Taking a year off to travel in 2022 changed my life for the better. Traveling for a year didn’t just take me to new places; it changed the way I think, work, and live. At the time, I saw it as a 1 year adventure from my normal routine. In hindsight, it became a turning point. Looking back, it’s clear that traveling for a year can change your life by building resilience, reshaping priorities, and teaching you how to thrive in uncertainty. This blog post will highlight experiences I have had in the 2 years since I’ve come home from a year of travel, and highlight how traveling for a year can change your life.
Content:
- How traveling builds resilience
- Gained perspective on what truly matters
- Gratitude for the life I returned to
- How traveling for a year changed my professional life
- Learned how to thrive in uncertainty
- Why traveling for a year changed my life for the better
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How traveling builds resilience
One of the most profound ways traveling for a year changed my life was by strengthening my ability to adapt. Long-term travel removes the predictability most of us rely on. Plans fall apart, transportation changes, communication breaks down, and comfort is never guaranteed. Memorably, right off the bat, my trip started off with uncertainty as I learned upon trying to check into my flight to Costa Rica, that I needed a confirmed return flight for them to allow me on the flight. I only had a one-way ticket. Needless to say, I figured out what to do otherwise the whole trip might have been dead in the water. Or the time a few months later when I inadvertently landed in the path of a hurricane, but still ended up making the most of my hurricane interruptus trip. Learning how to think on my feet, sometimes with limited time, information and resources was the harbinger of things to come; but it gave me the superpower of feeling like I can make anything happen with just a phone and whatever happened to be in my backpack.
At first, this constant uncertainty was unsettling, but eventually I learned to trust that sometimes you just have to dive in and trust in the belief that you’ll be able to navigate whatever comes. Like how as I was trying to climb a rickety bunk bed late one night in Salento, Colombia; my 5 other roommates spontaneously invited me to join them on the 6 hour hike of the Cocora Valley at the crack of dawn the next morning. Did I know any of them for longer than 2 minutes? Nope. Did I go? Yes! (I think I said “yes” while still on the bunkbed ladder). Did I have the time of my life – yes!
Over time, building the muscle memory of navigating unknown places and situations with less-than-perfect information and still experiencing amazing things and loving (almost) every moment becomes empowering. Indeed how else would I test my human limits without making silly mistakes like choosing to climb Kilimanjaro in 5 days? I learned to problem-solve in real time, stay calm when things went wrong, and trust myself to handle challenges without overthinking them. Travel forced me to develop resilience—not as a concept, but as a lived skill. By the time I returned home, I no longer panicked when things didn’t go as planned. I had learned how to adjust and move forward.
Gained perspective on what truly matters
Another reason traveling for a year changed my life was the perspective it gave me. Being immersed in different cultures exposed me to people who lived with fewer material possessions but often with greater presence, connection, and contentment. It challenged my assumptions about success, productivity, and happiness. Like meeting Sebastiana, my indigenous homestay mother during my visit to Amantani Island in Lake Titicaca. While the inhabitants of the island lived largely substance lifestyles – with very little money – their lives were rich with purpose and community. The nutrient-dense food they grew kept them healthy in a way that all the money in the world cannot buy as evidenced by the huge number of super-centenarians who live there – still tending to the sheep even past 100 years of age. Who is truly richer? Us or them?
That shift in perspective stayed with me. I came home clearer about what mattered most: health, meaningful relationships, purpose, and time. Many of the pressures that once consumed my energy no longer felt as urgent. Travel helped me separate what was genuinely important from what was simply noise or peer pressure.
Gratitude for the life I returned to
Traveling for a year also deepened my sense of gratitude. Coming home, I saw my life through a completely different lens. Stability, opportunity, and support were no longer things I took for granted—they felt earned and deeply appreciated.
Having traveled to many places where safe drinking water wasn’t a given, made me grateful for the fact that I have plentiful potable water coming out of the taps when I returned home.
Having traveled to places where being a woman alone meant I had to plan my activities around my safety; and made me grateful that in Canada I rarely have to worry about safety on account of the fact that I’m a woman.
Having seen the poverty that too much of the world lives in, made me grateful for the job that I got to return to.
Having seen children carrying their infant siblings on their backs while begging on the streets made me realize how lucky my entire life had been.
I came back from my travels feeling like I had won the lottery just for having the life that I had before I had left.
That gratitude changed how I approached everyday life. Instead of feeling restless or dissatisfied, I felt grounded. I wasn’t chasing more; I was fully present with what I already had. This mindset became a powerful source of motivation rather than complacency.
How traveling for a year changed my professional life
The impact of long-term travel didn’t stop at personal growth – it transformed my professional performance. In the years since returning from my year of travel, I achieved the best job performance results of my career. Results that prior to my sabbatical I would not have believed were possible. When handed tough portfolios, I remained calm and curious – whereas before, I may have panicked and let myself ruminate in limiting beliefs. I now approach challenges with confidence, handle ambiguity with curiosity, and generally remain far more composed under pressure than I was before my sabbatical.
One of the greatest gifts I got from my travels was learning how to make things work when everything went wrong. Like when I was 200 kilometers into an 800 kilometer journey to walk across Spain on the Camino de Santiago, and my feet were so swollen and blistered I could barely walk from the shower to the bed. How was I going to make it another 600 kilometers? It turns out – by just taking the next step, and the one after that until I made all the way to Santiago de Compostela. At that low point just 200 kilometers in, it seemed like the odds were stacked against me making it – and yet I did. I just kept moving forward – as much as my body would allow each day – and I beat the odds that I did not expect to overcome. Bringing that experience into the context of my professional life – makes me realize that even if I view the odds as improbable that I could attain a certain goal – if it is something I’m tasked with, that I believe in, and that I want. I can find a way to make it work – even if I myself don’t quite believe it possible to begin with.
Travel has trained me to function without perfect conditions – and most of all: not to fear failures or setbacks. Fear of failure, is often the thing that holds us back. If I do fail, then at least I get to learn something – and if I am successful, then I would sure be glad I did not let fear hold me back. Barring dangerous endeavors, I’m now much more likely to just jump into a challenging task and see how things fall – good or bad – rather that wringing my hands at the sidelines. Deadlines, shifting priorities, and complex problems no longer feel overwhelming. I have learned how to thrive with uncertainty, a skill that translated directly into stronger decision-making, leadership, and focus at work.
Learned how to thrive with uncertainty
Perhaps the most lasting lesson from traveling for a year was learning how to coexist with uncertainty. I used to fear uncertainty. Having to take action without having perfect information, or being able to accurately predict what was going to happen used make me feel uneasy. Travel threw me off the cliff of uncertainty. During my year traveling, I was constantly having to take actions or make decisions without perfect information. Whether it was language barriers or a shifting political climate in a given country where I was traveling; I often found myself forced out of my comfort zone and pushed to take action despite uncertainty – and more often than not, everything worked out more than fine.
Nothing is life is truly certain. You can be doing everything according to plan completely in your comfort zone, and something could happen that completely turns your life upside down – it’s the nature of life. Travel made me realize that I can thrive in uncertain situations – and that has made me stronger. There’s even a silver lining to uncertainty, in that if you approach it with curiosity, you may end up gaining experiences you never would have gained had it not been for having the bravery to take action rather than overthink on the sidelines.
Why traveling for a year changed my life for the better
In the end, traveling for a year didn’t pull me away from my life—it prepared me to be a better version of myself for it. It made me more resilient, more grateful, and more mentally strong. It reshaped my values, elevated my professional performance, and taught me how to navigate uncertainty with confidence. Long after the journey ended, its impact remains. Traveling for a year changed my life—not because of where I went, but because of who I became along the way.