Comments on: A purpose driven (travel) life

By: budgettravelsac

budgettravelsac — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 06:11:43 +0000

Thanks Andi! You just need to figure out why you love it so much!

By: Andi

Andi — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 04:09:16 +0000

What a fantastic post! All I know is that I literally can’t live without travel.

By: budgettravelsac

budgettravelsac — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 23:04:53 +0000

Thanks Earl. I completely agree. Once you get beyond the excitement of travel and really begin to understand what you are experiencing, your view of the world is changed and you can never go back to the way you were. Learning about other people and cultures gives us an opportunity to appreciate our differences. Experiences with people make life far more interesting and destroys the stereotypes we have. It makes life real, meaningful, and yes, purposeful. So my question on this topic – what do you with what you have experienced to impact other people?

Thanks for the comment! I am probably going to expand on this topic and share more on this later. There will be more challenges to come!

By: budgettravelsac

budgettravelsac — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 22:59:03 +0000

I admire you for seeking the challenges. It’s hard to be pushed and feel uncomfortable. Those are things I don’t really like. I deal with them as they come but I don’t choose them. What have those challenges taught you and how have the things you experienced affected those around you? Has your life and travels had an impact on your relationship with others?

By: budgettravelsac

budgettravelsac — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 22:56:40 +0000

I’ve stated it in the comments before and it summarizes what you are trying to say. Whether it is in travel or life, we can find fulfillment without purpose. You can’t find purpose without fulfillment. If you are living your life for a purpose, then the two do go together. If you are living just for fulfillment, you will not be satisfied and will continue to travel or live to seek even more fulfillment. I don’t think we can ever truly be fulfilled without a purpose.

I am glad people are challenged by this and are thinking. The goal of this wasn’t to tell people what their purpose should be but get them thinking about how they are living when they travel. What is their motivation and what is their life about? I think all of us have learned things from travel that have touched us, challenged us, or inspired us. In that respect, we can’t just keep seeking those things without taking those experiences and giving back to others in some way. If all we seek is to gain for ourselves, then our lives won’t be fulfilled. And this is true in travel. We can enjoy traveling but it becomes more meaningful when what we experience gives us an opportunity to impact others for their benefit.

I’ve probably said too much about this and rambled a bit myself. However, let me ask another question – why do you write and blog about travel?

By: budgettravelsac

budgettravelsac — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 22:49:42 +0000

I completely agree Suzy. I love Europe as well and as I shared in an earlier comment, you can have fulfillment without purpose but you can’t have purpose without fulfillment. They do go together. And to have a purpose driven travel life, you don’t need to volunteer in the jungle. You just need to take what travel has taught you and share it with others. Than can be something like sharing trips to help others when they travel or supporting local businesses. There are so many ways to have purpose when you travel.

I guess I was just saying that if all we do is travel for our own pleasure, never learn from our travels, and just want everywhere we go to just be the way we want it, then what is the point? I think there is something travel teaches us that we can use to give back to others. I guess it’s the “pay it forward” idea in travel.

By: Suzy

Suzy — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 17:59:19 +0000

I think you can travel for both purpose and personal fulfillment, enriching the destination and yourself at the same time. You won’t find me volunteering in the jungle anytime soon, but I like to think there are subtle impacts I make when I travel that help people in some way. It could be as simple as reversing a stereotype. In the end, I pick destinations I am interested in, which could be why I keep going back to Italy and Europe. Like you, I don’t like being uncomfortable, but I always find myself changed by those bad travel experiences.

By: Chuck Manley

Chuck Manley — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 17:26:26 +0000

I travel for challenge. I like to experience new things constantly and have more info to draw upon as I make further decisions in life. I think its important to push ourselves to our limits and cross boundaries we didnt know existed. I was meditating on this idea a few weeks ago and came to the conclusion that if we focus too hard on what the answer is, we will miss out on the lessons of questioning.

By: Earl

Earl — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 12:26:41 +0000

For the past couple of years now, I’ve realized that the actual destination I visit is much less important than simply making sure that I am learning about the world and about myself every single day while traveling.

In the beginning of my travels, I definitely did not have a purpose and was merely traveling because I enjoyed it. But that changed over time and now, my purpose is to gain that education that many people do not have access to (the education that travel can offer) and use it to help eliminate many of the misunderstandings we have about other people and places in the world. And once I discovered this purpose, every day of my travels has been infinitely more fulfilling than I ever could have imagined.

Great topic for a post by the way!

By: Caz Makepeace

Caz Makepeace — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 11:24:14 +0000

I travel because it is where I feel most fulfilled and on purpose. When I travel I feel as if I am living life’s purpose which is to experience joy and wonder, and to be fully present in each moment.
I feel as if my purpose in life is to experience all the wonder of the world and to learn as much as I can from it. I feel as if “God” has selected me to play this role in life, as I can play it well. I can allow “God” to experience the world through me and delight in it. Just like I feel some people are musicians– this is their purpose to allow “God” to hear the creation of music ,as with artists and athletes and so forth.
And God to me is not a religious God but a higher Universal power that lives in each one of us.
Travel has helped me to be a better person and through this I can make a more positive impact on the world. I think the fulfillment comes from living your purpose. If you don’t live your purpose you will be unfulfilled. The two belong together.
I’m not sure if that explained anything or answered your question.