Travel Learners vs Travel Runners

It is not how much time you spent in one place or how many countries you have visited that matters. It is how much you have learned. You should seek for what remains. It is how mindful you have been that will genuinely impact your life. It means to be open for pears that will be kept in your life after the initial traveling excitement. Being a Travel Learner is one of the best investments you can make for yourself.

Travel Runners are usually running away from who they are. All the information, cultures, and amazing things of the world pass before their eyes while they run. They barely obtain something good from their trips. They usually do not know why they are doing what they do. They do not have a meaningful reason for it. They use the world to create a pseudo picture of themselves. They believe this illusion and portrait it to those who envy them.

The world is full of Travel Runners, not Travel Learners. Runners are those people who put their focus on themselves. For them, the more they add places to their bucket list, the better. They usually worry about their next Instagram picture and the reactions they may receive from others. They admire a beautiful landscape through a camera lens while missing the chance to look at it with their own eyes. They seek numbers, followers, Facebook likes. They need to buy that useless mill plastic souvenir in Amsterdam. They have a similar item for each place they have been. Runners need souvenirs for their glass cabinet. For Runners, souvenirs are the best way to show their friends all the trips they have made. Travel Runners seek what is countable.

Travel Runners can rarely add anything from an outside culture in their own life. They share pride, not experiences, except if it includes a picture with a croissant in a Parisian café or a blog post regarding the humanitarian help they volunteered for somewhere in Africa. Travel Runners provoke envy instead of to inspire life.

Travel Learners are different. They may buy souvenirs or even volunteer in Africa. However, one of the easiest ways to identify a travel Learner is by their motivation. Travel Learners can look inside themselves and appreciate life around them. They are not thinking of how they will show off that piece of plastic once they get home. They travel to learn. They pursue what is meaningful. They focus on experiencing life. They want to have genuine memories registered in their hearts. They inspire others.

Travel Learns can effortlessly join a conversation about the places they have been in a way people will want to hear more, learn more. They open up possibilities no one has seen before. They speak of different ways they have learned to do something. They talk about how great those people they have met are. They share contacts and knowledge. And they motivate people to develop their vision of the world.

A person learns and grows if he/she is open. If we consider that any culture has at least one thing to teach us, this little thing may make our lives better.

Pay attention! Travel Learners have the ability to stop. Traveling the world has a deeper meaning if you can also settle down for a while, stay in silence, and feel good alone. You cannot communicate with the world properly if you can’t start listening to yourself. Learn about who you are. Knowing more about yourself will make it easier for you to get a different map view of the world when meeting different values and cultures. Whenever this happens, you will learn about — or improve — those things that could make your own life better.

Travel Learners know who they are. Travel Learners also know they can be better for themselves and the world. Because they look deep inside at their own intentions, they know what they are looking for. And because they are open, they may get surprised by the fair unknown. Learners realize it makes no sense to impress others with a heart full of the melancholic pride usually hidden in runners. 

Whenever we feel the rush to become Runners, we should stop and look inside our hearts. We can all become a better version of ourselves.

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