How Travel Can Help You Achieve Your New Year’s Goals [FB Live SHOW NOTES]

Making New Year’s Goals is Pointless.

Unless you have a plan to help you reach them. Otherwise, you wind up throwing some ‘nice to haves’ out with little chance of seeing them come back to you.

Today I’m going to share with you how you can use travel (even within your own town ) to help you reach your New Year’s Goals.

How Travel Can Help You Achieve Your New Year’s Goals.

How are you handling New Year’s resolutions or goals this year? If you have some that you want to share drop them in the comments.

Some research I’ve been reading suggests that people give up on their goals by mid-January for a variety of reasons:

1. They’re too vague
2. There’s no real accountability in place
3. They’re too big and scary

Some of this is understanding your own mindset, values, beliefs, habits, and fears – which could be a goal in itself.

But let’s talk about how to cut through the above blocks by doing three things:

1. Reframing how you plan your New Year’s goals
2. Using travel (or the idea of travel) to achieve them
3. Start small and celebrate every win

1. Reframing how you plan New Year’s goals

I don’t respond well to the idea of a resolution that gets started on January 1. First of all, January 1 is usually spent recovering from December 31st. Nothing is getting done that day but resting and drinking water and apologizing to my body for eating so much cheese.

So let’s take all the pressure off that deadline.

→ Here’s how I look at the year:

• Big Picture
• THEN break it down
• Then get granular

This keeps goals from being vague and keeps them from seeming too big and scary.

First, don’t pick too many things or it’s just overwhelming. If they are big, Stick to 3-5 at most.

Brainstorm everything you want, then pick the ones that are most important to you.

Don’t try to start them all at the same time. I look at the 12 months ahead and try to stagger when I’m going to start each thing. You get so much more accomplished when you focus, so don’t overload yourself with too many things.

Next, Make a map to get you where you want to go.

Ex: One of my new year’s goals is to learn European Portuguese.

You can’t just write that. It’s too nebulous. That’s not a plan, it’s a wish. There’s nothing actionable there. It’s not going to happen.

MAKE TIME YOUR FRIEND

1. Break everything down into 90-day sections. What do I want to accomplish in 90 days with this goal?

Here’s an example of how to break down a new year’s goal (Learn a new language)

For the first 90 days: Learn correct pronunciation and 100 of the most used words: I’m going to watch a youtube video 5x a week, and practice for 5 minutes on an app every day.

The next 90 days: Learn how to conjugate popular verbs and simple survival phrases: I’m going to find a course or a language book or maybe an online tutor

Third 90 Days: Hold basic conversations: commit to two classes a week, watch an episode of a Portuguese tv show once a week.

The final 90 Days: Speak with shopkeepers or airport officials: I’m going to add reading short articles and looking up 10 new words, etc.

See how I can get there from this plan?

2. 30- or 7- day challenges, This can also serve to loop in some of those stray resolutions like “drink more water,” “get better sleep,” etc. or it can just push me to stay on track with the bigger picture goals.

3. See each week, and often each day as a “NEW” time period. Don’t limit yourself to January of each new year to make a goal. Every day is a new day to start making choices and taking consistent action towards the dreams you have.

2. Using travel to achieve your New Year’s Goals

I did some research on the top goals and resolutions for 2022. Tell me in the comments if any of these are yours:

1. Plan a vacation (Institute for Applied Positive Research found that booking a trip BRINGS JOY. 97% of respondents said that having a trip planned made them HAPPIER)
2. Get outside more
3. Try something new each month
4. Support local restaurants
5. Increase your movement or start walking more
6. Make fun your priority
7. Learn or hone a new skill
8. Slow down
9. Ease stress with kindness
10. Exercise your brain

How does travel help you achieve your goals? When you book travel. You now have accountability: You have time, effort, and money in the game.

Whether that is across the world or across town. You’ve made a plan.

You’ve opened up your calendar and you’ve made a commitment on a certain date that you are doing this.

How do you maximize this?

1. Book a trip that is in alignment with your goals

Ex: You want to exercise your mind more by learning a new language or unplug and get outside more? Having an upcoming trip on the books puts a deadline out there for you to ramp up to. Sometimes it’s about 5 mins a day of preparation, sometimes it’s about achieving the goal in one shot on the trip.

2. Put each trip far enough out to be both a finish line and a reward

Ex: start walking more – Book a trip in the summer that you know will involve activities that you want to be in shape for. All of my trips include a lot of on-foot exploration. We do city walks, hikes, countryside and ancient site exploration. Do you want to get the most out of the trip? Start walking a little bit each week now!

3. Look for trips or outings that include your resolutions as part of the itinerary

Ex: Support local restaurants. This you can easily do in your own town. Or you can look for travel that specifically reaches out to locals and women-owned businesses as part of the trip. (That’s essentially my trips in a nutshell.)

4. Plan an adventure that encourages growth, exploration and kindness

Ex: if you’re looking to ease stress, slow down, or make fun a priority, choosing a trip that incorporates personal growth, cultural exploration, and attracts wonderful and kind people. You will definitely be checking off that box on your goals list.

5. Use the accountability of going on a trip to get all sorts of things done:

Ex: declutter your closets before packing, build up your immunity or get better sleep beforehand, finish your craft projects and sell them online for extra travel money, make those doctor’s appointments, get a new wardrobe. USE TRAVEL as your excuse to GET IT DONE.

3. Finally, bust through that third block

Break down those goals that are too big and scary by using my final tip: start small and celebrate every win.

I mean every win. You’ll begin to trust yourself more. You’ll see that you can follow through and each future step will reveal itself and get easier. Just trust the process.

This pandemic has put so much into perspective over the last few years: including the importance of play, giving yourself a break, and reconnecting with humans.

Be kind to yourself this year. Do you know how much you’ve accomplished just living through this period in time? History is happening now and you are in it.

Explore a new location, try a new activity, find ways to safely get outside.

Review: How Travel Can Help You Achieve Your New Year’s Goals

Today we talked about the three biggest reasons New Year’s resolutions don’t stick:

1. They’re too vague
2. There’s no real accountability in place
3. They’re too big and scary

And how you can set yourself up for success with these three tactics:

1. Reframing how you plan your new year’s goals – break them down, make them actionable and make time your friend!
2. Use travel (or the idea of travel) to achieve them
3. Start small and celebrate every win – you’ll start to trust yourself and reach for bigger and bigger goals!

Here are 5 ways we can use travel (or the idea of travel) to achieve New Year’s Goals:

1. Book a trip that is in alignment with your goals
2. Put each trip far enough out to be both a finish line and a reward
3. Look for trips or outings that include your resolutions as part of the itinerary
4. Plan an adventure that encourages growth, exploration, and kindness
5. Use the accountability of going on a trip to get things done

REMEMBER:
Be kind to yourself, you’re doing amazing during a particularly hard time in history. You matter, your dreams matter and the world needs you!

If you’re ready to book that trip now…

Busy working on your goals? No problem! I’ve done all of the planning for you – all you have to do is show up and have the experience of a lifetime with your new friends! All of my tours are cultural immersion trips that support small, local and women-owned businesses. You’ll enjoy insider, authentic experiences in amazing countries that mainstream travelers will never see!

So now the only question is where are you going with me in 2022?

What’s your next step?

Get all the trip details here and choose your next adventure with me OR book a call with me and I’ll answer any and all of your travel questions!