Important Lessons You Can Only Learn From Travelling Solo

It’s been said, once you get past a certain age, and for me, that was fifty, life becomes a little same:same. I had been chugging away at my career for eons, entrenched in a predictable relationship, and booked the same annual holidays spots with the kids in the name of “easy”.

An inevitable boredom seeped in that I just accepted as “age-appropriate.”

Truth was, I had stopped growing. I had stopped learning about me…about life… about everything.

But it wasn’t until after a colossal, unpredictable breakup that something extraordinary happened. Not unlike Dorothy’s cyclone, my house, my life…my entire world was lifted up and dropped down hard. I was catapulted out of my comfortable, predictable life and jettisoned into a new, unexplored world.

I was suddenly single…again.

The very first thing I did, even before that first cardboard box was unpacked and flattened, was I booked a non-refundable trip to Italy. I didn’t think about it. I didn’t ask anyone. Before I could change my mind, there I was, alone, boarding a plane to Naples.

I tell you this because it was at this exact moment of blinding uncertainty there was only one thing I was certain of, I had spent my entire life living to appease others. So I dug down deep and seized the moment. My moment. I was terrified.

There are important lessons that I learned by travelling alone. Soul enhancing life experiences that are packaged in foreign places, seen on unfamiliar faces and found on unknown roads.

I have travelled alone now to numerous places, and I have met many interesting people who, like me, have discovered not only the immense joy of travelling solo but gained a greater understanding of who we are as humans. Like Alice In Wonderland, I became curious, and curiouser. In short, I started living a new, exciting life.

These Are The Lessons Travelling Alone Taught Me.

You are more capable than you realise.

With no one to rely upon but yourself, you become a decision-maker and problem solver. Only when I became 100 percent responsible for myself did I really understand what I was capable of.

Stepping outside your comfort zone is where the growth is.

It takes a whole other level of inner strength doing something that scares you. So hit that open road, get lost, struggle with a foreign language. And even if things all go to rat-shit, you will come back a more interesting person.

You are never alone. You have yourself.

You will soon discover what exceptional company you really are, and made a hell of a lot more interesting by travelling.

There are no strangers, only friends you haven’t yet met.

You will meet interesting, fascinating, thought-provoking new people who most likely you wouldn’t have met while travelling with someone else. So strike up a conversation. You never know where it might take you.

You learn to manage your thoughts.

Trust me, there are going to be some pretty intense, long conversations with yourself. But with no other voices ringing in your ear, this is where I found the answers to some of my biggest questions, even if the answer is, there is no answer.

Your trip, your schedule, your interests, your happiness.

You have the complete freedom to choose your path, explore your passions and expand your interests. Hike the Andes, if that’s what you’ve always wanted to do, or take cooking classes in Tuscany, or recharge on a sandy beach with nothing but the complete works of Jane Austen to get lost in. The itinerary is yours to create and inspire.

Don’t wait for life to be ready for you, be ready for life.

If you spend your life waiting for the right moment or the schedule of others, you might find yourself still waiting. If not now, when, the saying goes. Seize the moment. Tomorrow is not promised to any of us.

You gain a greater appreciation of the little things.

I don’t think I have ever seen a sunset so magnificent as I did after a long day of hiking in Cinque Terre. In that euphoric moment of silence, with just me and the sinking sun, life was perfect.

Travelling alone can be transformational, and I have often said, better than therapy.

As far as I know, we only get one kick at this life, so it would be a damn shame at the end of it you are left thinking…I should have…I could have…if only.

Dust off that passport, and happy travels my friend.