Next Time You Travel, Kick the Bucket List
Learn how to get more of what you want from your precious time travelling
Do you have a bucket list? Not me. I’ve always been troubled with the concept of a ‘bucket list’. The idea is that you create a list of things to do before you die or ‘kick the bucket’. Often the things on the list are travel-related. There are myriad reasons why this doesn’t sit well with me but chief among them is, why?
When it comes to travel, this box-ticking approach exemplifies a wider ill within travel — an industry that seems to have been on holiday since the days of Cooks Tour in 1841. Open any newspaper or magazine and you are sold the same stuff, the same product time again; go here, do this, or worse… go and do nothing at all.
What if?
What if things could be different? After all, isn’t now the perfect time to revisit our approach to travel? After months of lockdown and curbed liberties, haven’t we all mused about what we miss most or what we’ll do first once we are free to travel again?
Why?
For many, this diagnosis and reflection sounds like hard work. “I just want to get away and preferably somewhere hot”. But why? Why do you want to leave the place you’ve chosen to live? Why do you want good weather? What does that enable you to do that you normally can’t? What is it you’re really lacking that you can’t get at home?
When founding Brown + Hudson, I did so with the attention of passing on the insights that years of exploration and travel had unlocked for me. Travel can give way to unbridled happiness, lead to personal growth, shift perspectives, help with creativity, strengthen relationships and a great deal more.
What’s your intention?
The key question is however, what’s your intention? Any travel firm can take your money, run price comparisons and get you on a plane with minimum delay. But wouldn’t it be better if you could create, or work with someone to explore your needs and motivations then design an experience around those?
A Lasting Legacy
One of the lessons I’ve learned from years of working with, and travelling with some pretty demanding clients, is that more often than not, they’re looking for some kind of lasting legacy of travel memories. That task is made infinitely easier by focusing on their needs. Establishing an inextricable link between the traveller and what we choreograph, dispensing with the traditional one size fits all approach which promotes a focus on the destination instead of the clients needs and the change they seek.
Choreographing Memories Before, During and After
Choreographing travel can vastly increase the scope of what can be experienced. It can start with something as simple, such as building anticipation before travel. This is an overlooked time which has been scientifically proven[1] to be a period in which significant happiness can be generated.
Next, when you think about the experience itself, you could design your journey around a narrative arc (Hero’s Journey, Rescuer-Victim-Persecutor, Problem-Solution…). Ensure that everything you do serves your bigger story replete with trials, rewards, discovery, and any number of other emotions to experience, draw on and savour.
I’d wager that when designing a trip nobody has ever considered the sequence of your likely hormonal flow, and it might sound daunting. Daunting, until you realise how often you do this in your everyday life. You might begin with a serotonin buzz from exercise, then surf the adrenaline from your morning coffee, get an endorphin high from eating spicy food and treasure the oxytocin you share from gazing lovingly into your dog’s eyes.
Changing your approach to travel to acknowledge these chemical triggers would therefore seem logical. This type of planning can also help mitigate triggers for negative hormones which cause stress or anxiety and may in fact have been the drivers for travel in the first place.
Finally, when you return home what are you going to do to make the benefits of your travel last? How are you going to savour the experiences so that they have a lasting impact? How will you make the transformation stick? The answer is simple. As author Stephen Covey wrote “Begin with the end in mind.” Consider treating your home as a destination. Look at it with the same curiosity as you did the place you just got back from. Think about why you travelled in the first place and consider what you got from the trip that you want to be part of a new you.
In short, there is so much to be gained once you dispose of the bucket list’s, tick-box approach and take the leap.
Take the Leap
Once you feel you have committed to that leap, in your excitement it’s possible that you’ll drift back to destination-orientated mindset. But ask yourself why? Why do you want to travel and then think about how and finally where? Rest assured that shifting these priorities will lead you exactly to what you want to feel and where you want to go.
Thinking about travel in terms of destinations is of course a natural reaction. It’s what you’ve been sold and what you’ve bought for years. Remember though that this new approach will help you create an experience focused on benefits to you. Perhaps experiment with prioritising why, how and finally where on a local scale over the course of the weekend.
For example, you’ve had a trying week at the office, you feel run down and need some time to relax. Doing nothing may seem tempting, perhaps a trip to the pub even? But pause, releasing stress is your ‘why’. Now you can look into ‘how’ this is possible — a friend has told you about a study conducted in Japan that advocates ‘forest bathing’, with findings of reduced blood pressure and lower cortisol levels among many benefits. Intriguing. Now, finally, there is the ‘where’.
The difference between investment and gambling, as any fund manager will tell you, is insight. By diagnosing your own needs, rather than giving into the promises of advertisers, you’ll have given yourself the best shot at maximising your happiness.
The odds are, that you will remember your weekend in the woods whereas your weekend on the sofa would be forgotten and probably won’t have felt nearly as relaxing as you had hoped. The same is true of how we travel.
16 Memories
Our own client research suggests that most people struggle to remember more than 16 significant, memorable or impactful childhood holiday experiences. So knowing this shouldn’t families take a more long-term strategic approach to planning their holidays and their travel legacy?
The Atkinson-Shiffrin memory model[2], as explained by E. Bruce Goldstein, states that the chances of short-term memories becoming firmer, long-term memories, is greatly increased with the connections created between present and past experience[3]. In other words, if a travel experience is crafted with deep prior background knowledge of you and what resonates, the chances of a lasting and meaningful memory of the experience is greatly increased. Prioritising your needs over travel company’s imperatives, facilitates this.
Transformational Travel
Travel can also be a powerful transformational tool in our lives. Whether that be strengthening a relationship, pursuing passions and interests or personal growth and development. Another component of creating memories which last a lifetime and experiences which alter our outlook, is doing things that make an emotional impact. Some of these emotions can be brought about by challenges which are physically, intellectually, or emotionally demanding. Travelling with intention and overcoming these hurdles can have incredibly cathartic effect. Shared experiences can also lead to new and greater understanding of one’s self.
Part of the change and abandonment of the traditional, bucket list approach, is the consideration placed on seeing travel as an intrinsic component of your life. The current model views travel as an addition, even, a quick fix. Having reprioritised your motivations and needs, this approach can be applied to other areas of life leading to more informed decisions and better outcomes.
This is Not a Bucket List
Lists tend to make people think of buckets, but this is not my intention here. I’d like to help you with your introspection, to give you a starting point for your new approach to travel.
What if from now on, for reasons of pandemics, climate crisis or regional conflicts you could only travel abroad once every two years, what would you differently?
Or if you were to leave the realm of how you currently think about travel and take the first steps on a radical departure from the ordinary, how might you change the way you think about travel.
Here are 16 ideas to consider:
1) Travelling to explore your personal interest or passion: Establishing a link between our passions and travel may seem obvious but we are so destination-orientated we usually focus on where and subsequently think about what it is we want to do or feel when we are there. Following a passion could be a joining an archaeological team in the Valley of the Kings indulging our interest and becoming part of the story itself.
2) Rediscover a playful side of your personality: Why not gamify your next trip to include all the excitement, intrigue, growth and community that a computer or VR game offers? Look at what makes computer games so engaging, compelling and addictive and then introduce more of those factors into your travel. Gaming and travel offer similar benefits. However, the difference is that games designers are deliberate in their design intentions whereas the travel industry tends to sell you tickets, rooms and excursions and leaves you to it.
3) Physical challenge: Pitting yourself against a great obstacle whether it be the highest peak in Greenland or an epic bike ride across Colombia can be tough to visualise. However, the reward for overcoming the challenge can be deep personal transformation that gives you the confidence to overcome many of life’s other hurdles.
4) Relinquishing control: In an age where ‘taking back control’ is so pervasive, maybe its antithesis is liberating? Perhaps surrender entirely to someone else’s decision-making. Allow yourself to be surprised. In Neil Pasricha’s The Happiness Equation, he argues that happiness is derived from reducing the unnecessary choices we make in everyday life. Pasricha cites studies that show that the quality of decisions deteriorates with the number we have to make[4]. So just let go.
5) Surrender to abstract possibilities: Could the word ‘orange’ be the start of an incredible journey? With the right kind of ideation process, with imagination, deep research and an open mind everything is possible.
6) The Grand Tour 2.0: A new approach to travel need not just be for you but could be for your children. Look back on your own childhood and the memories you savour today. How can you help spark that same excitement and intrigue that lasts a lifetime? Consider the original 16th century Grand Tour concept. What is its modern-day, forward-looking equivalent for your family?
7) Discovering a new appreciation for nature: Leaving the confines of your world and entering the arena of animals can have a transformative effect and heighten your understanding and appreciation of the natural world and your place in it.
8) Near space travel: Motivations for space travel could a search for the ultimate in new perspectives or perhaps just its moniker as ‘the final frontier’ without the hassles of passport control. What is alluring though is the nature of space’s un-chartered territory. The speleologist Francesco Sauro explores caves all over the world and trains astronauts as the encounters in caves are most akin to those to be experienced in space. He refers to the fact that in a cave your footsteps “are the first sounds heard, perhaps for millions of years” thereby giving you the ultimate unique experience and sense of perspective.
9) Renew your appreciation for original principles: What was democracy before it was what it is today? Could returning to the civilisations of the past Egypt, Greece or Rome give you insights into concepts you take for granted?
10) Another way of living: Lifestyle immersion is a holistic approach to escapism with the intention of helping you prioritise what you value most. Such immersion could take you to the tribes of the Omu Valley in Ethiopia or to pursuing culinary excellence in a South Korean monastery in Jeollabuk-do.
11) Origin story: Over 7 billion Nespresso hermetically sealed espresso pods are created each year but how much do we know about how coffee is grown? Where it comes from and how it was popularised? Taking an ‘origin story’ approach can set you on a cultural and gastronomic journey deep into jungles, up mountains and leave you not just with exciting stories and insight but a wealth of enriching human connections.
12) Thrill-seeking: A holiday can often mark a break in routine. Parachuting, hang gliding, hot air ballooning can leave you with a great buzz as adrenaline flows. Sharing the experience with others or incorporating the experiences as part of a wider narrative arc though, can transform the experience and provide you with a strong emotional memory.
13) Discovery and expedition: The driving emotions of expeditions and discoveries are the thrill of pushing boundaries, of being first and of achievement. Having goals and a story bring a trip to life and feed excitement. There is also the thrill of danger which turns your journey into a sensory safari, a higher purpose and a sure antidote to listlessness.
14) Reconnection: Relationships can become strained or neglected over time. It is not uncommon to think that travel can resolve issues but how active is this usually? Put ‘reconnection’ at the heart of your travel experience and you may be surprised how much this may help.
15) Calm: Achieving a sense of calm is no easy pursuit. However, understanding your needs and concerns allows you to better focus your travel choices that can begin to allay those anxieties.
16) Your very own Hero’s Journey: You’ll have experienced it in Star Wars, the Matrix, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and elsewhere. Joseph Campbell’s story of all stories, epic narrative arc is all about transformation and the situations and characters that contribute to it. Its design is a considered and deliberate process. What’s the transformation you seek? Is it time for you to embark on your very own Hero’s Journey? Where do you start? And who will your mentor be?
To thrive as a species we need to see and be able to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances. We need to take a more regenerative view of our potential and to imagine a future beyond everything we know about travel today.
Challenging the status quo and thinking differently has been my purpose in life. Disrupting the conventions of luxury travel, helping people make best use of their precious time and elevating the potential of their travels is my particular journey. This is a journey worth taking.
In the current climate there’s no denying that the journey is challenging but the stories and transformational experiences that clients regularly share are a constant reminder that reducing the potential of travel to a list in a bucket is habit we need to kick.
[1] Vacationers Happier, but Most not Happier After a Holiday, Jeroen Nawjin (Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands), Miquelle A. Marchand (CentERdata, Tilburg University, Tilburg, the Netherlands), Ruut Veenhoven (Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands), and Ad J. Vingerhoets (Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Tilburg University, Tilburg, the Netherlands)
[2] Human Memory: A proposed system and its control processes. R. C Atkinson & R. M. Shiffrin, 1968
[3] Sensation and Perception — E. Bruce Goldstein, 2016
[4] The Happiness Equation — Neil Pasricha, 2016
