Become a Global Citizen: 8 Ways Travel Benefits Your Future

It’s often so much easier to stay home, wrap yourself in your warm bed sheets, and forget about those shady dreams of travelling to far-off lands. We get it. We’re all creatures of comfort, and inviting change into our lives is not something many of us pursue willingly. However, the world is massive and in some cases it’s worth taking the time to think about what you could be missing out on. If we remain stationary in life, we fail to fully explore the extent of our own capabilities, by not grabbing at those opportunities to see the world, meeting new people and learning about different cultures that really can enrich our lives. 

Travelling is a great way to expand our minds. It help us develop an understanding of the world around us and how we fit in with it. There are heaps of ways that travel can benefit you and your future. What are you waiting for? Check out just a few of them here. Your adventure begins now.

1. It improves your decision-making skills

Which city? Which town? Which hotel? Which flight?

When we decide to travel we easily go into research and decision-making mode. We take care to check out the details and reviews of that hostel or tour trip before we take the plunge. We easily learn to start making decisions, based on facts and our gut instincts and it’s pretty empowering! Many people don’t realize that making a decision is like exercising a muscle: the more you do, the easier it’ll become.

Travel forces you to develop this skill pretty quickly, and it’s a great one to have ready for other areas of life, too.

2. It broadens your horizons

Once you’ve managed to travel to a new city, it’s no big leap to wanting to do it again. Once that can of worms is open, there’s often no stopping us! When we travel, we start to build a better picture and understanding of who we are as a person. There are places we go that we love just like there are places we don’t. This picture helps us to start building more ideas and plans for our lives. 

Perhaps we never thought we could study abroad, or live in a country where we don’t speak the language – travel opens you up to these possibilities and really broadens your horizons for yourself and your future.

3. Your communication skills improve

Sure, language is a large part of communication and in most cases it’s important to speak like a local, but communication isn’t always verbal. When we travel, especially to countries where we don’t speak the language, the full capacity of our communication skills really gets tested! We find we have to engage in more active listening, pay more attention to non-verbal cues, learn more about expressions and hand gestures, body language, and colloquial ways of communicating that we never even knew about!

It inspires new ways to communicate, in our own and new languages, and this is a great skill to hone in on and develop for your future.

4. It helps to build your negotiation capability

This leads on nicely from developing communication skills! From haggling with the locals at flea markets, navigating a taxi, to ordering the meal you want, travelling will definitely crack you out of any timidness you have around negotiating!

Negotiation is one of the highest rated desirable skills that employers say they look for in new recruits! Where better to develop this skill than while travelling. Just think of all the interesting answers you’ll have to interview questions around this one!

5. You’ll become more open-minded

Different cultures and communities have different ways of doing things – sometimes very different ways of doing things! By pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and surrounding yourself with new people, new cultures, and ways of living, you’ll really open up your mind to new things. Not all of them will suit you, but it will definitely help you be more accepting!

6. You’re happy to explore new ways of doing things

Being in a new place, surrounded by new people, all of whom are encouraging you to try new things and challenge yourself in different ways can be uncomfortable at first. It often makes us feel like we’ve gotten it wrong somewhere down the line and now we’re being shown a new way and it can makes us feel a bit awkward. The good thing about travelling is that this happens a lot. And because of that, we have to quickly learn to get over and get on with it!

Travelling teaches us that new ideas are good! That we should listen to them, learn from them, and be open to taking on new ideas in our everyday life. It’s a great skill to have for your future.

7. Your organization and prioritization skills will improve

Ever tried to pack for a month-long trip on a budget? A 7kg carry-on is nothing when you’re trying to prepare for what you might need in the month ahead! Travelling helps you to really develop your organization skills – from booking flights and travel, to checking timetables, and sometimes grabbing the last spot at the hostel – your time management will definitely be challenged! It’s a pretty overwhelming hurdle, but once you get on the ball, you’ll be unstoppable! You’ll also learn to start prioritizing what works best for you while you’re travelling, whether it’s sacrificing that last-minute tour for a better flight time or narrowing down what luxuries to pack along with you.

Both of these are great skills to develop for your future success in every day life!

8. It helps you embrace independence

For many of us, being alone is one of the scariest things to experience. The idea of travelling alone can be incredibly daunting, but as Susan Jeffers says, “You’ve got to feel the fear and do it anyway!”

Travelling alone is one of the surest ways to really show yourself exactly what you’re capable of achieving on your own. Building your independence will give you the confidence to take on more challenges as time goes by and that’s a pretty great skill to have for the future!

Are you a world-traveller who can support this message? What are some of the ways travel has benefited you?