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Hi, and welcome to today's episode of the Travel Transformation Podcast. I'm Jessica Grace Coleman, your host, and today I'm going to be going through a blog post I wrote a few months ago called Ten Ways Solo Travel Has Changed My Life.

If you want to look at my blog, you can find it at traveltransformationcoach.com/blog, but for now, I'm just going to go through the ten points and embellish them a little bit. This will just be a quick episode; I want to do some quick ones mixed in with the long rambling ones. So, yeah, let's get to it.

Okay, so the number one way that solo travel has changed my life is that I am so much more capable than I think I am. I'm capable of travelling on my own, of organising all the logistics of travel, of solving problems on the road, of making new friends and trying new things. And here's the thing: you are too. You are far more capable than you think. And it isn't often until we start doing things and trying new things and putting ourselves out there and stepping outside our comfort zones that we actually realise just how capable of everything we are, really.

I've always loved planning and booking trips and organising things. I've always been that one who has come up with an itinerary for a weekend away or a two-week road trip, whatever it might be. And I'm going to go into some of those itineraries in different episodes because I found one recently for our Halloween road trip that we did around New England a few years ago – and that was my best trip ever. Really, my best road trip I've ever been on. So I want to share that with other people to let them know what we did and how fun it was. So I've always been totally fine and happy to book and plan and organise trips. I really enjoy that part of it. I think it sort of adds to the anticipation and you can get really excited about it before you go, but when you add in solo travel to it, it's a whole other ballgame.

I can still organise and book the trips fine – I can do all that on my computer from wherever I am – but when you actually have to go on your own and turn up to places alone, especially when you're turning up to a coliving house with 15 or 16 other people and you know no one, it can be a little daunting, but I did it. I went out there, I did it. I made friends. I did so many things I didn't think I'd be capable of.

I talked about some of that in my intro episode, in particular, the public speaking fear that I have. And, yeah, it just shows you just how capable you are. And once you've done that, in the future, you'll be more likely to try new things, put yourself out there, and step outside your comfort zone, because you know that you can handle pretty much anything – and that is a good thing to know about yourself… not just for travel, but for life in general.

Okay, number two is: I am way more confident than I used to be or than I tell myself I am, or than I give myself credit for. This has always been a limiting belief for me: that I'm not confident enough to do things, I'm not confident to do public speaking, that I'm not confident to put myself out there, that I'm not confident to go travelling on my own. And the fact that I did it shows me that, actually, I am confident enough to do those things. And, knowing that going forward into the future, that just means that I'm more likely to try new things, because I know that the stories I've been telling myself about how confident I'm not are… all a load of crap, basically.

So that was number two. In a similar vein, number three is: I can do things I've been telling myself my whole life I can't do, such as the public speaking thing, leading workshops, and reading my own writing in front of other people. It's been a huge, limiting belief for me, and I've never tried to overcome it before because I was just so terrified, basically. But if I can do this, then I can do other things that I've been telling myself I can't do as well. You just have to go for it. Feel the fear, do it anyway, and yeah, just get it done.

Number four is: travelling and living with digital nomads really opens your eyes to all the different ways there are of working remotely, not to mention all the different lifestyles we can pursue. And they're probably far easier to achieve than you think. Some people think that they can't go travelling because they can't get time off work. They don't have the money. They can't afford to just quit their job and go travelling for six months or however long they want to do it for. And, actually, there's lots of different ways you can go about it these days, especially since the pandemic.

I met so many people on the road who work for companies and have talked to their boss and have asked, “Hey, is it okay if I go away for a few weeks or a few months? I'll still work during the time zone. I'll still get all my work done, I just won't be in the country.” And their bosses have said, “Well, okay!” Because so many people work remotely anyway, since the pandemic and all the lockdowns, it's really not much difference as long as you get your work done. So you never know what your boss might say.

Also, you could start a side hustle, start your own business… I know it's not that easy, believe me, but my whole digital nomad academy goes into all of this, which you can find at traveltransformationcoach.com/academy. But even I didn't realise just how many ways there are of making money on the road, and meeting all these people has really changed my perspective on how anyone can really do this, even if it's only for a week or two or a few months a year. It doesn't have to be all or nothing when it comes to working remotely and travelling.

Number five is: I am way too hard on myself personally and professionally, and I'm learning slowly to break that habit. I'm sure a lot of people can relate to being hard on yourself. Certain personality types in particular, like perfectionists, type-A – pretty much me – we can be really hard on ourselves, and we don't have to be.

Number six is that the world is a lot bigger and a lot smaller than we think it is. The connections you can find between people and countries are amazing. And the more people you meet and make friends with, the bigger your world becomes. I now have invites to go and meet friends that I've met travelling all over the world, in several different countries, and I fully intend on taking them up on it. And yeah, it just shows you how, obviously, the world is a big place, but I came across so many people while travelling who knew friends of friends or had connected in some way before going to the coliving place. And, since then, a lot of the people I met in the Basque Country have met up in their own countries and various other places, sometimes by planning it and sometimes just by coincidence. So it really does show you how small the world is.

Number seven is that living and working together and sharing amazing experiences with others creates an almost instant bond. I've lived with people for two weeks that I feel I've known my entire life. And I felt that in many of the places I've been to, especially if you're working together, and especially in the Basque Country, when we were kind of cut off from civilisation a little bit, you're forced to spend a lot of time with these people. And fortunately, there were no annoying people there – unless I'm the annoying one and didn't realise it. But it really does create a very strong bond. And I know that, in the future, when I meet up with a lot of these people, that bond will still be there.

Number eight is that after travelling solo and constantly pushing yourself outside your comfort zone, the things that used to make you anxious or nervous don't seem like such a big deal anymore. This is because leaving your comfort zone on a regular basis increases your confidence in all areas of life immensely. I talk about comfort zones a lot because I used to stay in mine all the time. And it isn't until you start pushing yourself out of your comfort zone that you see just how much you can achieve. And yeah, the things that used to make me nervous or terrified in terms of public speaking don't seem that bad anymore, and the little things I used to worry about, I don't worry about them anymore. I've got bigger things to focus on now, and the little things don't seem that bad.

Number nine is that most of the places I've visited so far haven't been on my travel bucket list, which, believe me, is long. I've gone to these places because of the coworking spaces and opportunities available or because of the people I've met on my travels who I want to see again. And, as a result, I found so many places I love that I otherwise wouldn't have even heard of. And I'm definitely going to keep this in mind going forward, booking trips and leaving space and time free, so that if I do meet people who invite me places, or if we decide to go travelling together somewhere else, then I have that space to book things. I don't want to be chock-a-block for the next two years and not give myself any grace to change plans or try different things or go to different countries that I had not considered going to before.

And number ten is that travelling is the best, easiest, and most fun form of networking I've ever done. I'm building up a network of incredible people doing incredible things, and nothing is more inspiring than seeing where they're all going and what they're doing next.

Obviously, we keep in touch on WhatsApp and Instagram and things like that, and it's just great seeing how everyone is living their lives, basically thinking outside the box, working remotely, travelling to different places, meeting new people, and trying new things. It really inspires me to keep going with my own digital nomad journey.

I mean, there were so many more than these ten that I've talked about, but those were just the ten that came to mind when I started doing this list a few months ago, which was directly after my stay in the Basque Country. And I'm sure I will learn so many more things in the future as I continue to solo travel.

And remember, if you solo travel, you're usually not solo for long. I mean, I went to Spain on my own, and I immediately met up with 15 or 16 people in a house, my new housemates. And, since then, I met people in coliving places, in Airbnbs, on group tours, and I've met up with people again that I've met in the coliving places. And yeah, a lot of the time when I'm travelling solo, I don't feel that solo, especially these days with technology, when you can just video call someone if you're feeling lonely. I'm going to do a whole other episode about this, about how to not feel like you're solo when you're travelling solo, so that will be coming up in the future.

But, for now, that was my very quick episode about ten ways solo travel has changed my life. If you are a solo traveller and you have found that it's changed your life in different ways, I would love to hear from you – what you think it has done for you and what it can do for other people. So please DM me on Instagram. I'm @traveltransformationcoach, and you can also email me at info@traveltransformationcoach.com.

Okay, that's it for this episode. Thanks for listening and, until next time, I'll catch you on the flip side.

Do you want to learn how you can use travel – and travel-related principles – to completely change your life?

Written by Travel Transformation Coach Jessica Grace Coleman, this guide walks you through 10 ways you can transform yourself – and your life – through travel... even when you can't travel!

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