What happens when you let go of your expectations when you travel?

I have done this so many times in the past where I have researched to within an inch of my life and hyped a place up, Only to arrive and find that it doesn’t meet my expectations and has quite frankly disappointed me. Have you ever had that happen?

Have you considered that if you let go of these expectations of a country, city, restaurant, bar, person or whatever it is that you have set up a standard around that you are creating space for what is meant to happen, to happen?

I’m not saying that you just show up and see what happens without knowing anything about a place… Although you could do that too . I once said yes to a job in Qatar purely because I had never heard of the country before.

Everyone has a different comfort level but what if you step out of yours and do something that scares you, even a little?

What would that look like?

• Say yes to something you would usually say no to
• Talk to someone that you usually wouldn’t, without judgement – We can learn something from everyone we encounter
• Face off with what scares you most – I want to skydive and it scares the hell out of me, It’s also high on my list to do
• Learn something new – A cooking class, A language, Anything that calls you
• Give up the control and let your travel partner plan the trip so you can enjoy being surprised for once
• Go to that place you have always dreamed of and stop waiting for the perfect time – Who cares if the Maldives is predominantly couples, I’m heading over with some single friends in November to sail for a week and then live it up in an over water bungalow
• Travel solo – Every time I do this, I grow exponentially
• Allow things to fail and find the positive aspect in it – You know those sliding door moments when your flight gets cancelled
• Take action, Jump in and just do it
• Have faith that everything is at it is supposed to be

I took this photo from our boat, Just off the shores of Gili Air. We were having an amazing day hopping between the islands, We snorkelled off Gili Meno, Had a delicious lunch on Gili T and were swimming off Lombok when this crazy storm started to roll in. Instead of getting pissed off that our day of perfect island life had been ruined by bad weather we looked at the incredible colours it created, we ran in the rain back to our tree house at Captain Coconut’s and laid in our hammocks while reading books, listening to the thunder grumble with rain rolling off the thatched roof and the lightning illuminating the Indonesian sky through the open air windows. The rain didn’t let up all night so a couple of friends went and ordered dinner for us all from the local warung and brought it back. Our crew spent the night eating, having a few drinks, playing card games and learning magic tricks – This ended up being my favourite day of the incredible week we spent there.

That’s just one example of choosing how to re frame a situation… You always get to choose how you react. I would love to hear in the comments below about a time you’ve had to let go and how the outcome surprised you.

Love, Dana x