Hi,

I've posted this in the Spiritual Traveler forum but I think this forum would be better, so sorry to kind-of repeat myself.

Making travel a #1 life priority.

I've read this a couple of times on BnA's forums and this sentence really stayed printed in my mind.

What does making travel your #1 life priority means to you and what do you do to keep your focus on that goal?

Thanks for sharing your stories!

Ben.

For me at the moment, saving up for my RTW trip is one of my highest priorities. It keeps me focused on not buying stuff I don't need. Everytime I'm tempted on dropping money on something I will use once in a while, I think of my RTW trip and it usually keeps me from pulling the trigger.

But of course, it doesn't mean I stop living life. Like last week was my sister's wedding, I gave a decent cash gift, I also spent money on tailoring my suit/shirt so I'll look good at her wedding. I'm not going to skimp on things like that.

Yeah, for me expenses/saving has alot to do with it. Like K2, before I buy something I wonder if I *reallly* need that and will it be relevant when I come back from my trip in a couple of years.

Making travel #1 priority also enables me to minimize the amount of crap I have. I've done a major craiglisting of my junk and am really trying to simplify my life so I have less to manage while I'm gone. For instance, I'm selling my nice car (only 3 years old!) and keeping the truck because whenever I look at it, all I see if $17,000 I could have in my account and live off of for almost a year.

I'm really trying to do the thing what happens after being on the road for a while where I think "If I blow $100 on dinner/drinks/lavish lifestyle tonight, I could live off of that in south america for a week". It really changes my decision making process.

I'm saving up also. I'm not going around the world though, I plan on travelling from middle europe to cape town overland through the east coast of africa, unless absolutely necessary to travel by plane or boat.

This trip is the best thing to motivate me to finish my thesis, and at the same time work for the money. I also spend as little as possible. I actually moved to the cheapest shithole I could find a couple of months ago. I've cutted down quite nicely on my costs, I only eat at the student places where the food is a couple of bucks, and try to buy as little food as possible home, and other stuff aswell. I manage to save about ½ of my pay each month I think.

I've had this obsession since the spring when I discovered the thought of long-term travel and read rolf potts book. This time of about a year has helped me focus and save a decent sum of money to make this happen, and I still have a couple of months left.

I don't belive in making travel the #1 priority in life just for the sake of it. I mean, to me its never been of any worth in itself, its more like I dream and do what I can to make it happen. I don't see the cutbacks I've made affect the other things in my life very much. So in that sense it's not an absolute priority, I've just changed on things that matter less.

I think this is one of those things that you do if it's what you need to do and what you wonder about if it isn't. Making travel a #1 priority doesn't have to be a lifelong thing, either, though. It's been my #1 priority for a few years now, and I'm glad. Without that complete focus, I never would have accomplished so much of what I would later regret if I hadn't. I've been around the world twice and have had countless adventures in countless places. Which is cool. But I've also been essentially single for years, have no "home" whatever that means to you, and probably don't look so hot on paper should I ever decide to try to join the real world again. Everything has a price in the world, and every choice a consequence.

How do I keep focus? Well, if you aren't entirely focused on it, then it probably isn't your #1 priority, and probably shouldn't be. It's not something I think about, it's just what I do. It's like asking why eating is a priority to you. But like I said, I don't think it's something that can't evolve like the rest of us does. I believe other priorities are creeping into my life as I get older, as arguably they should. So if travel is your #1 priority, then you're probably already living it. If not... I don't know what to tell you, I guess.

I love to travel because I love to explore, to challenge myself and encounter new ideas. Luckily for me I'm on the path to becoming an astronomer which is a field I do for the same reasons outlined above- travel the universe without leaving Earth! So short term I'm taking off time between my degrees to travel half a year in between (unfortunately a year off isn't an option, you forget too much), and hoping to do the PhD abroad in Europe. Beyond that I want to be a university lecturer down the line as it ensures 4 months a year free and sabbaticals and tenure- hard not to like.

Plus it turns out in my line of work you need to do quite a bit of travel as well, not counting conferences and the like- the two research labs I'm trying to get into now have experiments in South America and Antarctica respectively, the last two continents I have to go to! And why yes, I am pushing for Antarctica.