We all run after time: career plan, years of seniority, probationary period, fixed-term contract, start of the school year... Why not take a break while you travel and give meaning to your time?
I find that life is very short and very long at the same time. In these spaces cut out in months, minutes or decades, we sometimes have the impression that it is not always up to us to choose what, how, where and when. Things get done, we just go with the flow. Yet I think that there is a time for everything and that things happen when they happen. One day, it simply becomes possible to build, to leave, to stay, to settle down, to leave or to find oneself. Doors mysteriously open when they have remained closed for so long or, conversely, they close, making impossible a way of life or a relationship that has lasted for years. Struggle, commitment has no effect on this strange clock, it’s time, period.
Whatever the age, profile or background, there is no order to be respected. Moments are right or wrong, that’s all. I’ve met young digital geniuses leaving high-paying positions in prestigious companies to take a break from their careers. Women and men of all ages who have taken a break in their lives to take stock, to find a more coherent and wiser rhythm of life.
A long trip allows you to take back the reins of your time a little and stop chasing the schedules, the minutes and rethinking what you want to do with this time you have been given.
A long trip allows you to take back the reins of your time a little and stop chasing the schedules, the minutes and rethinking what you want to do with this time you have been given.
Before opting for this philosophy, I ran a lot after time, stressed out. I had learned to make the most of my day and rarely took time for myself and when I did, I always felt a pinch of guilt.
How can a trip help you regain control of your time?
Travel helps to put the notion of time into perspective. In an unfamiliar place or an unusual situation, time becomes more elastic, it flows very slowly or very quickly, depending on the situation.
The feeling that sometimes more things happen in a single day than in a whole life for example. This storm of feelings happens more often on a trip than anywhere else because we go out of our comfort and safety zone. The senses are sharper and the absence of pressure on time (quick home, quick work, quick shopping) finally allows you to get to the bottom of things.
Leaving for a long trip is therefore likely to open doors, to finally think about what you really want and take the time you really need.
Finally, a long trip allows you to repair yourself. I have met many wounded people, seeking redemption or renewal on the roads of the world. Taking time for yourself, leaving when you want to, staying when you like, is also taking back power and saying no to a life as an ant, pressed into crazy schedules, renouncing a coherent existens, made of effort certainly, but also of respect and time for oneself. Because no, life should not be hard, routine and under permanent control and fears.
Not everything in life always goes according to plan… fortunately!
The experience of the years deconstructs a lot of preconceived ideas. Sometimes you look back and realize that not everything has gone as planned. But it went well anyway. Different from what we had imagined, but what does it matter? Are these changes of direction or profession, these failures, these disillusions, the proof that you missed your life? Not at all! To succeed in life is not following an ideal program to be happy. Succeeding in life means falling and getting up again, going through good and bad times, growing up in trials and victories. Succeeding means knowing how to change direction, to change situations when you feel the need, it also means taking the time to find yourself.
So the worst part of this perfect program of happiness is without a doubt that nothing ever knocks us down, shakes us up, or calls us into question.
If you are 50 years old or older, the choice of a big trip can shock those around you. Changing your life at 40 or 50 for some people is an upside down “life plan”
As if, at 50, it was time to stay in the harbour and continue to work for his retirement. But by no means the time to cast off for a great voyage that will certainly turn your whole life upside down. It is more common and understandable to do things in order and leave at the age of 20. Study, work, family, work, retirement. Finally, at the end of all these years comes the right time to enjoy life. I find this timing very sad and very reductive. It is possible to lose, find and refind your way back throughout your life and fortunately, it is a path that will be most rewarding and fulfilling.
These fifties or sexagenarians on the mop who let go of their comfort are sometimes disturbing because in time and space, they are not at the right place. The reactions of other travellers or those around you may be unsettling, but don’t give up on your project
For example, a woman in her 50s or 60s for many is a potential mother. And a mom sits behind the stove cooking up stew, throws “don’t-do-this-don’t-do-that“, scolding or cuddling her offspring, handling paperwork and making apple pies.
She’s not sleeping in a hostel dorm with her whole life in a backpack. It’s shady, it’s weird, it’s twisted. It’s a cover-up. You can’t justify it to yourself. This change in life is going to surprise a lot of people. But if you can learn from others, others can also learn from your experience, right? If you want to leave, it means you are ready for change. Follow your instincts and don’t try to fit into the mould, otherwise you’ll end up looking like a pie!
There are many lives in an existence, you never know which one is waiting for you…
This great journey for me is now and here. After apple pies, schoolbags, crazy kisses on big sorrows, adolescence, fixed-term or permanent contracts.
The adventure of travel came after the other adventures of life. This trip, it was not time to do it before, during or after, but today. On this road there and not another one.
Each path is unique, it is possible to invent it every day. Because no one knows what tomorrow holds.
The best we can do is to go to the end of ourselves, of our dreams and to be ready to change, to throw ourselves on the roads of the world, with a free heart and mind, without fear.
Going far and for a long time does not require large means …
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Follow the 11 advice from backpackers.
