What Have I Learned Traveling?

3 thing I learned from 200 days of solo traveling

As of October 1st, I completed 7 months of solo traveling and was heading home.

Travel Itinerary:

• 4 months in South America – Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina
• 1 month in Central America – Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico
• 2 months in Europe – Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Hungary, Spain, England, Italy, France

Wow. That’s surreal to even type and reflect upon.

First and foremost, It was a trip of a lifetime. Crazy to look back on events that were 3, 4, 5 months ago and still all a part of this same trip!

So let’s get into it, as this is the most asked question I’ve heard after my longterm travel: “What have you learned?“

Disclaimer:  Let me say this, all of my advice and insights gained are ALL things you’ve heard before. The difference, I believe, is by living, we reconfirm these beliefs while challenging others.

So I’d like to distill my growth trip lessons into 3 things, because, well, everyone loves lists of 3 😀

1. Travel to Change Your Inner Voice

When we feel stuck in life what questions do we ask ourselves internally? How do we get unstuck? How do we pull ourselves out of it and get back to a state of happiness and living a fulfilled life?

When I was working and would have a bad day, I didn’t have a system in place to assess my life’s bigger picture, and be grateful for what I had. Often I would look back on past months and bemoan that I hadn’t pushed personal projects forward. With no perceived tangible growth for my mind, body, love life, and soul, it was difficult to be entirely in love with where my life was.

The biggest benefit of travel is it takes you completely out of your comfort zone. The language is different, the money, the public transportation, the food, the grocery stores, the dress codes, the slang, everything!

Traveling, every outward stimuli is different in some way. So in this state of complete newness where every internal comfort of familiarity is removed, it’s on you to decide how to lead your life. (And magnify this significantly if you’re traveling by yourself.)

Going somewhere and not knowing anybody in a city, this is a feeling never felt before at home! And an entire society existing without knowing who Brad Rossman is!! Haha, crazy I know, but it’s true! 

At first this feeling of being alone can be daunting, especially for someone like me who loves being the center of attention! But I want to make something clear here, just because someone is alone, doesn’t mean they are lonely. In fact the fondest memories I had on this trip were experienced alone. Sure I’ll remember the hikes, the parties, the Tinder dates entirely through Google translate, and above all seeing my remote friends in these places. But the greatest revelations, insights, and periods of creativity came from solitude and experiencing things presently with myself.

As you see in my YouTube videos I’m often hanging by myself putting a Spanglish video together. One of the best ways for me to experience things was crafting it in a video I could share with you. You would think that putting up social media posts in the moment would help someone not feel alone as they can share their travel experiences with their friends in the moment. But doing so sacrifices the moment. And the moment is all we have. 

So why is being lonely so powerful you ask? Because it allows YOU to win from within. Think about all the people, technology, and things that hold ownership over your mind. We act not independently, but in accordance with appeasing all of these disparate people. We act certain ways to appease parents, friends, bosses, colleagues, instagram followers, etc. Rather than consulting your inner voice, we’re so quick to jump from moment to moment, thought to thought without any reflection.

Think of your 3 selves: work self, your social self, your private self. 3 different people to 3 different groups. And sadly our private selves are not time spent wisely. For me, it’s usually decompressing after spending so much time on work and social personalities – scrolling Instagram or catching up on our shows. Less than 5 minutes a day are spent doing nothing but pondering our day and feelings. 

So in traveling to a far away land, ALL of these internal voices and perceived pressures vanish. Every worry, doubt, fear, and overall stress inducer was silenced.

Complete silence from my work mind and my social mind. Leaving me with just my private voice.

When can you say the last time you woke up naturally, didn’t check your phone first thing, and instead pondered how you wanted to spend the day? There’s something so powerful in something so simplistic, being present and content. Adults love live to overcomplicate things and live in a state of angst. It’s not until we silence all these surrounding voices and have a conversation with ourselves that we start to realize this. 

^ This picture captures one of my fondest memories of my trip. Simply sitting above an almost dried ravine and looking out at the city of Cusco. Watch my 1st video from this day to hear directly where my mind was one month into solo travel. No phone, no external voices, no external distractions, what ideas I manifested in my mind were what influenced me and in turn how I spent that day. On this particular Tuesday in Cusco, I didn’t do anything noteworthy to write about, but I can tell you it was one of the most enjoyable days I remember from the trip. Complete clarity and calm in my own mind 🙂

This leads to the 2nd thing I learned:

2. Develop a mindfulness practice, be present

Our attention is often torn between memories of the past or imaginations of the future. Until, that is, we remember to be present

Headspace app narrator with that sweet British accent

Before we begin let’s set our state, watch:

Listen:

Developing a mindfulness practice is one of the most important things you can do to improve your life & probably the one thing you won’t do.

Mindfulness is more than sitting still and not thinking about anything. It is the quality or state of  being conscious or aware of something. It’s the only time you get all day to have a conversation with yourself.

We talk all day with colleagues, friends, family, and strangers online in article comment sections, but rarely do we do the same with ourselves. So quick to dole out advice to others on how to live, but unable to have that same conversation manifest results within ourselves. A Mindfulness practice can help.

Keeping our life’s to-do’s top of mind just keeps you in a constant state of angst. That’s why everyone constantly needs a vacation from their lives! We’re constantly looking to escape our life, rather than looking to improve the quality of our life. A Mindfulness practice can help.

Try going 24 hours without using your phone, turn it off, leave it with a friend so you can’t cheat, and go about your day. It’s incredibly difficult to do so and probably non-negotiable for most of you. Again, mindfulness can help.

A blessing in disguise was having my iPhone stolen in Colombia a week into my trip, forcing me to interact with people old-school. We clutch to our phones when alone in public because it’s just not acceptable to be alone with our thoughts anymore! People would rather the comfort of continuous digital stimulation than being alone with their own thoughts. Absolutely insane I type this as a matter of fact statement when smartphones just turned 10 years old this year. A societal correction is coming, and mindfulness will be at the forefront of it.

Mindfulness helps give you clarity. Clarity for today. Clarity for being content watching clouds without the need to reach for your phone in your pocket. Clarity for enjoying each bite of a meal (I have some expertise here having had 80% of meals over 7 months by myself with no phone). Content while laughing weirdly walking the streets of South America saying, “Brad you’re in fucking Chile right now! This is absolutely absurd! You did it hahahaha!” Weird for me to type now, but probably weirder if you’d seen that Brad traversing the city streets. :p

Mindfulness to me is enjoying the daily mundane while being content on the future. No stressing the future, not trying to re-live the past in my head, and doing today what was best to move my growth trip forward while exploring, blogging, trekking, and building Productivity Stack.

3. Don’t Wait to Live Your Life

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I vividly remember the initial reactions I received when sharing my plans for leaving my job in NYC and vagabonding for half a year. Most were in the realm of confused, perplexed, or downright incensed (hi Dad!) I would leave a well paying job to essentially go on vacation. But most were also supportive and relayed it was brave of me to go on this trip alone. Which is funny because bravery wasn’t something I ever considered back then and even now don’t feel I was any extra bit of brave than anyone else.

But when we become comfortable, it’s harder to step outside of that lifestyle and mindset and do something that challenges us. 

From the outsiders perspective I seemed to be on a successful career trajectory: 5 years in a company, manager in NYC, on the path to having a successful career in the Burger empire! In the States often our self worth is tied to our occupation. Go to any meetup in NYC and you’ll be greeted with “what do you do? where do you work?” and promptly be judged based on your answer. While we devote most of our lives to our careers, they are not and never will be who we are.

Internally I have always perceived myself differently than most. My father started a business, and so I’ve always grown up with the mindset that I too would create something of lasting value. And that drove me for a long time. But 5 years into a corporate life I wasn’t satisfied with how I was growing professionally and personally. I wasn’t doing the things to grow and become the person I had always envisioned I would be. A younger 22 year old Brad, who had just graduated college and had dreams of building a legacy and starting a business (shoutout to Datativity!) would be disappointed I was complacent living for the weekends in NYC rather than building something for myself.

So in my story, I was comfortable and complacent with meager success. Classic tale of doing well vs living well.

I first heard of long term travel, vagabonding, in a Tim Ferriss article as an alternative to an MBA. He makes the argument to travel for a determined amount of time with the goal being personal growth. This really struck a chord with me, and after some researching and planning, I decided it was best to head south to South America where there cultures are largely intact and learn a bunch of Spanish! 

Traveling alone was a little scary, but that bit of trepidation was dwarfed by excitement for what I would see and do. I frequently reminded myself how fortunate I was to go on this journey. And so I wanted to maximize my results from this just as if I was still working at a full time job.

I’m very proud of what I tangibly did: this blog, built Productivitystack.co, mi Espanol es bastante bien, and launched an award winning YouTube series :D. And mentally: implemented a daily mindfulness practice into my morning routine with a streak of meditating 34 days in a row. 

I prioritized my growth and development for 7 months over everything else – partying, social, work, sports, Netflix, etc. And it felt damn good to spend so much time with myself, and have alignment on who I want to become in this world and how I can get there.

So my advice to you is every year do something that challenges your beliefs and gets you out of your comfort zone.

You can’t replicate the experience of traveling to another country from home! Experiencing how they’ve created a completely independent culture from what you believe and know. I don’t care how good Narcos is on Netflix, you know nothing about Medellin, Colombia until you’ve visited and seen the majestic jungle city in a basin of a mountain range! 

And when you travel, leave your phone in the hotel room, be present, and take in another culture without being split-brained communicating with your world at home. Pro tip: Can’t get pick pocketed if you leave the iPhone at the hotel ;).

4. BONUS: Love Yourself

I used to be very concerned with how other people perceived me, professionally and socially. So much so that a fear of failure has held me back many a times in life. My famed* YouTube series would never have launched while living in Miami or NYC! A blend of self doubt coupled with complacency lead to a failure to launch on many past Brad ventures.

But traveling I learned to appreciate who I’ve become. I have a highest perceived self that I’m striving to become, and I know I’m actively working towards being that ‘Bradley’. 

Before this becomes an ego trip (too late!) I want to say I don’t think people love themselves as much as they should. You should be damn proud of who you are and what you’ve accomplished in your life. You’re the only You that will ever walk this damn planet! So don’t fixate your mind on all that you’ve messed up, focus on how great you are, and the joy you bring to others lives. There’s a network of people you influence whether you know it or not, be proud knowing you have them supporting you. 

“Life is short, find your purpose, do what you love, be bold, be your best self. Do what you can’t.”

Whatever your mantra is, live by it!

Be true to your highest perceived self that you are striving to become. After traveling, that’s how I strive to live. 

And if ever you feel lost and stuck in life… Quit your job and buy a one way ticket somewhere! 😀 It’s worked for at least one person you know!