Tuesday, December 18, 2018

How I Went from Confused and Careerless to Finding My Passion in Life



I grew up as an only child with a single mom on a struggling middle class income.  We never had excess funds for things like vacations or traveling although traveling wasn't something that I thought about doing because I hadn't been many places outside of my own bubble.  I was never one who could pin point the exact career that I wanted, ever. It wasn't until I was in an international tourism course in my 3rd year of university that I got the urge to travel.  I remember the very first day of class where everyone took turns around the class introducing themselves and the countries that they had been to.  I was just in awe.  There were a few foreign exchange students who had been to 10, 15, 20 countries.  There was my professor who had been to like 35 himself.  I sat there with my measly 3 countries (mexico and canada which i was too little to really remember and a family holiday to an all-inclusive in dominican republic) and a few U.S states.  It was in that course that I told myself that I was going to travel the world.  There was one problem though. I had NO CLUE how I was going to do that. I had no money. I had a $1000 a month rent living in the expensive city of Chicago. My mom had no extra money to give me. Regardless, I knew i'd find a way. In the 2 remaining years of university, I hustled my butt off and worked as many jobs as I could (at one point I had 5!) plus being in school.  I then got into working in high end restaurants in chicago which allowed me to quite my other random jobs and I worked worked worked.  I also saved saved saved!  I quickly mastered how to minimize my expenses, live on a budget, make money in the randomest ways (I even found furniture in dumpsters and refurbished them and sold them online and i also sold the majority of my clothes) I graduated from university in 2010 and i finished working the rest of the last summer and i moved my belonging from my apartment to my moms place (so i didn't have rent to pay), i packed my bags and went on my very first backpacking trip which was to western Europe (the usual first trip!). I was hooked. I have been traveling the world for various lengths of time and working any odd jobs or restaurant jobs that would replenish some of my bank account.  I never allowed myself to go broke (many assume this though).  I wouldn't and couldn't allow that to happen, especially because my mom was going through a lot of financial problems and needed my help (big time!). Despite the financial burden that i have on my shoulders by my mom, i didn't want to give up traveling. It's what i loved. it's what i knew best.  So i found a way to keep living my dream lifestyle and having a financial safety cushion.  Resulting in my mastering money management.

Although I STILL do not know what career i wanted, what i was meant to do for the rest of my life, I kept telling myself that it was ok.  I was young still and had "time" to figure it out.  I never let society or family pressure, of when i was going to get a "real job" or "settle down" or have a "normal" lifestyle, get to me. I just kept following my heart and my passion.  I knew that in time, the perfect opportunity would come along or come to mind.  I allowed time to provide me with a safety cushion for figuring it out and i allowed and used traveling to help me.  I faced so many struggles as a traveler, especially because i started backpacking years before the technology and tools that are available today.  My very first trip i didn't even have a clock because my flip phone didnt turn on. I l learned a lot about visas, visa on arrivals, passports, entrance and exit fees, and much more, the hard way because i never liked overplanning for my trip.  I once almost got deported going from Qatar to Turkey because my passport was full and i didnt realize that Turkey required a visa on arrival sticker put on an empty page once i got there.  Luckily, i had just one empty page left! haha. You can bet that i never made that mistake again! I realized how difficult it was to get all of the super and helpful info that i needed rather than the pretty and fun list of things to do and see when traveling.  So, i started keeping a small notebook and documented every important fact and info that i came across as i traveled and i slowly transformed my blog from an online journal to a info packed portal of necessary travel info. I created what i wish i had beforehand!

Traveling is the number one reason for who I am and where I am in my life.  Traveling taught me so much about myself, my life, what kind of life i want to have, the type of relationship that i want, where i want to live, what kind of person i wanted to be, what i cared about most, what i didn't care about at all, what i was passionate for, what skills i had, what i was good at, what i was not very good at, have triggered my anxiety (i've struggled with an anxiety disorder and depression for a while now), it strengthened me, it challenged me, it made me independent, self-sufficient, compassionate, caring, understanding, accepting, and so much more.  But, one thing remained missing. I still did not know what career i wanted.  Although i was unsure, i was sure about what I did NOT want in a career.  I did not want to work the regular unfulfilling 9-5 job, the corporate world did not resonate with my values or interests, i didn't want to hate having to go to work, and more. I also knew what i DID want too.  I did want to have financial, time, and spiritual freedom, i wanted to do what made me happy and didn't feel like a "job", i wanted to be able to work from anywhere that i wanted and to create my own schedule.  A part of me always knew that i wanted to start my own business but i never knew what, when, or how. I felt so successful at figuring out how to travel to 76 countries (was 75 until today when i arrived in my 76th country of Argentina!) by the age of 30, all on my own funds, without ever going broke.  Plus, i even took my mom on several trips to countries like Thailand, New Zealand, the UAE, Indonesia, Taiwan, and many more.  But, as the age of 30 crept closer, i had an internal pressure coming along on what path i wanted my life to go down.  When am i going to meet someone and have a family? buy a house? have a real career???

It was after a 5 month trip that i returned home from last June that i finally did it.  I took the leap (and the time commitment) to figure out what type of business i wanted. I had spent quite a few months leading up to June doing research on everything about the travel industry, see what motivated me, learn what was needed and desired in the travel world, and most importantly, asked myself what I really wanted.  I wanted to be able to use all of my travel knowledge, experience, expertise, and skills to help others achieve their travel goals (i had been helping people for free for so many years because i loved it and i wrote a blog that helped people too but never wanted to make money from it).  So i decided to become a travel coach.  As i was doing more research, i soon realized that there were no travel coaches that i could reach out to and learn from (unlike the online business, life, and health coaching industry).  Therefore, the natural problem solver in me decided to dive deep into learning everything that i needed to know, use, and do to become a travel coach and to start my own online coaching business.  Just like before i traveled, i again had no clue what to do or how to do it. But, i worked my butt off and made it happen.  Now, i am a business owner and the founder of The Travel Coach Network.  I wanted to create a place where people can learn everything that they need to know to become a travel coach and be their own boss or to simply learn how to incorporate more travel into their lives.  I've created exactly what i wish that i had or had known about years and years ago when i was just a confused backpacker! I I not only help people achieve their travel goals (through things like confidence building, overcoming fears and anxieties, budgeting, money management, figuring out where to go and when, and how to use travel to transform their life like it had done for me) but, I also help travel-lovers and wanderlusters who are in the same exact spot that i was of loving to travel and not knowing what kind of career they wanted or could have.  So, i help people turn their passion for travel, their travel skills and knowledge, their experiences and expertise, into their own online coaching business so they too can have the desired lifestyle that i have created for myself.

I have had a few ah-ha moments in my life where i told myself that despite not knowing how i was going to make something happen, I knew I'd figure out a way because it's what i wanted in life.  There were also many times in my life where i didn't let any excuses told me back or prevent me from achieving my goals.  So many people use any and every excuse that they can to push something off, to not do have the life that they truly want, or they choose to just settle for something isn't 100% fulfilling to them.

The lessons that I tell people are to always follow their heart, listen to their gut, try new things, keep on exploring not only the world but everything about life, learn as much as you can about everything and anything, don't settle for something that you just don't feel is right for you, live to your highest potential, go outside of your comfort level and challenge yourself, if you can't find the solution to something then create it yourself,  don't let society, friends, family, social media or anyone else tell you who you are or how to live your life, don't be afraid of not knowing, don't be afraid to fail (because you will over and over again), apply purpose and meaning to every single thing that happens in your life (it helps you get through a heck of a lot much easier), it's okay to not always be or feel okay, just keep on going, do what you feel like doing every day (even if that's turning your phone off and having a lazy day on the couch and not doing anything else all day), and always always be a good person and do the right thing (i like to think that any good that i have done in my lifetime is the reason that i had so many "travel angels" ,as i like to call them, help me at some point during my travels, sometimes when i was in dire need of help or lost.  It will always come back to you!)