Thursday 9 April 2015

10 Skills That Travelling Will Help You Build - THG 2015


Travelling, trekking and backpacking has a lot more to do with you, than you could imagine. Getting out of your not so pleasant comfort zone, talking, learning and interacting helps an individual grow in numerous ways. It helps a persons inner and outer circle to broaden and lightens his or hers personality to be nurtured and moulded based on the experiences, people and situations they encounter. Hence, travelling should be considered the new training ground for people to learn things and build their skills in real time.


We are now going to run through (literally, run run.) a list of 10 reasons by The Happy Getaway, to showcase how travelling helps you grow and build your skills. So here we go, in no particular order.


  1. Mental & Physical Oneness


A trek, or any other journey, depending on the difficulty level, is usually a test of the mental and physical being. And a test of how they work in unison. The mental being to not give up, keep its cool, motivate itself and not let the weather, people, or path get to them. The physical being to push itself, fall down and get up again, to endure and guide itself and to sustain and dig in deep till the goal isn’t met. Travelling helps you connect the dots between your mental and physical being, helps you think and be at the same time. For example your mind may tell you you're thirsty, you should not go on. But the physical being understands that it needs to push on to be able to quench the thirst. This working of unison, and balancing of rationality and the real world is what helps trekkers do extremely hard paths and trips and grow mentally and physically.


2. Communication & Interactive Skills


You meet a lot of strangers, villagers, backpackers and others when you usually travel. This means, conversations, directions, life stories, or small talk (depending on what you’d prefer.) Travelling is the best way to help you open up, and take that shy person inside you out of the picture, as you interact, discuss and learn new things from new people. Understanding, listening and situationally seeing really helps your communication and interactive skills grow.




3. Time Management


May it be a small trip or a big one. Time is always of the essence. The halts you take, the time you start at, the time you leave, the time you spend eating, it all plays a massive role in your overall experience. No one likes delays, or missing a sunset. Yet at the same time they want to spend as much time clicking pictures, and moving around aimlessly. I think as an organiser or experienced trekker, you tend to understand the value of time more. You tend to understand why, time is important, how it affects the entire group and experience of the trip. Hence, the overall management of time tends to reflect from travelling to other walks of life.


4. Planning & Preparing


Planning the route, timeline, transport routes, food and rest spots and other things like what should i carry? will it be hot? will i need an extra pair of clothes? How much money should i carry? You mind begins to think and plan for the day ahead. You begin to think of the situations you’d be in, how you will handle them. If a particular path is too hard for the others, how you have option b and c. If someone gets unwell, how you will handle the situation. I believe modern day travelling, the better planned the more better the experienced. Don’t get me wrong, I love impromptu trips (I really, do.) but a wholesome experience from start to end, can only be felt when you put time and effort into preparing and building towards it. This helps your skills grow, in a strong way, through experiences unlike any other training model can ever teach you.


5. Team Work


There are always a few people, that are on their first trek or trip, or people that aren’t used to travelling, people who are very experienced, and people who need to keep stopping every 15 minutes to take a breather and water break. A team usually while travelling, or in any walk of life is filled with people from different fields, holding different levels of experiences and who are good at some things and not so good at others. Travelling helps you identify this, it helps you see people from different fields help each other in a time of crisis, the experienced helped the new ones, the less fit are motivated by the regulars and the team waits for it each other, doesn’t go too far ahead or too behind leaving anyone out. Teamwork and togetherness is very important in the modern day world, where everyone has become selfish and only think about themselves. And I don’t think there is any other place, where you could learn working together better.




6. Determination & Self Motivation


It is very easy to give up, halt permanently, and let the situation and how difficult it may seem get the better of you and what your final goal is. Motivating yourself, and being determined that no matter what comes my way, I will reach the base point, I will not let my physical or mental state of mind get the better of me is what a true traveller is made off. And I believe when all odds are down, when the trains are cancelled, path is blocked or extremely hard, when the people you're with need a beacon of hope and motivation. You are the only one that can push yourself, and be determined that you complete the journey.


7. Accommodativeness & Adaptability


Being accommodative. Yes. Not so nice loo’s (No loo’s at all sometimes.) No proper roads or modes of transport, make do food, tough paths, rude people, language barriers. Difficult difficult difficult? Well not really. Adjusting, accommodating and making the most of little things and enjoying the little things is what travelling is all about.  Because barriers can only be overcome when your will and ready to look at it not as a challenge but as an opportunity to do and learn. Hence travelling surely does help you learn to become more accommodative and adaptable in nature.


8. Quick & Prompt Thinking


It is important to be able to think quickly at times, and promptly. Especially when time is of essence and when your decision may impact a lot of other factors. It could impact the entire group travelling with you and the experience they and you have. This isn’t that you would learn through one trip or that would develop over night, I believe it has a lot to do with experiences and knowledge and how that grows with the more you travel and the more situations you encounter. And the same that reflects in real life and non travel scenarios and how you tend to relate and draw conclusions and outcomes similarly. Hence it helps you think more quicker and promptly.


9. Cool Headedness & Peace


Everything may go wrong on a particular day. The trains may be late, or not arriving. People might be late, slow, laid back and uncooperative. Transport might be difficult or overly expensive. The path might be blocked or rushed. You may lose your bag, your wallet might get stolen. Everything and anything to worry you, give you a headache and to make you want to scream may happen. Yet overtime you realise, that losing your cool won’t solve or help the situation you're in. Yet thinking and doing can. Hence, it helps you keep your cool. And not spend your energy (That you probably have very left in the end.) to use your efforts productively and to keep your mind and head and peace.


10. Flexibility


Like structures, plans, and agendas? Welcome, to nature. Where in the present day in rains, thunders, gets sunny and windy when and however it likes. Flexibility is an important trait in todays times as people get so use to schedules and plans they find it very hard to adjust or move things around .Travelling helps you realise, there are some thigns you have control over and some things you don't have control over. Some things you can pre plan for, and some things you need to accept and move forward with. It helps you keep your mind more open and helps you become more flexible and open minded in nature.


Here, is The Happy Getaway list. I hope you liked my Top 10 Skills, list. Do share with me what you think about it, your experiences and other points you think we should add to this list, either in the comment section. Or you can mail me at thehappygetaway@gmail.com.


Travel more, and learn more :)
So until next time, this is Al signing off.


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Thank You.


Alvin Anthony





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