How are you when it comes to sticking to your New Year’s resolutions? Do you keep them religiously, or give them up before January is even over? If you have problems sticking to your resolutions, you might want to consider that part of the problem is making resolutions that you don’t really want to keep. Most of the time, New Year’s resolutions involve finally doing things that you need to do, like losing weight or quitting smoking, but don’t really want to do. What if you resolved to do something fun, like travel to someplace that you’ve never been to before? That might be an easier resolution to keep, even if it took some work and discipline to get you there.
Here are five tips to make Keeping Your Travel New Year’s Resolutions easier:
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Specifics. “I resolve to travel in the New Year” is too vague and probably isn’t going to cut it. You’ll have a difficult time keeping the resolution without a specific plan in place. Pick a state or a different country. Pick a region. Pick a city. Choose a hotel. Once you’re there, how long are you staying and what do you hope to do? Make your own itinerary. Once that’s done, you’ll have much more than a resolution to travel sometime this year — you’ll have a whole travel plan! From that, you’ll be able to determine how much time you need off, when in the year you need to plan to go, and how much money you need.
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Scheduling. Did you want to get to your destination in time to take part in a specific event that’s happening there? Do you need to coordinate your vacation with your children’s school schedules? Do you only have a certain time of the year that you can take a vacation at work? If so, then you need to figure out a way to make those time frames work for you. On the other hand, if your year is an open book, it’s still a good idea to pin down a specific time that you want to go. Knowing when you’re going to need to be ready by will give you something concrete to work with.
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Savings. For most people, a vacation is something that you have to save and work for. If you have the money to fly off at any time, you probably don’t need a New Year’s resolution to do it. Now that you have your specifics and a schedule, you can look up things like how much the events that you want to attend cost, what rates your hotel charges at the time of year that you want to go, and what the plane tickets are going to cost you. Buying in advance often saves you money, so set savings goals, and purchase tickets or make reservations as you hit them. Saving the extra money that you need could be as easy as cutting out a few extras like takeout food at lunch time or weekly dinners at restaurants, or it could require a little more effort, like recycling bottles or holding a garage sale. Either way, breaking up your monetary goals into smaller chunks and making purchases or reservations as you go will make the trip seem more real to you, and will further your resolve to meet that final goal.
- Details. When traveling, there can be a lot of details that you need to work out ahead of time. Things like passports or language classes need to be completed ahead of your trip. Waiting until the last minute can become discouraging and make you cancel your travel plans. Instead, find out what documents you will need to take with you when you are traveling and get them taken care of a.s.a.p. Also, learn about the area you are going to visit so that you can decide if you will need to learn a few phrases in another language or figure out how to interact with the locals so that you can get around easily.
- Accountability: You will be more likely to keep your travel plans if you are accountable. Telling someone else about your plans will help you get excited about going on vacation. The more you talk about it with others, the more you will want to work hard to make your travel plans actually happen.
If you’ve been wanting to travel for a long time, but just haven’t gotten there yet, make 2015 the year that it happens by sticking to your travel resolution. There are plenty of great places to go throughout not only the country, but the entire world!
