other choices that can allow you to transform your wanderlust into a living reality.

 

The best part of all is you don’t have to be rich and you don’t have to be lucky – you just have to want it enough! Oh, and get organized. Allowing more travel into your life definitely demands having your affairs in order (less drama, less worry). So, without any further delay, let’s walk through the ideas you can implement to allow yourself to travel more in life and see the world!

 

Write A Bucket List

 

Your first port of all is always going to be to figure out exactly where you want to go: local, stateside, international? It’s not going to help you to say that you want to travel more because it’s a very open-ended and indirect want. Instead, when you your energies into specific places, you’ve got a much better chance of being able to put the necessary plans in place to actually go there. So start to plan your bucket list and think about where you want to go. Then, you can take the steps to be able to get there.

Start Researching

 

At this point, you may find that you just write down one or two places and you kind of get stuck. I get a little pressured when I think about all the places I want to go, almost overwhelmed! To help you here, you’re going to want to start researching. Take a look into different countries and locations. Find spots that are best for great weather or have sights you want to see, or maybe a great romantic getaway. and go from there. This will help you to fuel your wanderlust and get some solid plans in place.

 

Set Travel Goals

 

Now, you need to work out your travel goals. You’ve written down where you want to go and you’ve even found your feet with research, so now you can set some timescales. Write down (realistically) where you’d like to go this year, or maybe even create your list as the places you’d like to go within the next five years or before you turn a certain age. This is a great way to hold yourself accountable and actually make sure you travel to these places. 

Get To Know Your Financial Situation Better

 

From here, you’re then going to want to get to know your own financial situation better. To do this, you’re going to want to work out what you earn and what bills you have, and start to create a good budget that you can track each month. Set aside money each month to support your travels. The last thing you want is to rev yourself up or arrive to your destination and have no funding left to truly enjoy yourself. 

 

Prioritize Your Travel Fund

 

As a step further from that, you’ll then want to make sure you see your travel budget as an importance. Of course, you need to make sure that you’re paying your bills and your rent (priorities yall), but after that, a travel fund needs to be the next priority. Saving to travel can actually be easier than you think, especially when the enthusiasm gets to you!

Save Up Your Vacation Days

 

From here, you’re then going to want to think about time. We’ve covered one huge barrier for a lot of people, and that’s money. But now, you need to free up the time. And when you work for a company, you may feel like you’ll never have the time to travel (I know I did in my previous job). Why do certain bosses make it so painful just to take time off and care for yourself? So what you need to do, is save up your vacation days – don’t waste them on something silly. That way, you can make sure you fit in your trips as and when you want to take them – unless your boss is ridiculous and makes the process impossible, but that’s a post for a different day!

 

Work For Yourself

 

Personally, I hated the idea of having to restrict my time for travel or time or myself in general. That’s part of the reason I started this blog!  Working for yourself means being your own boss and holding yourself accountable – but only answering to yourself, no-one else! There are lots of different business ideas that you could come up with to becoming your own boss. It’s a big step, but if you’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur, definitely go for it while the gettin’ is good!

 

Work Abroad

 

Another really great way to make sure that you’re incorporating travel into your life much more is to actually work abroad. Whether you get a transfer to an overseas office at your current location, or you find work overseas as a separate thing, working abroad is definitely one way to open your life up to more travel. I always wished I had studied abroad in school – the idea seemed so intimidating at the time but dang it would’ve been fun! I’ve also incorporated working and traveling abroad by attending international conferences – two birds, one stone!

 

Move Abroad

 

If you really want a change in lifestyle and everything else, then you could also think about moving abroad. Could you do it? This is definitely a big step, but it’s a big way to bring more travel into your life. Whether you’re looking at real estate in Malaysia or property prices in France, you can figure out where to go – no matter where it is. I’d die to have an adorable cottage in France, a flat outside of London or even an apartment in the Bahamas – so many wild adventures buzzing through my brain! I recently met  (finally) with Helene from Helene in Between while she was visiting here in Dallas. She and her husband completely packed up their lives and moved to Germany! It can be done! Visit her blog for some incredible inspo! So definitely consider relocation as a great way to bring travel into your life. 

 

Start A Travel Blog

 

Next, you might like to think about starting a travel blog (See previous reference to Helene – seriously love her!). Whether you love to write and create or not, starting a travel blog can really open up your life to more opportunities and connections. When you approach this like a business, you’ll definitely be bringing more travel into your life as it sustains the “business” and its content. By writing about different locations and reviewing different products, you’ll be able to travel so much more than you could ever imagine!

 

Become A Digital Nomad

 

As a step on from that, you could consider the digital nomad lifestyle. This is something that you might like to think about if you’re a marketer, writer, designer, consultant, or anything else that you could do remotely. Because if you have the luxury of working from anywhere, why not work from anywhere and travel the world at the same time? Yes please!

 

Keep Working On Your Travel Goals

 

Finally, you’re then going to want to make sure that you’re keeping this process in place. You started off on the right track by planning your travels and working out where you want to go, when, and what it will cost. Then, alas, you start to travel more, woo! But this is a process that you need to keep up and maintain if you want to keep traveling and feeding that addicting wanderlust. As you move forward, update your travel goals and tick off your bucket list, while constantly putting more plans in place. That way, you’ll be working through your goals and be able to keep traveling more in the future. Cheers to that!

What are some places on your bucket list? I’m also dying to go to the Maldives, how divine does that sound?

 

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