Making Excuses Not To Travel

November 5th, 2009 by Erica Johansson

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leftorright Making Excuses Not To Travel

As most of you know, I have wanted to return to London for a long time. (Since September 2007 to be exact.)

At first I thought “I want to travel, but I can’t because…”, and listed various reasons in my mind, including the ones in my personal check list.

“I should pay off my debts first.”

“I have to get over my self-destructive addictions.”

“I must conquer my insomnia.”

“I need to be sure I won’t revert to any shopaholic behavior again.”

“I should sell and give away stuff I don’t need first. ”

“I have to visit my optician and dentist.”

Once I had taken care of those ‘obstacles’, I found other reasons why I couldn’t travel.

“I must finish some work projects before I can leave.”

“I’m not ready.”

“It’s too expensive.”

“I need more money/savings.”

“It doesn’t feel right.”

“It’s not the right time.”

Someone recently told me that there’s no such thing as the right time, that the only right time for anything is ‘now’ — and everything else is an excuse. That I would travel if I wanted to. I realized he was right. As long as I kept saying I wanted to travel and at the same time gave reasons to why I couldn’t, those reasons were merely excuses. If I really wanted to travel abroad now, I’d hop on the next flight — no matter what, despite the consequences. But I choose to put other things first.

I realized it’s not a question of ‘can’ or ‘can’t’. It’s about wanting. And clearly I don’t want to leave Sweden yet. Don’t get me wrong. I think about/miss London more or less every day. Yet, I want to live in Sweden for now. Or, more precisely, Gothenburg. I still plan to travel to London, although I don’t want to move right now. And when we say we don’t want to do something, that’s not an excuse.

Not too long ago, I said to someone living in London, “If you knew everything about my current situation, I think you’d understand why I don’t want to travel now.” But it wasn’t just about the situation I was in at the time;  my intuition told me to stay in Sweden. And I need to listen to it, because I truly believe it will serve my best purposes. Like Bill Gates once said, “Often you have to rely on intuition.”

If I don’t know whether to turn left or right, I pay attention to my intuition. So far, the worst thing that has happened when I didn’t listen to it involves a broken collarbone and several nights in a hospital. Since then I decided to not ignore it — irrespective of what it tells me to do. And in October, my intuition told me to move from Halmstad to Gothenburg. (More about that in another post.)

How about you? Have you ever made (or are you making) excuses not to travel?

Possibly related posts:

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  3. Writing About Places You’ve Never Visited
  4. Travel = Lifestyle, Communicating, Entertaining, Passion
  5. 17 Things I’ve Learned