Extended travel has become a much more viable lifestyle, since the world has become increasingly connected. There has never been a better time to travel. Most people can do it relatively cheaply, and have access to the infrastructure and technology which makes it possible.

Most cultures are adapting to tourism, making it easier to navigate the globe. It’s no wonder why many people are leaving it all behind, and adopting the nomad lifestyle. There is so much to gain from your experiences, whether this is for a short vacation, a year-long backpacking trip or to live abroad indefinitely.

We’re going to look at the developmental benefits of travel in this article. We will discuss why travel yields such a huge transformative potential, and how it will change your life permanently. Even though there is so much more to gain from it, how travel causes you to change as a person is the most important aspect of it.

What you learn and how you integrate your travels determines the impact it will have on the rest of your life. After learning more about it, you’ll be eager to pack your bags and book the next flight. Let’s look at why.

Travel facilitates growth and a shift in identity:

You will change a lot when you travel. That’s an inevitable part of it. You are exposed to so many different things including people, cultures, lifestyles, and customs. Through exposure alone, you experience a wider range of situations that you seldom, if ever get back at home.

When you travel, especially by yourself for extended periods of time, you really begin to question who you are. This paradigm shift forces you to become more familiar with your own company, but also become less familiar with who you are.

This is a huge advantage for your development as a person, as you are constantly surrounded by different influences. Your identity begins to morph much more rapidly as you are continuously challenged. Through everything you experience, you gain insight into your character, personality, programs, and patterns. This awareness allows you to edit them.

Building a new appreciation for things:

When going home after spending time abroad, people often have a different view of it. Travel and exposure instigate a new appreciation for your home, and the people still there. The people and places themselves may not have changed much. To you, however, they can appear foreign as your understanding of life, in general, has changed dramatically.

You will have changed a huge amount as a person, and often don’t realize this until you’re back to where you began. It may be disorienting at first. People often feel like they don’t fit in back at home like they once did.

This often causes a cycle where people will have the desire to go abroad again, because their eyes have been opened to the world. They understand how much they can transform through it, and how fulfilling the process of change is.

You will experience changes in perception:

When you are constricted to one country and culture, you only experience a tiny figment of what’s out there. You find that that you are incredibly limited when you only know your home country. You are fairly constrained to the conventional norms, ways of life, cultural standards and social guidelines.

In a way, travel really opens your eyes. When you never do it, you have only been exposed to a very linear way of life. There is no way of knowing how much more you can discover, and how much value these discoveries can add to your life.

Through exploring the world, you are likely to discover better perceptions, You will find new ways of looking at things, and experience vast changes in perspective. You may also resonate with different beliefs, mentalities, and philosophies. Travel facilitates open-mindedness and exposes you to a much broader scope of information than you are usually accustomed to.

You will begin to see the world in a vastly different way as you accumulate life experience, world knowledge, and wisdom. This is an irreversible change that will continue to fruit in various forms throughout the rest of your life.

Travel improves your world knowledge:

Your realm of general knowledge broadens as you constantly see different things, meet people and have new experiences. You learn much more about different topics, from geography and economics to social arts and philosophy. This helps you see how the world works as a collective, a little more clearly.

Instead of seeing life through a biased national perspective, you see it through an unbiased world perspective. We are usually quite ignorant about the world around us, until we see it through various lenses. You can hear about different things happening through the media and word of mouth, but it’s different because you are not experiencing it for yourself.

Being stuck in one country only provides you with a limited set of views. As you are indoctrinated and pushed to believe in national ideals, with propaganda shoved down your throat, you get a very one-sided and biased view of the world situation. You are coerced to believe in views that serve a nationality or collective, but not you individually.

By exploring different cultures, economies, systems, and structures, you see how things really are. By seeing the different perspectives of every culture, you are free from the opinions of others, and begin forming your own. You will see that there is no concrete way to do something.

There are many perspectives and beliefs about any occurrence happening in the world. You gain the freedom to form your own beliefs without other people and entities manipulate you. This is an empowering feeling.

You realize and build upon your capabilities:

You will come across a lot of uncomfortable situations and endure a lot of lessons. Some of these lessons will be big, others small. Some lessons will be through failures and mistakes, others through coincidences and luck. Regardless, these lessons are essential for you to become more aware, and to build upon your capabilities.

When you are traveling, you are forced out of your comfort zone, and grow much more as a person. When you don’t have the security and safety net of home, you learn to become much more resourceful, competent and independent. You also gain a lot of new skills and abilities.

This is because you are forced to overcome challenges and hurdles that you would never get at home. Likewise, you can’t circumvent the challenges like you can at home, because you don’t have the safety net of home.

From finding locals who speak your language, figuring out transportation, how to find and book accommodation, and navigate the country you are in. You gain a lot of great new skills that you never knew you were capable of. Travel gives you the kick you need. You are forced to handle all of these challenges on your own.

You will understand the transitory nature of reality:

The more time you spend abroad, the more you will understand the temporary nature of everything. The unfamiliar becomes familiar, the unpredictable becomes the new norm. Your perception of time changes and the more you encourage this, the more you understand that nothing stops changing, and that life is precious.

This is probably the most beneficial trait you can develop while traveling. A new understanding that buds through the endless funnel of experience. Through all the different situations you encounter, through everything beautiful and horrific, you will understand the true meaning of impermanence.

You will have changed dramatically and notice it in yourself. The people back home will be getting older. Countries and economies are constantly in a state of transition. Different situations get better and worse, continuously. You learn to stop judging the world around you, and just experience whatever it puts you through fully.

When abroad you constantly meet new people, make new friends, partners, try different things, work new jobs and so forth. After a while, you realize how quickly time passes, as your life becomes more eventful when you travel. This can bring about acceptance and inner peace. You become less consumed by time and materialism, and enjoy life for what it is.

By understanding the impermanent nature of existence, you feel much freer. The burden of needing to have more time eases, as you allow life to take you to and from each new experience in a state of non-resistance.

You will make friends of a lifetime, create amazing connections and find yourself in fulfilling relationships. But each moment passes onto the next, and within the blink of an eye, everything has changed once again. You will find a sense of peace when you accept the ever-changing nature of reality. Travel will make you see it more clearly.