I’m walking slowly along a pier in Malibu, watching the sun sink further into the water and chatting with the girl who has become one of my best friends in the world in the span of just about one week.
I’m hiking up Mount Runyon, smiling at the dogs darting up and down the trail, sharing a simple picnic with three good friends from a yoga class that had utterly kicked my ass about an hour before.
I’m standing outside a gorgeous building on Venice Beach, watching the glimmer in my friend’s eyes as she talks about renting it, about turning it into a yoga studio, and then seeing her smile when I tell her that I’m going to do everything I can to help make that dream come true.
And I’m sitting, now, in a rustic coffee shop near the heart of Hollywood, admiring the faux wood paneling and trying to connect all the dots — all these little postcards from one roller coaster of a week in California.
Want to know something funny, though?
I could do this anywhere. California, I think, has nothing to do with it.
I think that’s the truth of traveling — the Great Big Picture slumbering under something we like to glamorize, fantasize about, and generally paint in the brightest colors possible.
Traveling is just living — but really realizing that you are.
I could be in Colorado. I could be buzzing on caffeine in any one of the fifty states, or I could be digging my toes down in the sand of those beach-side cafes in Greece that my brother still likes to talk about. I could be hiking the long trail to Machu Pichu, or I could be climbing the Temple of the Sun in steamy Mexico with the worst hangover of my life.
I could be anywhere.
Wherever my dot falls on the map, though, I’m doing just one simple thing: living. Living with a new perspective, perhaps, or the semblance of a tan (working on it!), but still just living, at the end of the day, and being more keenly aware of it than ever before.
Realizing this, I think, is one of the most important things we can do.
Why?
It opens a door to a new perspective — to a new approach to life.
You can travel. Hell, you can do it every day of the week, if you want, and you can do it without spending thousands of dollars or hopping on a plane to somewhere new.
Not sure how? Try these:
- Go to a coffee shop. Sit down, do something creative, and study your surroundings.
- Meet someone new. Take a chance to strike up a conversation and talk to them for hours.
- Take a walk!
- Hike a nearby trail with friends, family, or your pets, enjoying the scenery and the company as much as possible.
- Attend a live performance at a local bar, maybe, or just say yes when you’re given the opportunity to try something new.
We do all of these things even when we’re not traveling, right? The difference, though, is that traveling forces us to pay attention to what we’re doing, to how we’re living every moment of the day, and makes every moment — no matter how ‘normal’ or mundane — seem like something new and exciting.
It’s an incredible feeling. But the best part, I’ve come to realize, is that it doesn’t have to stop when we return to our regular routine. Let’s take that Great Big Picture of traveling and apply it somewhere new: our everyday lives.
How?
Be mindful of your minutes. Give your hours the attention they deserve, no matter how you spend them, and treat every day like you would if you were waking up in some exciting foreign city.
It’s not easy to do. But I think it’s a worthwhile change to make, now, and one I want to adopt no matter what part of the world I’m in — whether that’s Oaxaca, Český Krumlov, or the Stir-Crazy Coffee shop in the middle of a warm, sunny day.
Let’s make every day count. It took one incredible week in California to remind me of this, but there’s absolutely no reason you need to travel to the West Coast to make the change too.
–
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33 Comments »
I'm a writer, minimalist, and health dork with three goals in mind: to teach you how to lose weight, move more, and be happier by living a simple, natural life. It works. Like what you read here? Get 3NL delivered straight to your inbox!
Matt,
Being from California originally (now on slow travel/island time in HI) I really enjoyed your article. I can clearly see you on that beach, in that coffee shop. What I most appreciate though is your conclusion that at the end of the day, or even your great week there in CA, it’s not about any particular place. We’ve mental and emotional postcards from Kenya, New England, Malyasia, South Pacific, Southern states, Seattle, Alaska, of course California and many other places. What remains the same is the continuity of approaching life simply and with the heart of a traveler. Viewing even the mundane trip to the post office or library with the eyes of a sojourner can radically change your day, your perspective and day by day your entire life, just as changing your life’s eating plan will first change your body, then your life. Great post; already happily retweeted!
Great comment, Gena! I can tell you’re of the same mind just from these words alone.
Best of luck with your continuing growth, and kudos for letting travel change you in the exact way it should!
I live between Orlando & Daytona Beach, two extremely popular tourist destinations, yet I’m still looking to get away. Too bad I didn’t read this before booking a vacation this morning!
Actually I really do enjoy all of the great things nearby and try to be a tourist at home and a local on vacation. But thanks for the reminder to see my immediate little town (with great coffee shops) from a fresh perspective. It’s easy to take the normalcy of “home” for granted.
Hey, now, there’s nothing wrong with a vacation.
Glad I could help, Elle! It’s not an easy thing to do, but looking at your usual haunt with a fresh perspective can make all the difference in the world.
Matt –
Very insightful post. I will echo what Gena stated above. Growing up most of my life in California, whenever I tell someone we are moving from California to New York, almost everyone gives a cross-eyed look and asks why?
We always look to escape the world we believe ourselves to be trapped in and traveling gives us that sense of adventure, that sense of escape and new sensory stimulation, when it reality, it is just a state of mind enhanced by the fact we are dealing with a new geographic location that we have never dealt with before.
We need to grab a drink or something before I leave CA.
Exactly! Traveling is an escape for so many people, but that’s kind of a sad statement on the quality of their regular, everyday life, isn’t it?
Best of luck with the move to NYC! What time are you heading out? We’ve got to meet, like you said. I don’t have a car, which complicates things, but if you’d be willing to come near West Hollywood, let me know.
Thanks for a great post. I’m sidelined from my adventurous job as a flight attendant due to health issues. I can however find adventure in my own back yard, or the next town over. Great way to find new perspective.
Glad I could help.
Sorry to hear about the health issues! That new perspective should come in handy right about now, so best of luck as you pursue it!
True you could be doing it from anywhere, but you have to admit you picked a hell of a week to be here. The 80′s (degrees not the decade) are nothing to shake a stick at.
Haha! Good point, man. This weather is gorgeous.
My mother pointed me in the direction of your blog today, and I can tell I’m going to enjoy it. I’m originally from California myself (too hot for me), and I got as far away as I could without actually falling into the opposite ocean. I love simplification, and would love to travel more someday, now that I’ve escaped the 9-5 and am getting my health into better shape. Just started a blog myself this year, so I hope to connect with people that way too. Thanks for the great insights, I’ll be back!
Thank your mother for me! That’s awesome, Anna.
Just checked out your blog and will definitely be back to read more. You have a unique style about you, which is always a delight to discover. Looking forward to seeing you pop up here again sometime, too!
Hey, thank you very much! I will definitely take “unique” over some of the other possible synonyms. I do like your blog (and tweets), very much, so you can count on the popping up for sure! Hope you hang in there with the very strange story I’m telling on my blog – it only gets odder as it goes along.
I love all of this.
One of the closest friends I have ever had, I met in a bar, I think one of us was trying to chat the other up but we ended up laughing too much and having too much to talk about. He lives in Germany now and I in Australia and the distance means nothing, we are still as close as we were those years ago when we could see each other in person. To those who truly have the spark in their eye and curiosity in their heart, the lust for adventure never really goes away. It’s incredibly inspiring!
Occasionally you get burned trying something new (literally, in my case – the pipes on the back of a Harley Davidson are HOT!) but it is always worth it.
Thanks for the beautiful article, cant wait to hear more of your adventures!
Love that line, Mia. “Occasionally you get burned trying something new, but it is always worth it.”
It’s hard to convince myself of that, sometimes, but I always come back a stronger, wiser person every time I take a chance and try something new.
Great comment! Your friend sounds hilarious.
And thank you for the kind words, as always. Hopefully future travel posts will be similarly worthwhile!
One of the things I learned while traveling with my then-girlfriend was that it wasn’t so much the fact that I was seeing so many places. I was actually living there. Interacting within the culture.
There is a big/huge/ginormous difference between vacationing and traveling. Often, we confuse the two words to mean the same, but it is different. Traveling is submersing one’s self within a culture. Vacationing is looking from the outside into a box where people are living. Traveling is living within that box.
Anyways….that’s just me…
David Damron
LifeExcursion
Makes sense to me, man. The idea of a vacation, too, has a weird connotation for me. It makes you sound like you’re escaping something, right? I’m not sure who said it (Seth Godin, maybe?), but why not then try to build a life you don’t need to escape from?
That’s where traveling comes in for me. I can’t wait to interact with so many different cultures, like you said, and see who I am on the other side.
It seems like when we go on vacation or are traveling on a trip, we tend to enjoy ourselves MORE and remember more about every single day because we’re in a new place, forced to do and try new things. And we know how many days are left before the trip is over, so we try to make each day count. It’s funny how we’ll live passionately for a week on vacation, but forget that Life is short, too! And we should make EVERY day count
Exactly, Leiah!
That same attitude we save for travel could transform our lives if we just do what you said and try and make every day count.
Great insight!
I am so jealous of the weather you are getting to enjoy right now…
We’re going to be having highs of 20′s with rain and snow… .:^0^:.
But, you are very right. And that is something I am not very good at doing. Instead of ‘living’ I spend most of my days desperately wishing I was somewhere else far far away. Its kind of funny too since I am absolutely horrible at putting myself out there in unfamiliar situations or circumstances.
Your problem, Chandra, is a common one.
I’ve gotten a lot better about it, but my first few times abroad were painfully shy at times since I wasn’t comfortable with putting myself in uncomfortable situations.
Give it time, though, and don’t be too hard on yourself in the meantime. Focus, now, on appreciating each day you’re given, and I think that gratitude will go a long way in helping you walk through unfamiliar situations with a smile.
Nice post. Maybe our paths will cross in SoCal sometime. We plan to take some time to enjoy LA & environs coming up pretty soon.
Thanks, Hillary!
Let me know when you swing by LA and we’ll see if we can’t meet up somewhere.
Great post Matt – resonates with me. One lesson I’ve learned in my life (the hard way) is that it doesn’t matter where I go – I always take me with me. It’s therefore my relationship with myself that I have to work on in order to realise who I truly am, and to be content with that.
Loved the bit about travel giving us the focus that the mundane everyday hides.
Thanks, Steve! Glad you liked the post.
That’s a brilliant point, too, and one I think that’s worth highlighting: wherever I go, I always take me with me. Travel changes us, after all, and you always need to be comfortable with the person you are — whether that’s the person stepping on the plane or the person coming back after a life-changing time abroad.
Hey Matt,
This was right on the money man. I was just telling my wife that at this particular time we can’t do the traveling we want but that’s not going to stop us from discovering. We plan to learn every part of Seattle as we can, do some hiking, fishing, and whatever else. That’s what it’s all about, discovering wherever you may be. Because I pretty sure there’s something you haven’t yet done.
Thanks a lot man.
Alyx
Thanks, Alyx!
That’s the perfect mentality: treating wherever you are as a place worth discovering and exploring as much as possible. I’ve heard great things about Seattle, too, so you picked the perfect place to spend some time in before you go traveling.
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Awww, so beautiful Matt *tear*
Thank you, Leslie.
That means a lot to me!
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