I’m currently in the middle of a 3 week “staycation” and wanted to catch up on the site. One of the things I’ve been meaning to discuss are my pre-trip fears.

When I started this site, I wanted it to be a documentary of the process, emotions, and experiences of someone leaving the corporate world to pursue a dream of traveling the world. This post is for those who people who will come after me that will have to deal with their own “fears” – may my experiences lend you a hand in dealing with those future “fears”.

For the past few months, I have spent a significant amount of time thinking about and fighting my own fears about my world trip. I will be honest – there have been multiple times where I considered walking away from the entire trip because it would have been easier to do that than pursue my dreams and ambitions.

One thing you may notice is that these are not your typical fears associated with travelling to far off places. Fears such as safety or getting sick or not having a place to stay are sometimes associated with travelling fears. My fears are much more personal and are related to the act of leaving and returning from a 12 month world trip.

The two main fears that I have confronted in the past few months (and have continued to confront) include:

1. Fear of Lack of Success (upon return)
2. Fear of Missing Out

Addressing the Fears Head On:

Fear of Lack of Success (upon return)…there are many definitions of success – career/financial, personal/relationship, and health all come to mind. Some of the questions and concerns that have come up while addressing this concern include:

-        “Who leaves their high paying job and successful career to travel the world?”

-        “Is it better to just settle down than do the world trip?”

-        “Will I be able to maintain a healthy life style while traveling?”

-        “Will I be able to find a job when I return to the U.S.?”

-        “How will I make new friends on the road?”

While it would be easier to walk away, I have been constantly reminded of the regret I would endure if I did make that decision. When I first dreamed this idea 4+ years ago, I never imagined I would be nearly this successful and even having to consider these scenarios. Ultimately, I decided that dealing with regret is just not an option for me. Everything I have read and everyone I have talked to say this trip is an awesome idea and are pretty excited for me and the opportunities that are ahead. From what I’ve read, no one has regretted the decision to take time off to travel the world.

To mitigate some of my doubts, I am taking the following actions:

-        Maintaining my professional network – I may not know if I want to come back and do exactly the same things just yet, but if I do, it will be easier to re-enter through my colleagues

-        Planning on returning with some $ leftover – I am unsure how long it  may take to find a job again; so to this end, I plan on returning with some money to give me a cushion to find work

-        Setting a routine (even while on the road) – I want to build exercise and fitness into my routine whether that’s walking everywhere or running on certain days of the week.

-        Stepping out of my comfort zone – The great thing about traveling is that it forces you to meet people. This can also be a scary thing for some people. By stepping out of my zone, I think it will be easier to meet other fellow travelers.

Fear of Missing Out…or maybe I should say the fear of missing routine activities with friends. When I first moved toMinneapolis, I knew almost no one in the area and most of my friends lived outside of Minnesota. It took a long time for me to establish a group of friends in Minneapolis and rational or not, this fear developed of missing out on happy hours, random quotes/txts, and general fun.

One of the questions that I asked myself and of some friends is “What will change in a year?” The answer to this question was surprisingly – not much. There will still be happy hours, random quotes and texts, and general fun. I may miss out on events of the next year, but one of the things I am going to do is stay connected virtually through the site, facebook, post cards, and who knows maybe even random texts and surprise phone calls.

The bottom line is that my friends realize that the need I have to take this trip and have been extremely supportive.

Moving the Agenda Forward

The thing about fears is that they never completely go away, but they can be used to your advantage. Fears can be addressed or mitigated so they become less of a concern. The best ways I have found to deal with these fears is to understand them, talk with friends and family about the fears, research what others have done in similar situations, and most importantly – not letting the fears “freeze” you from your goals.

I want to thank my friends and family for their support of this world trip. Without your support, I know the world trip would not be nearly as successful or fun. I have appreciated the words of encouragement, the excitement that has been shown, and most of all the listening that you have done.

Like the image included with this post suggests, I shall dedicated any remaining “fear of the unknown” that I have into curiosity – because that is a huge part of what travel is all about…being curious about the world around you.

I also am reminded of a quote that a good friend of mine told me during one of our discussions – “The Enemy of Fear is Action”. Basically, with action, fear automatically loses; with no action – fear automatically wins.

I continue to take action and move the agenda forward even if I am still a little bit fearful and I look forward to providing further updates regarding the world trip very soon!

Tim is preparing to travel the world on a much needed career break. His travels have already taken him to New Zealand, India, China, Taiwan, and many places in western Europe. On his world trip he hopes to become more fluent in Mandarin Chinese, meet new friends, gain new perspectives, and find new opportunities. Follow Tim on his global adventures.

Tim

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