In my experience traveling internationally since 2002, I have learned that there are 3 important steps towards being able to afford the travel lifestyle or earning money while you travel.
3 Steps to achieving a dream travel lifestyle
Step 1: Have a clear vision of what you want to achieve with your travels
If you have a burning desire to realize your cherished, long-held dream of travel, a clear vision is a must.
This could be anything travel -related.
The easiest way for coming up with your goal is to figure out where you are now, and what you want or where you want to be aka your destination. This is very important because the path you take to achieve your vision will be dependent on where you currently are.
When you have a clear travel goal in mind and you concretize it with the required steps and specific timelines to achieve it, it feels more real and will be easier to attain.
Your vision is the driving force you will not only act as your compass but also the motivation you will need when the going gets tough and you face various hurdles whether they be visa runs, difficult boarder control officials, lack of travel money, name it!
In my case for instance, my goal is to visit all 193 UN-recognized countries by the time I’m 50 years old.
I currently have 9 more years to go.
I believe it shall come to pass. Amen 🙂
✈ Action Points ✈
- Determine where you’re at now in your travel journey e.g. been to 2 counties in Kenya, 1 country in Africa, 1 in Europe, etc.
- Decide where you want to be e.g. visit all 46 counties in Kenya by 2021, visit 25% of African countries by 2024, etc.
Step 2: Manifest your travel vision above
I am a firm believer in manifestation and the law of attraction in general because I have witnessed it come into play in my own life.
The Law of Attraction is just a fancy phrase to describe the life principle of :
“Focusing your energy on things that you DO WANT to happen in your life, by shifting your thoughts and focus from those things that you DO NOT WANT to happen in your life.”
“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve,” Napoleon Hill taught.
“The mind is everything. What you think, you become,” Buddha once said.
Basically, what these two gentlemen are saying in different words is that the human mind is very powerful.
An important Law of Attraction principle is to get super clear on what you really want, manifest it, and then write it down.
In my case for instance I have not only manifested the places I want to go, the travel opportunities and the travel money; I have gone a step further and written down my manifestations and made them public – for accountability’s sake.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7WVAEdgymQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Even the UN is aware of my plans to visit all the 193 countries.
Last week we were more than happy to host @kemzykemzy, @WanjiruNjenga_, @LoisEvaAdongo and @AngieSimms1 who are Kenyan travel bloggers. @LoisEvaAdongo promised herself to visit all the 193 member sates of the @UN before she turns 50. This is what we call goals. Isn't it amazing? pic.twitter.com/vyAu7oOEjf
— United Nations Visitors Service, Nairobi (@visitunon) February 3, 2020
I also maintain a written bucket list of the things that I want to do when I get there.
For believers, even the Bible encourages the principle of manifestation in the book of Habakkuk 2: vs 2 – 3
2 And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
Writing down your travel vision not only helps you to weed out unnecessary distractions but also helps you to focus on activities, thoughts, words and deeds that will move you along towards the path of your manifestation.
Having made the travel manifestations, I rest my case knowing that I’m headed different destinations in any one year, and the opportunities to make the money for that will come.
My job henceforth is to position myself in such a way to make sure I don’t miss out on these opportunities.
What are you manifesting this year?
✈ Action Points ✈
- Write down your #manifestation. Try to be as specific as possible e.g. destinations, money to travel, etc.
- Bookmark this post because we’re gonna need it to compare notes at the end of the year, to see how the stars aligned in our favor.
Step 3: Treat your travel as a business
This step is particularly important if money is not a luxury for you – like in my case – but you want to get into travel for the long term.
The day I scored an A for my travel agency business plan for a Marketing Class in Uni, I decided that from that time henceforth, all my travels will be treated as business. Because that’s what they are.
There and then, I stopped treating my travels as a hobby and started developing systems to scale it like a business.
By treating my travels like a real business from that day forward, I stopped being Eva and became the Chief Everything Officer (CEO) of the company behind EvaMtalii.
Like any other type of business, my travel business needed money to run, aka working capital.
But having shifted from being Eva to being a CEO of EvaMtalii, that meant that future travels going forward would no longer be funded with my salary from my regular day job, but by the travel business itself.
From that day forward, salary would strictly be for serious investments such as ma ploti, apartments, etc.
I had to get creative, starting with finding alternative income sources outside of my regular job to fund my travels, and then eventually creating this blog for the EvaMtalii brand.
Interested to learn how? We’ll get there in a bit.
✈ Action Points ✈
- Set a date from when you will transition your travels from hobby to business.
Nice read Eva. Indeed there’s is power in writing down what you need. I will also try to manifest my goals. Thank you
Thank you Eva. Manifestation has always worked for me. Try it and let me know how it works for you. Cheers!!!