There are some days, beautiful days, where you can feel the momentum pulling you towards your travel D-Day. You cash in a whole grand into your travel account or you find that must-have item you've been looking for - and its a whopping 60% off! These are days where you can practically taste the Tapas in Spain.
And then there are other days.
These are the days that plain old suck.
True, you may already have your fingers at the ready to unleash a mountain of nerd rage compelling me to ignore the 'haters', but even the most self assured of us can get the blues when surrounded by a surge of overwhelming negativity. I call it pre-travel blues - when the travel of your dreams seems just that - a far off dream, never quite within reach.
I don't know about you, but when I'm feeling pre-travel blue, I like to go back to the drawing board and follow these tried and true methods of getting back in the game. (Wow three cliches in a row....is this where I call bingo?)
Study Up:
I may be an untapped resource for the most useless knowledge in the known world, however as handy as it is to know how to say "the girls chase the boy" in French, I have a distinct lack of expertise in the vital linguistic skills that could one day help me track down a hostel at 2 in the morning, or pick up a bus ticket in Phuket. While Cyrillic still looks akin to Elvish to me, I've managed to pick up some basic phrases in a couple of common languages. Such as the French, "Parlez plus lentement, s'il vous plait", which is, "Please speak slower." Probably useful.
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| Tell me this doesn't look like it's from Middle Earth |
Watch travel movies/shows:
This one may not be for everyone, but one of my favourite things when I'm pre-travel blue is immersing myself in travel related media, whether it be a good TV show, movie or even YouTube. There is a great you-tuber Peter with his episodic adventures, In-Transit. Currently, it's following Peter paddling down the Mississippi River in a canoe with his two brothers and cameraman (edit: this Mississippi epic has unfortunately come to its end upon entering the Gulf of Mexico). Now I've been on some epic camp/canoe trips, and I definitely want to slow-travel the USA, but I've never thought to combine the two, and honestly, it's not something I would commit to for three whole months. However I love watching this show, there's a raw quality to the footage that makes you feel like you're sitting in the canoe beside them. It goes a long way to take the edge of your travel jonesing.
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| Check Peter out at his Youtube channel |
Read other Blogs:
Okay this one may seem an obvious extension of 'Watching Travel Media', however this is my absolute favourite when I'm feeling down. Fellow bloggers such as: Unbrave Girl's Sally, Disrupting the Rabblement's Niall or The Everywhereist's Geraldine are masters of prose of life on the road, three unique perspectives that give me a glimpse into both their travels and ever-changing views on life, the universe and everything.
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| Obviously |
Equalise the negativity with positivity:
And then after all that, when I'm feeling like I'm getting absolutely nowhere I like to bring up our big Budget graph that shows how much we have saved already. Sounds like a bit of a pride thing - and it is! The blues at its core is a crisis of confidence - so sometimes a little reflection on how far you've come already can be the best medicine. Another side of this is pulling out your backpack, adjusting the straps, and through that tactile response marveling at the fact that this is happening, it's real, and it's not as far off as it seems.
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| Travel in this image may be closer than it seems |
Dive back in, and Don't forget to have fun:
This is the most important, and yet most overlooked, step to getting over the deep doldrums. Go back to work, keep making payments, keep planning your big trip. Even when the motivation seems gone, don't give up. Don't lose momentum. Because while today sucks, and tomorrow probably will as well, next week is shiny and new and holds the potential to be awesome and the air full of the aroma of Spanish Tapas.
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| photo by: the-travelling-bum |
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As always – Don’t Forget To Be Awesome!
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