Motivation is like a battery that has to be charged; it is not an endless source. All too frequently, life interferes with our intentions and deviates from our course. If we don’t pay attention, that battery runs down and we lose focus on our journey objectives. Suddenly, years have passed and you are still far from achieving your ideal trip destinations.
Anything is achievable for those who are motivated. But how can one maintain motivation, particularly for travel, when they are busy working and living their lives, while family and friends criticize their ideas, when they are overburdened with preparing their journey, or when they are perhaps already burnt out from being on the road?
When you plan your vacations, you don’t consider the long tedious bus rides, the delays, the irksome airports, putting up with snorers in hostel rooms, avoiding tours and con artists, and all the other things that will drain the life and joy out of your experience.
You eventually need to take a break and refuel to get motivation. To unwind, stream Netflix in one location.
It’s crucial to identify strategies for maintaining motivation, whether you’re preparing for a journey or are already on the road. Today, I’d like to provide seven suggestions on how to stay inspired to travel, whether you’re preparing for your trip or experiencing some travel fatigue:
1. Be responsible for your actions
Being held accountable is the best way to keep your attention. Having someone hold you accountable will ensure that you don’t slack off. They will aid in maintaining your concentration on your objective, and the added social pressure to do so will help you stay motivated to complete it.
Even when you don’t feel like it, being held responsible will make you stay focused, whether it’s by wagering money, having someone check in on you, keeping track of objectives, or having someone assist you plan.
Use Stickk, an anticharity that, if you don’t follow through, will contribute money to your least favorite cause.
Accountability encourages action and might motivate you to finish what you start when you might otherwise procrastinate due to lack of motivation.
Here are some other apps that might help you hold yourself accountable:
- Coach.me – Personal coaching to help you stay on track and build better habits.
- GoalsOnTrack – Goal-setting and personal-productivity app that guides you through the process of setting (and reaching) goals.
2. Invest time
Don’t things constantly seem to come up? Yes, I had planned to travel to Iceland in May, but suddenly May had arrived and I had other commitments.
Or perhaps you decide that today will be the day that you organize your vacation, but you later forget that you still have laundry to do. My remedy? Choose a day and time when you are often free (for example, when you are not on Facebook), and use that time to organize your vacation.
Make it a regular part of your routine and become a habit so that it ceases to feel like a chore you “have” to complete and instead becomes something you do without thinking about it.
Set aside 30 minutes every day to concentrate on traveling. Make it a regular part of your day. You can use this time to read books and blogs or conduct research. As you prepare for your next journey, this will keep you motivated and intrigued. Put it in your calendar so you won’t ever let the day pass you by. Your calendar has it. It cannot be skipped.
3. Check out travel blogs
Reading about other people’s travel experiences may open your eyes to how simple it really is to travel, give you advise on how to travel well, and introduce you to new areas. You’ll eventually tire of seeing other people’s travels through their eyes and set out to write your own travelogues. They’ll demonstrate to you that traveling is, in fact, feasible from a practical and budgetary standpoint.
for example: Adexvibes
4. Study travel guides
Travel books are superior than reading travel blogs because they go deeper into a location and provide a more comprehensive look than a single blog post ever could.
Additionally, in order to have a deeper knowledge of the location you are visiting, make sure to read literature about it. If you don’t comprehend the past of the place, you can’t comprehend the present.
Here are some travel books to help you get motivated:
- Tracks, by Robyn Davidson
- The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca, by Tahir Shah
- A Year of Living Danishly, by Helen Russell
- In A Sunburned Country, by Bill Bryson
- Looking for Transwonderland, by Noo Saro-Wiwa
5. Pick up a language
Enroll in a course to learn a language you could encounter while traveling. Once you’ve begun studying the language, you won’t want to throw away your newfound knowledge. And you can only use it if you go to the place where people speak it! Here are some tools and programs that aid your learning:
6. Have a rest
If you’ve been traveling for some time, you’ve undoubtedly grown a little weary. Traveling often might cause burnout since it’s not always rainbows and unicorns. Your motivation will be diminished by it, and you can even start to miss home.
It happened to me once (I was burned out on my first trip and returned home early), and as soon as I stepped foot inside my house, I gave myself a face-smack and said, “What was I thinking?”
I discovered after my mistake that taking a break is a lot more effective method to regain your mojo. Stay there for as long as necessary rather than moving on to your next location.
7. Interact with other tourists
Occasionally, it might be challenging to maintain motivation if others close to you don’t share your desire to travel. If you’re having trouble, consider these ideas:
- Connect with others on social media
- Use the “Hangouts” app and local events on Couchsurfing to meetup with locals and travelers near you
- Find like-minded travelers on Meetup.com
- Travel with others on group trips
Additionally, ignore the doubters who argue that long-term travel is not feasible since you will see from all of these supporters that it is.
The environment is better when it is supportive! And all the doubters in the world will be drowned out by a group of travelers saying you that you aren’t insane and that it is feasible.