Life Lessons Learned From 8 Years Of Constant Travel

Life Lessons?

First let’s get our minds in the right place. Watch this entire video.

Watching videos such as this one, and engraving the words into our minds is sure to bring further success and greater happiness in your life. If you love the video like I do, then listen to it a few times per month to bring your mind to a good place.

Life Lessons and Advice is much easier to give than to follow …

For one, some of us believe we can work it all out on our own and despise it when people give advice; especially when advice wasn`t requested.

This can easily be a detrimental belief and attitude. We should fill our heads with advice and life lessons to avoid the mistakes that others have made and to appreciate the same things proven to bring others happiness.

Check out the tips and tricks below – learned from 8 years of constant travel :)

Life Lessons explained …

It is true that most people want the same things, and there are several ways they get those things depending on factors such as: location, financial status, and access to education.

“Vastly different as the world’s cultures are, if you speak to Italian millionaires, homeless Brazilians, Dutch fishermen and Filipino computer programmers, in their own languages, you start to see that we are all incredibly alike where it matters.

Everyone just wants validation, love, security, enjoyment and hopes for a better future. The way they verbalize this and work towards it is where things branch off, but we all have the same basic desires. You can relate to everyone in the world if you look past the superficial things that separate you.”

Benny Lewis – Traveler

Benny loves to travel especially places where he is not familiar with the language. He blogs on his adventures on “Fluent In 3 Months” and the life lessons he has learned along the way. Benny said he learned 29 life lessons over 8 years, here is my take on some of the simple pieces of advice he gave.

Don’t defer your happiness to a later date.

Start today, define the steps to achieving happiness and make sure you are always working to take those steps. Define as many things that will make you happy as you can think of.

Because of the way we are wired when we get what we thought will make us happy we almost always want something more nearly immediately. Keep moving, slowly and surely, towards things that will make you happy.

Stop waiting for your ship to come in.

No seriously, it’s highly unlikely that we will win the lottery so making plan B is great idea. If you have time – create plan C, D, E…

Be careful when you start to think about what you “deserve”. For the most part people get exactly what they deserve even when it doesn’t seem like it at all. The Universe owes us nothing. So we should start doing something with our time besides waiting for something fortunate to happen. Start building your own ship so you can take it anywhere you want.

Unlearn your desire to believe in destiny.

Control your own fate. If you are a failure or unsuccessful, believing that’s just what you were born to be is the worst thing you can believe. Stick with the belief that through the right actions and reactions we can create our fate.

Open your mind to different opinions, and perspectives.

Look for people with an opposing view point wherever you can. If you are against something that is happening, then go to where it is happening and talk to the people who support it.

This can teach you ways to better influence people to believe your side of the coin. Being humble and admitting that we could be wrong, will help us find interesting conversation and fun debate.

Nobody has it all figured out and they never will.

Life would be pretty boring if we knew everything or had everything figured out. If we did know everything, that would be a huge boulder on our shoulders.

Think about it, what would there be to talk about or learn? How would we surprise one another? What would make people interesting and stand out?

Don’t assume that others have it easy. If you look into it, everyone’s life is a struggle. It may be hard to see that because people get really good at hiding their struggles. They want to have it all figured out, to be over it, to be strong. We will always need people to help us figure things out.

Don’t be afraid of not knowing something.



“The first step to knowledge is acknowledging that we are ignorant” – Socrates

Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”. Although it may make us look unintelligent it really means we are ready to learn.

More money will not solve your problems.

Often people believe that a certain amount of money could make them happy and relieve a lot of stress in their lives. The truth is having money comes with a whole new set of problems in itself.



Possessions can own you.

Sometimes people buy things to impress other people. In fact I’d say that is true with many purchases like clothing, homes, and cars. Usually some weight in the decision is based on what others will think.

In this way we simply buy things because we think they give us something more than their purpose. The fewer things you actually own the easier it will be on you.

When we get to that point we purchase things that are for ourselves, and not for influencing the opinions of others. We can then genuinely enjoy and appreciate what we were able to purchase.



Speaking only English is limiting.

Try to pick up the local language when you travel and stay in foreign places for substantial periods of time. It is certainly necessary to learn the local language if you are to experience the true culture of the area.

Luckily there are well educated people almost everywhere that will know the local language as well as English. Latching onto someone like that can help you learn the language quicker and allow you to better understand the culture.

Foreign culture rarely follows common stereotypes.

Nearly every country is developing and with that development come new culture and an even stronger embrace on tradition and what makes each culture unique.

For example if you go to Ireland you may be surprised that many Irish people do not drink. If you travel respect the diversity and understand that just because something doesn’t make sense to you doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with it.

Relax, slowly pace yourself.

Doing things faster usually means we do things with less effort, and thus the product of our work is not as good as it would be had we taken our time.

Many cultures around the world are very laid back. Patiently and attentively listen. Don’t interrupt, what you have to say can wait. Walk slowly and take in everything around you.

Don’t try to please everyone.

It’s just not possible for everyone to like you. No matter what we do there is always a chance someone could be displeased with it.

Once we believe this and understand that perhaps we do not want everyone to like us, our self-esteem takes a giant leap upwards.

Learn from mistakes.

Whether you make a mistake or someone you know or have heard of does there is a lesson for all of us to learn. Make lots of mistakes and take with you the greatest lessons learned.

Stop thinking about it and do something.

Thinking about something has never got it done. It is the first and vital step to getting things done but the real reward comes from action.

Dance, sing, make new friends, and cherish old friends.

All four of those things can make us feel great. Dancing and singing can cause our endorphins to start flowing and an audience can take us on a natural high. Making new friends is always adventurous and fun just the same as getting together with old friends that you cherish.

We all need a little love.

Perhaps you fear the word. Sometimes life can hurt and inappropriate relationships can make us feel trapped and unappreciated.

Remember the alternative to not having love is being alone. And of course when that is true you are usually looking for someone to love. We don’t need love to survive but without a little bit of it our lives are very empty and lonely.

Well guys, what do you think? Any other life lessons you care to share? Please do so in the comments below.

Also let me know if you like posts like this? Or if you hate them.