Negative reactions to your travel plans: how to deal?

By Crom

Are you planning to travel by yourself, or even to quit your job to travel long term? You must be very excited about your decision! Unfortunately you might also face some negative reactions. As long-term travelers we know that the people around you are not always as positive about your plans.

Have you already heard the following reactions?

  • That’s really great, but don’t you think it’s too dangerous to travel alone?
  • Forget it….you’re not being realistic
  • That’s too expensive…how are you going to support yourself?

and so on…..Sounds familiar?

Better get used to it. You fall into the category of people who creating a new life for themselves. And every new creation comes with challenges.

The most common challenge is fear, not just our own but the fear offered by others. In most cases this fear comes from our own friends, family and loved ones. It’s very hard to ignore this.. Often the fear offered by others makes you doubt yourself. You’ll ask yourself: ‘Was it really such a great idea to sell all my stuff and move into a yurt?’.

Well…before you panic and regret the decisions you’ve made: think about how valid the fears of other people are. Are those fears real? Should they be real to you? But to answer that, we should first take a look at that word ‘real’. What is reality?

What is reality?

In order to answer that question I will use the help of a very famous civilized man, who was influenced by non-civilized cultures: Albert Einstein. In the last century Einstein defined reality as: ‘that which is invariant’.

For example: if you are in a room with other people and see a clown entering the room. You can ask someone else if he or she also sees the clown. If others do see it, the clown is invariant so it is real. If you see the clown and the people next to you don’t, then the clown is variant and therefore it is not real.

tonguePhotos Albert Einstein (by Galaxy FM) and Aztec Calendar (by Kim Alaniz) - License CC 2.0)

Well, that theory served Einstein for a while. Eventually he started to do experiments with small particles. He then saw that the teachings from non-civilized cultures made sense. He discovered that in the world of small particles (not just atoms but also molecules) the only constant is variant.

Since everything is made of small particles he had to conclude that invariant (reality) only exists when you use only one person as reference. The moment you use another person, variant occurs. We can learn from this that reality is only created by the observer. In other words: reality is personal. Each person has his or her own reality. Thus the theory of relativity. That caused Einstein to make a new statement:

“Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.”

  • Albert Einstein

Now why am I saying this to you?

Because it is very important to believe in your dream and keep it real in your mind. The word “reality” can only describe that which you realized, that which you created: your creation. If your dream is to quit your job, to live in a van, to be a digital nomad or to travel by yourself, that is YOUR reality.

Creating your own reality

Let’s take it from another angle now, the angle of language. Look at the word ‘creation’: Creed+Action. Creed means belief or set of believes, so:

Creation = Belief in Action.

We are Creed-Actors of our own reality. And we do creed-act according to our own beliefs. Whatever you believe is real to you.

“In their own image
their world is fashioned.
No wonder they don’t understand”

  • Rush (Natural science)

So how to deal with these negative reactions?

When anyone tells you that what you want is impossible, they are simply offering you aspects of their creed-action, their reality.

When that occurs, you have a choice to make. Either creed-act your reality according to your own specifications, or creed-act your reality with their specifications. Either way you cannot escape the fact that You are constantly creed-acting your own reality.

So what to do?

Just be aware that when people offer you the specifications of their reality, that is all they are doing nothing more. Of course also understand that in their mind they believe to be doing this for your own good. So instead of react with anger or compliance, simply understand what is happening, see it for what it is. And make your choice.

One example of using your own specifications to creed-act your reality is Roger Bannister.

Until 1954 the world believed that it was humanly impossible to run one mile under 4 minutes. Roger Bannister refused to accept that as specifications of his reality. He believed not only was possible but he could do it. So he trained until he did it (3:59.4), just half second under 4 minutes. But he did it, he set a new specification of reality and many other athletes borrowed his specification to build their own realities. Today’s one mile run records are (below 3:45) much lower than the record set by Roger Bannister, however he was the first to choose this specification of reality.

The most important thing to know is that reality comes from within, from you thoughts and Creeds.

Below there is something extra, food for thought.

Did you ever receive negative reactions to your travel plans? How did you deal with that? We are curious to hear your solutions, so just comment below!

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