Everything in life can be viewed as some sort of narrative essay. Traveling, in particular, actually, provides the perfect narrative structure for a story. There is a beginning that usually circles around the moment your journey begins, a middle that is filled with experiences and stories, and then an end that provides a point of consolidation of the action and reflection on the entire experience.
Adopting a Narrative Mindset
Framing your mindset into viewing your travels as a story waiting to be written will not only help you to conceptualize your entire experience better, you will also be more inclined to do things that make your story pop out.
Similar to Simon Sinek’s revered Start With Why, a point can be made that many people get lost in the “what they have to do” and “how do I do it”, but rarely have enough of an answer to the “why am I doing this?” This is the reason a vast majority of people are so misaligned with what they truly want to do, and latch onto the “hows” of life to keep themselves occupied.
Traveling and the ensuing narrative essay thought process makes for an excellent habit-forming way to always think about the why.
Embrace Active and Slow Moments
When traveling, not every single second of your day is spent doing something active. Think of the hours spent on a plane, train, or bus. Slow moments such as are often overlooked as waiting periods between the next adventure. These moments make for an excellent respite from the hustle and bustle of active traveling and are perfect for mentally processing your journey thus far, and where it could potentially go. So next time you find yourself in a leisurely moment like walking through a park or sitting at a coffee shop provide, don’t miss out on the opportunity to get something out of it.
Making the times that are normally passive into active moments of reflection and decompression can actually be an eye-opening experience to how you live your life on a daily basis.
Final Thoughts
Perhaps the most beneficial aspects of traveling with a narrative perspective are the ability to build up your focused consciousness. Being able to focus and add structure to the internal monologue that is constantly sounding off in your head makes decision making much easier and more fulfilling, as well as inspiring confidence to make decisions and take actions you otherwise wouldn’t.
Additionally, by taking time to process and compartmentalize your experiences, students are able to set the foundation to retain more from their experiences and studies. Traveling without a mental narrative makes absorbing the experience a little bit more difficult, much like cramming for an exam for the sake of passing the exam. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your life goals and travels must be planned out because there are always moments in life that are difficult to understand or deal with. At the very least, a narrative perspective allows us to understand that the experience unfolding before us is an event, and as we become better internal storytellers, we will be able to positively grow our character around these events.
