Yeah, me too...I least that's what I thought in most of my adulthood.

Ok, I have a few years under my belt and have been caught up in the rat race for all of my adult life so I can only speak from my own experiences.

I am very goal oriented and often have my blinders on, where I stay sooo focused on achieving my goals that I find it hard to even stop for one day and smell the roses. Even when I'm on vacation, I'm working on something(s). It's hard for me to just adventure, relax, and enjoy.

Looking back these past...uhem, quite a few years, the one thing that I wish that I would have done a WHOLE HELLUVA LOT MORE of, is travel my arse off!

10-15 yrs ago, flights were more expensive. There was no internet as we know it today. Therefore, discount airfare engines like Orbitz, Hotwire, Priceline, and Expedia were not even conceptualized. Same goes for the net behemoths like Amazon.com, Yahoo, Google, and ebay.

Today, you have the world literally at your finger tips- for cheap! There is so much competition vying for your business, that it's hard not to salivate when searching for travel bargains.

I'm flying to Rome, from Madrid next week, for $150! How cheap is that?!! It's even cheaper if we would have bought the tickets earlier, but I ain't crying.

From cheap air fares, and cheap hostels, to cheap Eurail/Eurostar passes, to cheap backpacking gear available all over the net. Now, you can travel this whole world for cheaper than you think. Practice your rapport building skills in our family style community and even find a travel companion there. I promise you that the more open and unbashed you are on here, the easier you will find it to communicate with strangers on the road.

Seriously, do yourself a favor and block out a chunk of time each year designated specifically for the purpose of traveling and learning more about other cultures. I do not mean to go out and get sloshed to a drunken stupor in every country you visit. Do that if you must, but be careful and try do to it sparingly. You don't want your trip to be a big blurrrrr.

Go to enrich your soul and perhaps enlighten others.

Time goes by sooo fast, that you will regret NOT traveling in your early years when your obligations are perhaps smaller than you actually make them out to be.

Seriously, do it! Block out a chunk of time each year, diligently save for it, and focus on MAKING THAT HAPPEN!

I remember my days as a single guy, renting an apartment, working and and drove around in a good used car that was paid for. I didn't take any time off for myself to persue an traveling (even though I had sooo many dreams and desires of hitting the road and seeing the world most of my life) as I was too focused on my career goals.

I remember how a friend of mine from high school hit the road backpacking probably a dozen countries from Japan, to Australia, to Vietnam, to many countries in Europe by the time she was 23. I was envious of her each time she came back with a report!

I made a lot more money than she did at the time, so I can't use that as an excuse. I also didn't pay rent at the time as I lived with my folks then either. Time was not a factor either as I didn't work full time hours or had any obligations that I couldn't just walk away from.

At the end of the day, it came down to this. She knew that her experiences and learning and absorbing other cultures were priceless and that no one could ever take those experiences away from her. She was right. She always had great energy, but her travel experiences made her inner and outer energy even more mesmerizing.

Looking back, had I done the same as her and taken a month off here and there (each year of my adult life) to do the same kind of traveling, I would have come back a more enriched individual each time and would have brought "more to the table" in every aspect of my life.

Now, I am no longer single (ever!), I don't have the cheaper living option of paying rent. Can you say "California Mortgage?!" Ouch! I do not have that old reliable all paid off Honda Prelude. It's now a hefty monthly car payment that probably equals a 2 bd 2 bth condo rental in Las Vegas. I do not work to survive, I work to survive for two!

I am deeper into the ratrace, than I could have possibly imagined 10 yrs ago.

I love my life now, don't get me wrong. And I am extremely happy and life is very fulfilling.

I just want to impress upon you the importance of taking time out for yourself each and every year, or as much as you can, to travel and enrich your life's experiences while you are young, have the ability too, and while your obligations may be small or smaller than you think.

No matter how bad you want to accomplish your goals, you may possibly accomplish your goals even faster by taking a little bit of time off to travel and clear your mind and come back with a fresh new perspective on life... and a richer soul.

Happy Travels,