7 Reasons Why Travel Makes You More Successful

I bet you love to travel and see the world. We all love the diversity and unique experience we get when we travel to a different country that has a different culture and religion than the one we used to.

Travel is important because human beings are wired to love choices and challenges.

Think about it, if you are given a simple game and you can beat the game in 5 minutes, will you want to continue playing the game for the rest of the day? No, you won’t.

You will quickly feel bored because of its simplicity.

On the other hand, if a game is difficult and challenging, you will love it. You will play the game over and over again until you beat it or master it.

Psychology Today shared interesting research from a book written by Sheena Iyengar, called The Art of Choosing. In the book, the author shared her findings with rats, monkeys, pigeons, and people:

Rats were given a choice of a direct path to food or a path that had branches and therefore required choices to be made. Both paths resulted in access to the same food in the same amounts. If all the rats wanted was food, then they should take the short, direct path. But the rats continuously preferred the path with branches.

In experiments with monkeys and pigeons, the animals learn to press buttons to get food. If given a choice between one button and multiple buttons, both monkeys and pigeons prefer multiple buttons.

In similar research with humans, people were given chips to use at a casino. They could use the chips at a table that had one roulette wheel, or at a table where they could choose from two roulette wheels. People preferred the table with two wheels, even though all the wheels were identical.

From the book, The Art of Choosing, written by Sheena Iyengar.

The point is that we’re wired for survival. And survival means having control. And that means we want choices. And a large part of choices come from traveling around the world, seeing different cultures, exploring other parts of the world, and talking to people of different diversity.

This is why travel is important to your success.

Now that you know the core reason why travel is important in life and why you love to travel, here are 7 direct benefits you are going to get when you travel…

1. Travel allows you to see new things and learn a new culture

This is something that you will experience when you are traveling to countries that you have never been to before. In 2016, I went to Korea; it was an eye-opening trip. I must say that it is one of my best trips ever.

The Korean culture is entirely different than the Malaysian. Their food, the way they dress, and their lifestyle are totally different.

When you get to experience new things, you will expand your perspective.

For example, think about the first time you use an iPhone. Before this, you were using a phone with a keypad. And when you switched to using a touch-screen phone for the first time, how do you feel? Fresh, interesting, convenient, and you love it, right?

The same goes for traveling. You don’t know what to expect, but once you tried it, it will open your mind and expand your thinking.

There are 2 types of changes, either from the outside or from within. When you travel and you see different things, you are experiencing change from the outside.

If you love business and talk about business all the time, you should set your aim to visit New York City. You get a chance to see how things operate and how businesses are running over there.

If you are a westerner and you’ve always been curious about how the Asian works, go to Shanghai, visit Seoul, and check out Tokyo. And tell me your experience after that.

Travel gives you inspiration and drives you to live a better life.

2. Travel can get out of your comfort zone

When you travel, you will learn to get out of your comfort zone. There’s no way you will stick to your comfort zone when you go to a place that you have never been to before.

If the country you visit has a different time zone, your sleeping time will be affected. You will need to wake up at a different time. It forces you to adapt and hence, expanding your comfort zone.

What’s more, the food you eat will be different than what you usually eat. The street will look different to you and the people will be different too.

This is where you can get yourself out of your comfort zone. You will get to try something new, do something that you have never done before, and eat something different.

Travel stretches you to move away from what you normally do. This is why people become more creative when they travel.

Read: 15 Ways How to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone and Live Great

3. Travel makes you more decisive

Here’s another great reason why you should travel more – you get to be more decisive.

No matter which country you visit, it does not matter because you will learn to make a decision base on a totally different situation.

Imagine you visit a country that you have never been to before; you have to make the decision where to stay, where to eat, what to eat, where to go, and how to get there.

There are all sorts of decisions you need to make. And this is where you get to improve your decision-making skills based on the current situation.

If you are traveling in a foreign country and you’re lost, how do you get help and ask for direction?

When things do not go according to your plan, what should you do? What if you plan to visit an attraction but it is closed for renovation? What will you do and what other plans do you have?

These are the actual situations that will happen and they will train you to become a better decision-maker. They will force you to grow and improve your confidence.

Read: 11 Genius Tips to Be More Decisive

4. Travel injects freshness and newness into life

Life is going to be boring if you work for the same company in the same position, stay in the same place, do the same thing, and eat the same lunch for 30 years.

Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it live.

Robin Sharma

Do you want that? Most people do not want to go through a boring, repetitive life. This is what travel is for.

Travel gives you a sense of newness and injects freshness into your life.

Even if you are not traveling overseas, you can still pour newness into your life. What you can do is visit a new restaurant, go to a new shopping mall, and do something that you have never done before at least once a week.

Try out something new so that you can make your life livelier.

This doesn’t only inject a sense of freshness into your life, but it also broadens your perspective, and you get to know yourself better.

If you have never visited the museum before, you probably should try it this weekend. If you have never tried out go-kart before, you should plan for it. Do something new and something that will excite you in your life.

When you feel fresh, your mind will operate in your most productive and creative state. Great ideas come to you when you do something totally new. And you’ll feel great.

This is why when you are stuck, you should stop and do something different. Just like if you are running out of ideas to type an article, stop and take a walk or do something unrelated.

The ideas will come when you stop focusing on the problem because when you focus on the problem, guess what you will get? The problem.

So, do something different and try something new for yourself from time to time.

And if possible, try to commit to traveling overseas to explore the world at least once a year.

Read: 21 Personal Development Tips That Will Change Your Life

5. Travel helps you socialize with others

It is impossible to travel and not talk to other people. This is especially true if you are traveling alone. You will talk to the locals, and check out the attractions, history, and directions.

If you are an introvert, you need to travel even more often. It forces you to socialize and discover how to deal with strangers.

Travel also improves your courage. This is especially true when you lost your direction and your map does not help. You will then have to use your instinct to ask the right person for help.

This is where you will get to learn how to communicate with others. Even if it is just for a few seconds or minutes, you will get to learn how to ask and what to ask.

You get to learn how to communicate and socialize when you are traveling alone. If you feel doubtful whether you should travel alone, then probably it’s best to overcome the fear by facing it.

Do it! Make a plan to travel alone. But do make sure you travel responsibly and take care of yourself.

Trust me, when you travel alone to a country that you have never been to and you don’t speak the local language, you will learn and improve the most.

It will impact your life deeply.

6. Travel improves your adaptability to change

Like what I mentioned above, when you travel, you tend to experience new things and venture out of your comfort zone, and as a result, you will embrace change.

Most people are afraid of change.

“All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and so gorgeous at the end.”

Robin Sharma

It is hard changing your life. It is not easy. You need to break your bad habits and adopt new empowering habits. And you will have to go through the process for a certain period until the new activities become your habits.

This is the main reason why most people are not successful. They are not willing to change. And if you continue to do the same thing, you will get the same old results.

This is why change is uncomfortable but important.

And the good news is that you get to learn about this when you are traveling. This is why people who travel more seem to be more successful.

People who travel often tend to be more adaptable to change. They are not afraid of new things and some even crave changes.

7. Travel grows your confidence

Another good reason to travel is it builds your confidence.

You get to talk to strangers, you move out of your comfort zone, and you embrace change, and all these will surely boost your confidence to a higher level.

When you visit a new place, you build up confidence because you are doing something new and you are facing a new situation, which can be uncomfortable at times.

Imagine trying out Korean food for the first time. You look at the menu and you have no idea what to order or even how to order. In the end, you decided to go for “bulgogi” (marinated bbq pork/beef).

After trying out Korean food for the first time, you absolutely love it. You like the taste of “bulgogi” and it is delicious. The following week, you told your friends about it and you invite them to enjoy “bulgogi” together.

That’s how your confidence soars. You grow your confidence level by facing and experiencing new things. And travel helps you with that.

Conclusion

Travelling will basically up your level in almost every area. It will boost your confidence, help you to embrace change, and grow you as a person. It will broaden your perspective, give you inspiration, and more importantly, makes you more successful.

You don’t have to travel lavishly. The point is not to spend all your money traveling first class. You want to experience and enjoy the trip and the journey. That’s how you get the most out of your travel.

Now that you know travel is important and how it can make you more successful in life, it is time to plan your next trip.

Where do you want to go? And what kind of interesting experience you have had? Share with me. 🙂