In the past decade, travelling the world has entered the bucket lists of thousands of adventurous souls. However, travelling itself is not the only goal for enthusiastic travellers anymore. The desire to live a purposeful life while travelling has become just as important. In this blog, we share 5 tips on how to live a purposeful life while travelling.
Why live a purposeful life?
Perhaps you are wondering why you should bother living a purposeful life and create positive impact while travelling. Sure, travel can be all about fun and experiencing new things, but imagine how enriching it is for your personality and personal growth to engage in purposeful activities?
Once you return from your trip, you will take the knowledge from those activities and apply them in your day to day life. Therefore, it is wise to think about how you plan to give purpose to your travel adventures.
The 5 ways to live a purposeful life while travelling
Let’s have a look at how you can engage in purposeful living while you are travelling:
#1 Go eco
One of the easiest ways to live a purposeful life while travelling is to go eco. By consciously choosing to live an eco-friendly life while travelling, you contribute to the health of the local environment and our planet.
For example, you might choose to book your plane ticket via a flight search engine that invests in environmental initiatives. In fact, there are airlines which plant a tree for every ticket they sell. How awesome is that!?
Other ways to go eco while travelling is to eat less meat, use less plastic and purchase eco-friendly products.
#2 Become a volunteer
If you are planning on going abroad for a longer amount of time, you might want to consider volunteering. By volunteering abroad, you help out non-profit organisations who are doing something good for the world. There are wonderful non-profit organisations who can’t wait to welcome you as one of their volunteers.
In fact, there are many ways to volunteer abroad. There are also many volunteer abroad programs for adults. For example, non-profit organisations often are looking for social media experts to spread the word about their organisation. Also, daily tasks such as teaching languages and sports or cooking are widely popular. The sky’s the limit! Have a look at your skill set and find a job that suits you.
Did you know that FairestBnb helps you to find the perfect volunteering opportunity? Have a look at our continuously changing database of hosts from all over the world.
#3 Do random acts of kindness
Leaving everything behind at home for months might not be an option for you right now. However, it is still possible to live a purposeful life while travelling – also on short trips! If you are travelling for a shorter period of time and you have a passion for helping others, you might want to give back in a more simple way. For example, you might want to do a random act of kindness every day. Perhaps you wonder how you can do a random act of kindness while you are travelling. Here are a few suggestions to inspire you:
- Pass on items you don’t need anymore to the local homeless shelter (items such as bedding or fold-up chairs).
- Clean up after yourself when you leave a hotel or restaurant.
- Give positive feedback and reviews after leaving an attraction, restaurant or hotel.
- Pick up garbage while hiking.
- Pay it forward; buy the person behind you a coffee.
#4 Learn new skills
If you want to add more purpose to your own life, it might be wise to spend time on learning new skills while you are travelling. Before you travel, create a vision board of your future and set concrete goals on how to get there.
Once you plan your next trip, look at your goals and find destinations that help you to learn new skills that support your vision. This way, you engage in purposeful activities which your future self will thank you for.
If you are looking for inspiration on how to create a vision board, this might be worth to watch:
#5 Immerse yourself in the local culture
One of the best things you can do for yourself to live a purposeful life while travelling, is to immerse yourself in the local culture. Doing so helps you to understand different intercultural perspectives and will broaden your horizon. These insights will benefit you greatly in your personal and professional life.
For instance, you can immerse yourself in the local culture by going to local restaurants instead of the mainstream tourist magnets. Also, visiting local pubs and purchasing from smaller, local stores can help you to learn more about the culture.
If you truly want to immerse in the local culture and you are passionate about helping others, you might want to consider living amongst local inhabitants through volunteering. See for yourself how people helping others and create your own volunteer traditions. By volunteering abroad you get the opportunity to truly learn to understand the culture by living and working in it and you will know the importance of helping others. Does this appeal to you? Why not have a look at our database of available volunteering jobs?
Good luck with your purposeful journey!
Now that we’ve inspired you to live a purposeful life while travelling, we are curious to hear from you, how you create an impact. Share your story about why is helping others important to you. Feel free to tag us with #fairest_bnb and @fairestbnb in your very own travel stories on Instagram and Facebook to tell us about your next trip and what you will do to make it purposeful!
