116. Travel as Personal Growth

In episode 116 of the Curate Your Life podcast, Temetria connects travel to her “curate your life” process: have a vision, take away what doesn’t fit, and add what does. She explains how travel prompts growth by pushing you outside your comfort zone through new places, cultures, languages, and routines, and shares that she’s currently headed to Italy for the first time with a day in Barcelona, reflecting on how even buying electrical adapters mirrors adapting what you already have rather than starting over. She encourages listeners to see personal growth as something that can be exciting, like planning a trip, and offers updated travel tips: unpack immediately, keep a ready-to-go toiletries bag, pack a versatile makeup palette and brushes, hang clothes upon arrival, check weather and pack layers, use fresheners and organizers, bring flight comfort basics, always ask for upgrades, fly early, and try the “Sudoku packing method” via @jeanwang on Instagram.

00:00 Podcast Intro
00:34 Travel as Life Curation
01:19 Growth Outside Comfort Zone
02:53 Italy Trip and Adapters
05:35 Plan Your Dream Trip
07:49 Growth Can Be Fun
08:24 Updated Travel Tips
09:34 Packing and On-the-Go Essentials
11:52 Upgrades and Early Flights
12:56 Packing Hack and Wrap Up

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Transcript

0:00

You're listening to the Curate Your Life podcast with Temetria, episode 116.

Temetria 0:07

Hi, I'm Temetria a single woman in midlife. But not quite ready for the Moomoo life. I'm focused on curating a life that I love. A life that is bold and vibrant and full of purpose. And I'm passionate about helping other women do the same. So join me. If you're ready to create curate a big, bold, beautiful life that you love.

0:34

Okay, so today I want to talk about travel and how it fits so perfectly into the Curate Your Life process. It's such a fun metaphor for the process, so I've been thinking about this. You know the process. Have a vision, take away what doesn't fit, and add what does. Travel is exactly like that. When you're traveling, you usually have a plan for where you want to go and what you want to do. As you travel, you leave behind obligations, work, and your everyday responsibilities. Then you add new experiences, new places, and new people to your life. I also think travel is one of the best ways to expand your mind and grow yourself in more ways than one. Travel changes you. It makes you step out of your comfort zone, literally. You have to leave your home, your city, your town, and go somewhere else. Even if it's just another city or another town, even if it's just a day trip, you're doing something different. Even on a road trip, you're not following the same path you normally follow. You're heading towards a new destination and creating new pathways in your mind. If you're traveling somewhere far away or overseas, you have to adapt. You have to adapt to a new culture. You might have to learn a few words of a new language or figure out how to navigate a city that's completely unfamiliar. Maybe the food is different, the customs are different, the cultural norms are different. Your brain is out of its comfort zone. It's learning and doing new things. So when you're traveling and experiencing new things, you're growing. You're... Again, you're outside of your comfort zone, but it's something that we usually plan for and look forward to. Most people enjoy traveling, and even if you do, you're still adapting and learning new ways of doing things and making mental shifts. And I was thinking about this because I'm actually traveling right now. I'm on my way to a big trip. I'm going to Italy for the first time and spending a day in Barcelona, and these are completely new places for me. Italian is a new language. I know a couple of words from reading books, but I'm gonna have to figure things out. I think most people speak English. I think many European countries are much better than we are at learning multiple languages. But even the Spanish in Spain is going to be different from the little bit of Spanish I know from living in Texas. So I'm going to have to figure out how to communicate, how to get my needs met, how to navigate these new places, and that will require growth. I'll come back a different person than I was before this trip. I'll have new experiences, new memories, maybe even a few new core memories. I will have grown and changed. And what really got me thinking about this was buying electrical adapters for the trip. I had to make sure that my chargers and all of those little things that we normally don't think about work. And it hit me, just like I need those adapters to make those everyday things work in a new environment, I'm going to be adapting too. I'm gonna have to make myself fit, at least temporarily, into this new culture and new place. And traveling really is such a great way to expand your horizons. I love travel. I love the adventure. I love the newness of it all, and I can't wait to try the food, to hear the people speaking different languages and observe all the different cultures. I just can't wait The other thing I realized is how perfectly this fits into the curate your life process. I'm not throwing away my hairdryer and buying a completely new one just because I'm traveling. I'm working with what I've al- I'm working with what I already have, but I'm adapting it. I'm adding an adapter so it works in a new environment. And that's exactly what we do in our own lives. We don't always have to throw everything out and start over. Sometimes we simply adapt what we already have. We enhance it. We add something that allows it to work better in the life that we're creating. And for this trip, I'm leaving behind work and my normal responsibilities for the week. I'm adding new experiences and new culture and new perspectives. Sometimes we think personal growth has to be hard. We picture goals and plans as drudgery. But what if the goal and the plan are taking you somewhere exciting? Planning a trip is actually very similar to creating a life you love You sit down and decide what you want. In this case, it's a trip you wanna take. Where do you wanna go? What do you want the experience to be like? For me, I'm not hiking through the woods. I'm exploring historical sites and famous landmarks. We're on a cruise, so we'll be visiting different ports instead of staying in one city. So what's the vision for your trip? For this one, it's seeing the highlights and experiencing as much as I can in the time that I have. Then think about what do you need to leave behind. For me, it's work, it's obligations, it's my regular routines. What do you need to add? I've added a travel companion, my mom. Actually, if I'm being honest, she added me. She invited me on this trip with her. Who are you traveling with? What do you want to experience? What are you wearing? What are you bringing with you to create the way you wanna feel? Is it a luxury trip where you're dressed up and going out every night? Is it a sporty trip? Is it a spa retreat where you're living in yoga pants and taking wellness classes? Are you biking through Europe or cruising on a river barge? You plan it all. You plan how you're getting there. You plan what you're packing. You plan how much you're gonna spend. And sometimes part of taking away is cutting back on everyday expenses so you can afford the experience you really want. You might also decide to add knowledge. When I went to France, I learned enough French to get around, order wine, ask where the bathroom was, and understand just enough to survive and get by. I have not done that for Italy or Spain, so this trip will be a little different. I'll be relying more on merchants and vendors and tour guides who speak English. So I just want you to think about this. Growing and changing doesn't always have to feel like hard work. Yes, sometimes there are things that you have to do to reach your goals, but sometimes the goal itself is the adventure. It's travel. It's experiencing new cultures, meeting new people, expanding your world. Those things still help you grow. They still push you outside your comfort zone, but they also lead to something wonderful. So that was what I had for you today, and I was going to add one of my earlier episodes that had travel tips, and I realized that some of those routines and the way that I think about travel has changed, and I decided to just give you the updated version of those travel tips. So the one I started with before, and that I'll start with again, is really re-entry when you get home. Unpack right away when you get home from a trip. That way you set yourself up for success the next day, and it's faster to unpack. You're probably putting a lot of things in the hamper. You're rehanging the things you didn't wear and then putting away shoes and accessories. And I'm telling you, when you wake up the next morning, you will appreciate the you from the night before or the morning before, in some cases, that took the time to do that, and it normally takes about thirty minutes. I have a rule. I unpack as soon as I get home, no matter what time I get home. Tip number two, if you travel regularly, have a toiletries bag that is always ready to go. Travel sizes of your skincare and hair products, duplicates of your staple makeup items. That way you're not scrambling and searching for things at the last minute. If they don't make travel sizes of the things you use, use refillable travel containers for your favorite lotions and potions. I like to take my own things because I don't wanna chance not liking the fragrance of the hotel products, or worse yet, having an allergic reaction to something So tip number three is one of my favorite things is to have an eyeshadow and blush palette that you keep in your bag. A small or medium palette won't take up too much room in your bag, but it gives you variety. You can also get and keep a great set of travel makeup brushes. That way you only need to add a few things to your makeup bag Tip number four, take a few minutes to hang up your clothes when you get to your hotel or your destination. I like to give myself a few minutes to hang things and press anything that needs it. That way it saves time on the back end when you're getting ready and changing throughout the day. Next tip, check the weather, check the weather, check the weather, and bring layers, and bring a small travel umbrella for your carry-on or a small poncho A dryer sheet or a sachet in your luggage helps to keep things fresh. Shoe bags keep whatever is on the earth off your clothes. I carry a lint roller and a travel laundry bag for dirty clothes and a satin pillowcase, 'cause they're good for your hair and your skin. For long flights and international travel, I like travel slippers and what I like to call a spramp kit. Thank you, Just Jack. That's toothpaste and toothbrush, Evian facial spray, and things to touch up my makeup, just basic things. I'm not the girls who are doing the big mask on the plane and that type of thing. I keep it pretty basic the next tip is always ask for an upgrade. It can't hurt. The worst thing they can say is no. Ask for an upgrade on your flight and at your hotel, and I say at the hotel, go to the front desk. I learned this the hard way. I met some friends in Vegas once, and they all checked in. They got there before me. They all checked in, and they got upgraded to suites. I checked in on the app to expedite things, and I just got my regular room, which was nice, but if I'd gone, I maybe could have gotten upgraded to a suite if I'd talked to a person. The next tip is to fly as early in the day as possible. I like the first flight out. My friends don't, but I do. I think it cuts down on the possibility of delays. And pro tip for just life, same thing with doctor's appointments. I make my doctor's appointments as early as possible before the backups start to happen. And then my last tip is about packing. As much as I like to travel, I've always struggled with packing. Well, not anymore. A friend of mine just introduced me to the best packing hack. It's called the Sudoku packing method, and I'm not going to try to explain it to you. The tip is to go find @jeanwang on Instagram. It's J-E-A-N-W-A-N-G, and she's on Instagram, and you're welcome. So that's what I have for you for this episode. Happy traveling, my friends, and just know that personal growth can be as simple and as much fun as traveling. If you want to continue the conversation with like-minded women who are creating lives they love, join us in the Curate Your Life Facebook group. Or if you're ready for the tools that will help you build a life you don't feel the need to escape from, schedule a consultation to discover how coaching can benefit you. You can find the links in the show notes. Until next time