The plane arrives in a location I’ve never been before. I exhale after holding my breath for a second, attempting to lower my pulse rate as I mentally prepare for what’s to come – something I’ve read about but can’t foresee.
Fear is what runs through my mind. A little voice emerges and instructs me to put on my armor. I’ll walk there, head held high and back straight. I’m going to list everything I’ve read that has taught me how to avoid frauds. It’s time to put on my game face, even if I’m only a video game character attempting to reach level one.
To be honest, I’m always a little nervous when I visit a new area.
This is very normal.
It’s a healthy apprehension. That piques my interest. How insignificant would it be if I knew exactly what was going to happen? It appears to be a tedious journey! Half of the fun of exploring is not knowing what’s going to happen next, which is always a bit nerve-racking.
Certainly, I’m fighting white-winged butterflies of terror in my stomach when I board that plane or buy that ticket, but I’m also buzzing with enthusiasm. I live for this sensation. I truly believe it.
I don’t think I’d go if I could be certain of everything, if I knew exactly what would happen when I landed. What would be left to investigate? What joy would I derive if I never got lost or had the opportunity to applaud myself and say, “It wasn’t easy, but I sailed very well,” or, less successfully, but no less important: “I damaged everything, but at least now I know how I’m going to do things differently.”
That’s all there is to traveling. That’s truly all there is to life.
Traveling is today simpler than it has ever been
In an interview, Mark Manson (you know how much I enjoy Mark’s thoughts) stated that being on the verge of anything is always terrible. He was alluding to entrepreneurship, but I’m actually applying it to exploration. Being on the verge of something that neither you nor anybody close to you is aware of is terrifying. It’s only!
Yet, be assured, touring the world now is a lot simpler than it was hundreds of years ago, or even 20 years ago, before WiFi and cellphones were ubiquitous.
I picture how it may have been for early explorers or cartographers who set forth with no notion what they would find. I honestly have no idea because they were the first.
Several of them went years without seeing or communicating with their family, and everything they encountered was new, alien, and perplexing. They had to be skilled fitters who could think on their feet at all times. And here we are, with our GPS and iPhones, terrified of the “unknown.”
When you think at it that way, you might as well go out and purposefully be lost, right? All it takes is 5 minutes to resolve the crisis with Google Maps.
You may never feel completely prepared.
So you’re nearly ready to embark on a journey. You could be traveling alone, which makes it extremely terrifying for you. You’ve scheduled everything down to the final bowl of noodles you’ll eat before boarding your flight home at the conclusion of your trip to combat this. But what if that doesn’t totally eliminate your anxiety?
Just remember that the day when you feel completely prepared, with all of your ducks in a row and everyone completely supportive and on your side may never occur, or is extremely unlikely to arrive.
It will be terrified until the plane touches down, or perhaps even after, and perhaps even throughout your experience, since that is life. In reality, it is a sign of a well-lived life. At least, I believe Eleanor Roosevelt meant it when she said, “do one thing every day that scares you.”
I’ll leave you with a question: do you believe you can pull it off?
I don’t care (at all, not even a speck, not even an iota!) what other people believe about what you can or should desire. What I’m saying is, do you believe YOU can accomplish it? Don’t you believe you have the ability to do whatever you want?
If you answered yes, then book that airline ticket and embark on an adventure.
Because being terrified is what makes it thrilling.
