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When Heath and I first began touring, we set a really clear objective:
Go to all 50 states in a yr for our honeymoon.
It was loopy particular—all the way down to the time-frame—however that’s what helped us make it occur.
(Okay “technically” we crossed into Alaska one yr and one week after our honeymoon began. However I name {that a} win!)
For the previous eight years, we’ve continued to journey however with much less concrete objectives:
- RV on each New Zealand Islands
- RV in Europe
- See the autumn leaves within the northeast
- Zipline in another country (which we simply crossed off final month in Mexico!)
- Spend half of the yr in a foreign country
These have been nice objectives to information how we plan our journey every year, however Heath and I’ve craved one thing just a little larger.
Setting Intentional Journey Targets
I acquired main déjà vu beginning to write this weblog submit as a result of I noticed Heath and I discuss objective setting on a regular basis! Often on the finish of December once we write our year-end evaluations. We’re very obsessed for not being productiveness gurus.
However we each love having large objectives. They information our selections and assist us select the precise path once we are confronted with choices.
We’ve talked about journey objectives usually with our buddies Kara and Nate. We visited all 50 states; they visited 100 international locations. And after we every achieved our objectives, there was virtually an vacancy there. All of us felt the necessity to assume up a brand new objective to attain.
In a whole lot of methods, there’s strain that the subsequent objective be even larger and higher.
After Heath labored a job in every state, so many individuals stated “Now work a job in every nation!”
Between Instagram and journey blogs and Youtubers, I believe it is a frequent feeling. It’s not sufficient to only full-time RV or journey with your loved ones. You’ll want to go to each nationwide park or go to each Disney park or accomplish some epic objective that can wow everybody.
I’m not a fan of that social strain, however I do see the attraction of getting a single, intentional objective to information journey.
Why Set Journey Targets?
I hear the entire time from new RVers the identical, form of foolish query: “How do you intend the place to go?”
I completely get it! If you open your life as much as journey, you abruptly notice the world is at your fingertips. Particularly with an RV. Wherever you’ll be able to drive, you’ll be able to go to! It may be onerous to decide on.
That is why I like setting a tangible objective. It may be easy like spending Christmas with my nieces and nephews or difficult like visiting 50 microbreweries in Colorado. No matter it’s, it helps information and anchor you as you journey so that you don’t really feel aimless as you wander, one thing I do know many vacationers have felt at one level or one other.
For Heath and I, our objectives have appeared like this:
2014: Go to all 50 states
2015: ✅ Go to all 50 states (nonetheless had Hawaii and Alaska to go!) and dwell for affordable within the RV to repay all our debt so we are able to hold touring
2016: ✅ Re-visit the entire west coast + RV overseas for the primary time
2017: ✅ Re-visit the entire east coast
2018: ✅ Spend half of the yr RVing overseas
2019: ✅ Take our daughter on her first worldwide RVing journey (Italy)
2020: ✅ Full-time RV within the states as a household of three
2021: ❎ the primary yr we didn’t set a journey objective as a result of I knew I needed child #2 and we have been constructing a campground so we took little journeys as a substitute of any large journey. It was bizarre not having a journey objective, and we missed it.
Aside from not paying off our scholar debt till mid-2017 (why did we predict we may pay all of it off in a yr?), we achieved all of those loopy large objectives and began every year with a powerful path.
Generally that path modified. In 2020, we rapidly switched from “Let’s see if we love full-time RVing with youngsters as a lot as we liked it as a pair” to “Let’s purchase a home, the world is in turmoil and we wish a secure place to land.” It was a giant pivot on the time, however one which has allowed us to chase different objectives, like having our son, constructing a campground, and residing in a home collectively for the primary time in our marriage. 100% was the right choice for us.
And now that we do have a house base, we are able to begin trying overseas once more and chasing a objective I scribbled down with a query mark subsequent to it again in 2016: RVing the world over.
RVing Throughout the World
Heath and I (clearly) love RVing. I imply have a look at that checklist above. Seven years of my life have been devoted to it! And it’s our absolute favourite approach to journey.
I actually have a complete checklist of all of the international locations the place RVing is a factor so we are able to begin brainstorming the place to RV subsequent. Spoiler: we’re about to move to France to spend a month RVing throughout southern France which is thought for being one of the crucial RV-friendly components of Europe.
With the youngsters becoming a member of us on adventures, we’re aiming to be much more intentional with our journey and set a brand new objective for a complete household. I knew I needed RVing world wide to be part of it, however I wasn’t actually certain the place to begin. So I requested myself a query:
How Many Nations Do I Wish to Go to?
I pulled up Google Maps and a spreadsheet. I like a superb spreadsheet—the extra organized, the higher.
I began making an inventory of all of the international locations we’ve visited to this point:
I knew off the highest of my head the place we had visited with the youngsters, however actually didn’t know what number of international locations Heath and I had visited. Heath and I’ve visited 9 international locations collectively, Ellie 5, and Eli 4. (Sure, it’s going to hassle me till we make it again to Rome and go to Vatican Metropolis that Ellie and Eli haven’t visited the identical variety of international locations!)
I had no concept what number of international locations I needed to go to or what number of international locations I needed to RV in. I do know many buddies who’ve the objective to go to 100 international locations and even each nation (at the moment 195), however these objectives don’t attraction to me. They’re just a little too large. Particularly if you’re packing alongside a double-stroller on all these adventures!
I took to my spreadsheet and created a “Wish to Go to” checklist of locations we hadn’t but ventured. With Google Maps zoomed out far sufficient to learn the names of most international locations, I began typing out each nation I knew I needed to go to. I got here up with an inventory of 39 international locations.
This was purely based mostly on me saying “I noticed a reasonably image of Albania as soon as” and “By no means heard of Saint Kitts and Nevis earlier than but it surely feels like they serve piña coladas, so let’s add that one to the checklist.” I haven’t really executed any analysis into what international locations to go to. That can all come later once we began making legit plans! This was simply enjoyable brainstorming the place I don’t have to fret about visas or which season is the perfect time to go to or if I can realistically afford ever visiting the Maldives.
Right here’s what I got here up with at first look:
Sure, I do know my South America and Africa lists want some severe boosting. I have to Google which international locations Victoria Falls straddles and of all of the international locations in Africa, I most need to go to Morocco and I didn’t even checklist it in my brainstorming! Additionally, what international locations are technically in South America however appear like they’re in Central America? Why is that so complicated? Oh and I forgot China! Disneyland Hong Kong is a should.
I’m going again and including to this checklist as I write out this weblog 😂 However this checklist was nearly getting a baseline for what number of international locations I knew I needed to go to simply from fast brainstorming. If there’s something I’ve discovered about journey, it’s that when you begin touring, your checklist of “locations to go to” will get longer and longer the extra locations you go!
With this checklist of 39 international locations, plus what we’ve already visited collectively, I simply drew a conclusive journey objective:
go to 50 international locations with Heath.
I’m simply now realizing the parallel between this objective and our honeymoon. Possibly 50 is our magic quantity? 😂
Not all of those international locations could be visited by RV, like Cuba or the Philippines. However a superb portion of Europe positively may very well be. That’ll be one thing we are able to look into later, once we really begin planning and reserving journey.
Half-time touring, I estimate that it will take us a decade or two to deal with. I’m in no rush. We like spending a few weeks minimal in every nation we go to, and longer if we’re capable of RV in that nation. We spent two months camper vanning round New Zealand and have traveled for 3 months throughout Italy, so in my thoughts, we want at least a month in every nation to totally recognize it… Though I simply did a Google Picture search of Saint Kitts and Nevis, so when you don’t hear from me for some time, it’s as a result of I moved to an island paradise. 🏝
Setting a Household Journey Objective
One of many primary causes Heath and I began speaking about setting an intentional objective was in order that we may have one thing to information us as we plan large journeys with our youngsters. Saying we need to go to 50 international locations with Ellie earlier than she turns into an grownup sounds just a little too loopy. That’s 45 international locations over the subsequent 15 years, which may very well be doable, however like I stated, we wish to journey slowly and revel in new international locations.
So we set the objective of go to 20 international locations with the youngsters earlier than they flip 18.
Since they have already got just a few below their belts, that works out to about one nation per yr till Ellie graduates highschool. Way more doable and fewer wild, however nonetheless an enormous objective.
It’s ridiculous to me as a result of this objective feels small. Shouldn’t my objective be 100 international locations? Or higher but all of them? 20 is so few!
(This is likely one of the many issues with social media. I’ve been touring for my complete grownup life and I haven’t visited 20 international locations but. It’s tricked me into pondering 20 is small, when it’s actually an enormous, wonderful objective.)
I don’t know which 20 international locations we’ll find yourself visiting. Canada will in all probability make the checklist. Spain positively will, since we’ll begin RVing in France in just a few weeks and finish in Spain this October. However I’m excited to let the youngsters be part of this objective. Ellie has been speaking to me continually these days about how she desires to return to “Ratatouille’s home” AKA Paris, and he or she desires to go to “Bluey’s home” too, AKA Australia. She could also be three, however she continues to wow me along with her understanding of journey.
I’m nervous-excited about this subsequent large journey with the youngsters. Like Heath shared final week, touring with youngsters is so drastically completely different than touring alone and everybody has an opinion on it. Some households love soccer. Baseball. Gymnastics. Mountain climbing. The checklist goes on. Heath and I like to journey, in order that’s what we’re sharing with our household. And now we’ve acquired clear objectives to information us alongside the way in which. Our objective will in all probability change and stretch with time as all objectives ought to.
However I’m excited to have this subsequent one down in writing, inspiring us to maintain chasing after the issues we love.
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