Most airlines will send you an email a week or two before your flight with the subject headline, “Prepare For Your Upcoming Trip”. The content is informative, explaining how to check in for your flight, what luggage weight restrictions to know, how to navigate through the terminal, or when you actually take flight. In my mind, these emails are wrongly titled. What can prepare you for travel?
Most of us rush out to buy new luggage. We sell our belongings for extra cash. The necessary call to the credit card company must be made. We attempt fitting all necessary liquids into a minuscule plastic bag. Those are all deemed “travel preparations”. Those little to-do lists are important, but they do not really prepare you for travel.
As I write this, I am buried in a mountain of work. Actually it is looking more like a mythological mountain with perhaps Cyclops on top, sneering at me each night until 2 and 3 AM saying, “No Suzy, there is always more to do”. I am so caught up in writing, that I forgot I leave in less than a month for my first three-month adventure.
I could be rushing out to do those travel preparations, but frankly I do not have the time just yet. Instead, I choose to emotionally prepare. Mental preparation for a big trip is often neglected. The airline doesn’t email you to tell you how to gear up emotionally for your trip. Lists don’t achieve the daunting task either. For those of you planning extended summer vacations or taking off soon on a round the world adventure or gearing up for a summer spent in your basement watching re-runs and chick-flicks, here are some steps towards mentally and emotionally gearing up for your trip across the world or just down to the neighborhood bar.
1. Stop Being a Hot Head and Practice Patience
I do not know how many times I have found myself in a trying travel situation. This could stem from my first plane ride abroad where my family and I spent an 8 hour delay to Paris sprawled across the floor of the Dulles Airport. Travel is no stranger to conflict, frustration and short fuses. The same goes for day-to-day life. Road rage may creep in on that car ride to work. The post office has a long aggravating line. While this can be challenging for a saucy redhead, if I can practice patience before I leave, I tend to keep my cool on the road. Part of travel preparation comes with getting into that patient mindset. My destination is always more appreciated in the end when I don’t exhaust myself on battles with rude people or crying over lost luggage.
A traffic jam you may need patience for. Well, perhaps not.
2. Chant The Take-Off Mantra, “I think I can. I think I can. I CAN!”
I am starting to sound like a corny motivational speaker, but sometimes I question what I am doing this summer. I know a few people in Florence, where I will be living, but it is not home. As travel hesitation creeps in, to prepare for my trip I am chanting this mantra in my head, “I can do it”. As trite as it may be, a little self-confidence can go a long way towards alleviating travel worry. Clearly if you have purchased the ticket, taken the leap and quit your job for the road, you are pretty much Superman or Superwoman. Nothing can stop you, not even the Lex Luthors you might meet on the road. Preparing for travel calls for a positive mindset about all that you might face.
Hmmm....I can travel
3. Write a List of Why You Are Traveling
I probably write several “To-Do” lists a day. Crossing off completed assignments and articles feels incredibly gratifying. Sometimes I wonder though why I am doing this. Sit on down with that pen and paper and remind yourself why you are traveling. This can be goals you want to achieve, changes you want to see in yourself, or simply what you want to discover. There are no rules to this list and the reasons and tasks don’t need to be accomplished by Friday at 5PM. Seeing those reasons on paper tends to set my travel priorities straight.
Mixing My Travel Priorities
4. For Better or Worse, Get Excited
It sounds simple enough, but with my busy pre-flight schedule, I forgot to get excited. I am going to try and squeeze in a few Italian movie nights here and there to get those excitement wheels turning. Wherever you may be headed, read up on your destination or watch movies that pertain to your travels. That excitement will hopefully carry on to the plane ride, making your trip a more enjoyable one with lasting impressions. Sure, things will not always be grand, but if you are excited about the good, the bad, the ugly, and the in-between, travel will sneak up on you, surprising you at what challenges you can overcome with excitement.
Go ahead, get excited. Laugh. Be merry for you soon will be traveling
Nothing can truly prepare you for travel in the fullest sense. There will always be those “I wish I would have…” comments, but that goes with most things in life. Until time machines hit the market, test out these mental travel preparations tips in the mean time.
What do you do to prepare emotionally or mentally for travel? I would love to hear your tips so I can be ready for my June 8th departure.
I love this Suzy! My trip is still a few months out and I’ve been struggling a lot with how to prepare for it- both practically and emotionally. This is very encouraging.
Finding out about great things we can experience in the destination place. That really makes me looking forward to being in the new place.
If the language or alphabet is different, learning that even just a little bit is fun, giving us confidence, and looking forward to try that out in the new place.
Where are you going in June? I’m excited for you!
Mental prep is so important – nice article! Especially the point about creating excitement. In the past, I used to wait for excitement to come to me and I started to get disillusioned with travel when it wasn’t forthcoming. Take some time to read about your destination, not just guidebooks but poetry, fiction, history, biographies, and maps. Try to acquire a sense of the depth of human experience in the place you’re going. Travel is like a pool – you can go as deep or shallow as you like.
I am not sure how to prepare for my trip, maybe I won’t have time to as I only finish work a few days before I go. For me maybe thats a good thing.
Remind me to check out this post again before I leave!
Oh my gosh… this was so me about two months ago. Reading your thoughts brought back all of my pre-trip jitters and memories. I’ve only been gone six weeks, but it feels like a lifetime ago.
My advice, based upon what I’ve learned thus far in my travels, is to be open to anything that comes your way! Talk to everyone you meet. Challenge yourself to do things a little differently. It is such an amazing growth experience. I will go home a different person… better. Oh, and I was so nervous about my own traveling that I forgot to get excited until my first day away from home. Then, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Definitely recommend the mental prep and getting excited in advance!
I wish you the best of luck and have fun! I’m in Italy too… Rome… it is magical.
This is important, important subject matter. Leaving for an extended time does require a lot, lot, lot of work and maybe not enough time to emotionally prepare. You are right in that preparing yourself for not being home as well as being in a foreign land is something we should realize we have to do and leave time to prepare for.
Is that your handwriting on the list? Very pretty. You always have such great photos to go with your posts.
I love reading novels set in the places I’m visiting and watching films. I also spend a lot of time reading guidebooks, not so much to plan an itinerary down to the last detail, more to get a good feel for where I’m going. We are trying to prepare our children for our round the world trip by talking with them about what they’ll see, eating food from the countries we’re going to, reading traditional stories from countries we’re visiting.
I love preparing for travel, it’s part of the whole process and has given me something to dream about for the last two years!
I LOVE this post!!!!!! This is really going to help a lot of people. I honestly can’t think of any more advice to add your awesome list. I know that I tend to be so ridiculously busy the days leading up to my trip that I am super stressed and I don’t really have the time or the energy to be excited. So lately, I’ve really tried to not allow myself to be busy on the days leading up to my trip anymore. That’s helped A LOT. Because if I’m not stressed going into the trip I don’t tend to get stressed over the things that undoubtedly will go wrong on the trip. Your idea of listening to music, reading books, or watching movies that will motivate you is brilliant!
I’m mentally and emotionally preparing all over the place…it’s rough! I much prefer the easier stuff like packing O:-) Glad to see several of us are all posting about this right now.
Well timed article. I’m trying to leave again after a short break at home. The flight juggle alone is frustrating me. Thanks for the gentle reminder that it’s the name of the game 🙂
5. Hope Everything Doesn’t Go As Planned
Some of my favorite travel moments were the result of a wrong turn, a random conversation, a moment of curiosity that led me somewhere I didn’t expect. I write an itinerary for every trip, and it’s rarely followed. Either I packed in too much, too little, or we discovered something else. Planning is a burden. At some point you’ve gotta let it go (I should listen to my own advice).
I think preparing for your trip mentally is the most important thing of all. Backpacks, route plans and transports can wait. If you’re not mentally ready, your trip will be like a fragile house about to break down any minute..!
Great points there, especially the Why you travel list.
Nice post Suzy. The doubt and hesitation is the worst but once you are on that plane you are going to be super excited. I agree with Keith that you need to create excitement. I used to wait for it to come and often it wouldn’t until I arrived. Reading about an unknown aspect of where your going is key.
I’m less than two weeks out before I head to SEA and I still have a ton of packing to do. I try to write down everything I still need to do as it comes to me. The list doesn’t seem to be getting any shorter as I always find more things to add.
Oh well, I’ll be on a beach soon.
Great post! I usually read guidebooks and stuff on the Net and try to earn a few phrases in the local language.
Nice list. I’ll add a voice to @Ana about learning local language. There is something nicely mental about practicing a few select phrases. “Your goat is eating my grapes.” “Yes, I would like another beer.”
Totally into the goal writing, that is a personal must before I make any trip.
Great list Suzy. I’m gearing up for 5 weeks in China and then onto Japan for 2 or 3. Knowing how crowded both can be, I’m practicing patience right now! That will come in handy in the Chinese heat and crowds.