This is a guest post by adventurer, author and motivational speaker Alastair Humphreys. Find out more about Alastair here.
Turning an empty calendar and a lack of direction into an exciting, rewarding, challenging, money-generating expedition is both easy and difficult. This is how I go about making stuff happen…
- Block off the biggest chunk of time possible. Guard this jealously. Time is so precious and demands on it so numerous. I can always earn more money. I can never reclaim lost time.
- Sit and daydream. Think of all the places I have not been. Think of all the journey styles I have not done. Pore over an atlas as I pour the coffee. Browse my bookshelves for inspiration. Drool over Google Images and Flickr and Sidetracked.
- Try to think of a trip that is, for me at least, fresh, novel, difficult and different.
- Draw up a shortlist of the few plans that currently excite me most.
- Narrow this list down against criteria such as cost, season, timeframe and potential partners available.
- More or less settle on one preferred option.
- Faff around for a while.
- Send out an email / meet up with somebody / do something that tips me over from day-dreaming about how fun this would all be to actually getting off my arse and making it happen. The tipping point is often small but significant: walking across India was solidified merely by having dinner with a friend’s parents, for example.
- Buy a plane ticket or whatever is the single most expensive, painful, committing action to take. This is without doubt the most significant and difficult stage of the entire process (hint: it’s far harder than the scary expedition you are worrying about). This single act of commitment is what differentiates dreamers from do-ers. It’s not hard, but it is bold.
- Run around like an idiot, realising that I have grossly underestimated the time and expense involved in making the trip happen. (NB: I have never looked back at a trip).
For the post-expedition phase, here is a post I wrote on how to make a living from your travels.
