Whether it be work, relationships, travel or what have you, when you find your passion, It’s a labor of love, pulsing life throughout your body and mind. You think to yourself, I have found my passion and I want to pursue it to the max. But as I am sure you have experienced at some instance in your life as well, passion fades. Things that were once new and exciting become normal and mundane. Things you once found challenging and rewarding, now just seem like repetitive work. You question if you even want to do it any more.. Quit the job. End the relationship. Return home from your adventure.. You think, ‘if I don’t continue following this passion (which by the way, is not really a passion anymore) what will I do?’ Recently I was talking with a friend of mine who also happens to be a bit of a habitual traveler. She mentioned she was feeling that her spirit and enthusiasm for travel had felt dampened as of late, and she was feeling stuck.
In deciding what advice I could give to her, I thought to myself, ‘how have I managed to keep the passion for travel alive after the past five-or-so years of travel…’. Here was my advice to her.
Maybe you need a new challenge (write a book, start a project, learn some new skill). In doing so, you may discover something that revamps your passion for travel or gives you an entirely new enthusiastic direction.
I think that’s the huge attraction to travel for many people. The overwhelming challenge of it, yet the immense reward of ‘new’ and the inner discovery you get from the experiences.. However after extensive travel, things that once seemed challenging and exciting, seem ordinary. I realized to keep the passion for travel alive, I find my self trying to mix it up, to create a new travel experience. This trip is the first long term travel I’ve done in an automobile. So it has been a completely new experience with a different set of challenges, benefits and circumstances. Additionally I developed the Hippie Van Man project, which I find helps to keep me motivated and enthused about the adventure. It takes work to maintain, however I have connected with so many people via it, and that has made a world of difference in keeping up a good moral on such a long journey.
I think I started to feel the same thing after the first month of my 11-month Asia trip in 2011. I got real down on travel, it struck me that it was selfish and purposeless. That’s when I realized I needed to come up with a way to change things up and renew the passion. A month later the idea for the Developing Nations Project came to be and it totally gave my trip a whole knew dynamic. I had a new purpose, and was revamped with enthusiasm for travel. So I guess that would be my advice. If you still have the desire to travel but just don’t feel the zest or fulfillment from it that you once had, maybe try to figure out how you can mix it up, and create a new kind of travel experience all together.
I realized I had never thought about this before, but it is a very important life lesson. Life should be filled with passion. It’s as sunshine is to the day. Whether in your pastimes, your work, your relationships, if you aren’t feeling passionate about it anymore, find a way to mix it up. You don’t need to go out and find an entirely new passion, just figure out a way to change the dynamic, add a new purpose, further challenge yourself. If you put in the effort and use a little creativity, you will soon find passion once again fused in your blood and life pumping through your veins. You will be making new discoveries and who knows, maybe even find new passions along the way.
