What You Don’t Need To Travel (The Difference Between Necessity and Want)

You don’t need a brand new North Face jacket to travel to the snow-capped mountains of Tibet.

You don’t need an ultra-lightweight, Osprey backpack to travel around the world for six months.

You don’t need to invest in a nice camera before you go.

And you certainly don’t need to buy a brand new sleeping bag, tent, hiking boots, trail runners, Teva’s, Chaco’s, or a ten pound Lonely Planet guide to discover the brilliance of the world.

Don’t get it twisted.

What you want and what you need are different.

The luxury so embedded in living a complacent and comfortable westernized lifestyle in a developed country is easy to afford with the right work ethic and consistent saving habits. But, traveling and seeing the world require a different type of attitude and behavior than the 9 to 5 desk jockey is used to.

Good(s) To Go?

You don’t need all your western variety and exterior comfort if you want to go.

The desire to obtain nice things before departing on your adventure sits on a deep level of psychological unrest. Convincing yourself that you’ll need to buy a top-end backpack before you head out to travel Europe is a joke. Craving high-end goods from companies you trust, with solid reputations, is a scapegoat for the psychological insecurities that come with the uncertainty of risk-taking and changing the way, the patterns, you live your life by.

Nothing relieves the unknown embedded in adventure.

Learn to embrace this.

Wanting new things isn’t going to replace your need for new experiences.

If you feel the need to take a risk, to mix it up, to change the norm, the first step is forgetting about the social comforts you have become so familiar with. Kick the daily Starbuck’s lattes, drop Cosmo’s how-to-sex-your-man guide, and forget about self-checkouts and American football. Get used to waiting in line with everyone else and missing the game.

Stop letting what you want stop you from going.

If you are serious about traveling and seeing the world, make traveling a dire necessity. In this case, necessity is prior to priority.

One More Thing Before You Go

Capitalism is confusing you.

Online marketers are trying to convince you.

And a lot of your so-called trustworthy travel bloggers are trying to capitalize off your dreams to see the world. They are all trying to take advantage of your psychological insecurities and the initial fears that come with risk-taking and big-time decision making. Their game is simple. To ease the stressful load off your mind, they’ll lighten your wallet. They’ll sell you anything in order to convince you that your travels will be easier with this product and that one. Their solutions lead to buying ridiculous purchases like glow-in-the-dark ponchos, special quick-drying underwear you can wear for days at a time and wash in the sink, compact travel towels that will absorb mass amounts of liquid for their size, and uncomfortable, mosquito repellent long-sleeve shirts you’ll never actually wear out in public. For the right price they’ll sell you anything that earns them a commission and temporarily relieves the stress you’ll encounter by making life altering decisions. By the time you reach your destination, you’ll realize you’ve been conned and you’ll hate wearing that long-sleeved shirt.

Get it right.

You don’t need read their blog to see what’s really out there.

You don’t need their advice to figure out how to see the world.

All You Really Need

All you need to travel is within you.

Dreams and dash of imagination come free of charge.

Realizing them takes courage.

Getting through that dark cavern in a Cambodian cave is going to take guts and a whole lot of willpower to make it through when you can’t see what’s ahead of you.

Braving the world isn’t just a financial decision, it takes faith, optimism, a pinch of hope. In a word, heart.

Deciding on which backpack to buy isn’t crucial. If your cheap camera gets stolen, lost, or broken you won’t care as much. You’ll be less attached when the world doesn’t meet your expectations of it. You’ll be less disappointed if the people you encounter don’t meet your wonderful expectations of them. Don’t be satisfied with reading this, start. The world is going to look a whole lot more realistic once you get going.

The ultimate decision is choosing how you live your life now, not how you are going to live your life later.

Don’t let your most precious gift go to waste by wanting away your inner necessity. The less expensive your belongings, the more comfortable you’ll be with letting them go or giving them to someone less privileged. Practice non-attachment or in the very least, give giving a chance.

Lightening our loads along the way leads to more mobility and ultimately more freedom to do what we want to do.

You don’t need to buy anything before you hit the road. You can travel now, right now!

All you have to decide is if you are ready.

The rest can and will be found along the way.

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Image: Thank you, setepenra0069.

The photo has not been edited/modified.