Written April 28, 2017:
A few weeks ago I was on an influencer shoot with Contiki - riding hot air balloons, swimming with stingrays, sharks and eating my way through Latin America.
How did I get there? I asked myself that same question when boarding a plane to Mexico City from Sydney, Australia. I like to think it was due to 3 things: planning, pursuing, and fear.
It may feel strange to consider fear as a factor that resulted in me living this life of travel, but it was probably the biggest influence out of the three. Let me take you back 1.5 years to when I was living the 9-5 life in LA, with an Instagram following of less than 300.
I wanted to celebrate my birthday by scratching China off my bucket list. I booked my first (solo) Contiki trip and that’s when everything changed – that’s when the fear hit. A few weeks after I got back from that trip I made the announcement that I’d be packing my entire life into a suitcase and starting a new one in Australia. Everyone was asking if I was scared to be moving out of LA for the first time in a matter of weeks, if I was scared to be moving to a place where I have no friends or family, if I was scared to be moving to a place with no job. Fear was the default emotion people seemed to focus on when they heard the news.
To be honest, I was scared, but not about any of the things everyone else was fearful for. I was scared of regret. I was scared of routine. I was scared that if I didn’t make a change, I’d look back and say “I wish I would’ve just done what made me happy”.
This is what talking to the other travelers on the China trip did to me. It made me scared to think that I wasn’t living my life to the fullest and it provided me with the motivation I needed to finally stop making excuses and just take action on what I had always daydreamed about.
This is the reason I share my pictures, experiences, and story with the online world. I want people to know it’s possible for them to do the same, because I started off in the same boat and am still living the 9-5 lifestyle – except that through the constant pursuit of adventure, I’ve made it so that I do it 7,000 miles away from home and still get to live out my travel dreams at the same time.
My obsession with encouraging people to travel and sharing my personal story is what got me that incredible opportunity to go on an influencer shoot with one of my absolute favorite companies a few weeks ago.
So, don’t quit your daydream! Take action on it instead. If you’ve dreamt of going chasing a particular goal like moving abroad or saying bye to something that doesn’t make you happy anymore – create a plan on how to do it and take those first steps as soon as possible. For me, that involved applying for my Australian visa a couple of days after my China trip. I’m not saying it will always be easy, but there is always a way to pave a different path in the direction you want, and once you get there, it’ll all be worth it.