Freedom brings you growth, and commitment and depth also brings you growth.

I think I love both wandering and commitment and depth. Unfortunately, it is difficult to reach the maximum of both at the same time, but I guess this is what I have been seeking until now my 30th year. I have lived in 4 countries and it has been good. Especially in career-wise, I decided not to commit to a career anymore. I just want to do fulfilling projects while earning. But I don’t want to make commitments in that. Relationship-wise I think for me it’s different, I like experimentation but depth is a very much important thing is relationships. At least if I can move with a partner, that is perfect.

But this works different for every person. Some people need great emotional and commitment involvement. Others thrive in a lot of novelty stimulus by travelling and meeting always new people. Others feel both things. Others seek status and career growth, a sense of achievement. I have been feeling all these things, and I guess this makes my life richer. I only follow my heart, and try to be free at all times.

I guess the biggest question for me is really whether or not to have children, because that is probably the biggest commitment, but I feel it doesn’t need to be a commitment to a place or job, maybe to your partner yes, but not the rest.

I have had wonderful experiences along the way, have met wonderful people, and there are places that I will miss. The reason I chose to wander was because I wanted to do it before life’s more extreme obligations inhibited me. However those people that have remained where they are have built up wonderful social networks of people that have taken an entire decade to build. They have found people they can rely on and it makes life much easier and more fulfilling in the long run. These people are not unexperienced. They are world travelers who have made it a point to take vacations and explore the world. The one lovely thing is that they have a place they can call home.

The wonderful thing about my experience is that I’ve gotten a deeper perspective on what other places are truly like. When living in a place you learn so much more about the culture and lifestyle of the people than when just understanding a glimpse through a visitor’s lens. However, you can’t live everywhere! And there is only so much a person can absorb until you must find a place that suits you and call it home.

As you said, there are advantages and drawbacks to both options. I think a bit of living in other places is good for you, and offers perspective that few have the opportunity to attain. But ultimately, I believe that a place to call “home” is of greater value. There is still the option to visit places and gain incredible experiences, it’s just nice to have a “base camp”, if you know what I mean. So go, travel while you are young! Follow your heart and your dreams, especially if you have the ability to do it while earning an income (I think that’s everybody’s dream, really)!! But think of a place where you will eventually call home, even if you haven’t found it yet. I believe there is a greater value in quality over quantity, because ultimately it is the more meaningful connections you make in life that truly matter.

Aloha

Tao Te Ching – Lao Tzu:

Knowing others is wisdom;
Knowing the self is enlightment.
Mastering others requires force;
Mastering the self needs strength.

He who knows he has enough is rich.
Perseverance is a sign of will power.
HE WHO STAYS WHERE HE IS ENDURES.
To die but not to perish is to be eternally present.

Good luck on working out your own answers to your questions, I realise it’s not an easy journey.

Trouble is, I’m now going to have explore your whole blog …..

This is really a scaring thing to consider traveling on a long term basis……

Would it be true that process of life want different period of experience. For a period, one might like traveling elsewhere……but then after some years, might like settle down for some years, followed by some years of other different lifestyle……

I would admit that Maintaining one type of lifestyle or way to live for long, would be bored……

however, there might be other constraint that prevent us to change to different way of living……eg, having a family with kids……

How life run, partly planned by human, partly in a rail planned by god……

Alf.

Your and most commenter’s English is quite impeccable; however it was Anna’s apparently jumbled thoughts which touched me the most: it is true, we’ve been drifting away from mythology and it’s about time we come back to it!

In me it’s quite obvious the need for traveling as a self-exploratory tool. It’s easy for me to accept it when Ben says that you can “find yourself” wherever you are, even digitally. However that works best or worse depending on who you are; I would say the most important thing in the growing-up and finding-yourself aspects was mentioned by Anna: “living up on the wire”, or getting out of your comfort zone – that’s what teaches you new skills; not forcefully traveling.

Your text and these comments already gave me plenty food for thought – Thank You! – so I will try to repay by challenging some of your thoughts.

“Do You Dabble or Commit?”… I seriously doubt you’ve been (were?) simply dabbling during your time in France, Scott. Tell me wasn’t that year much more intense than the average year back at home? For me that is also tied in with the fleeting relationships idea. Sure the relationships will be hard-pressed every time you move, but I would not say that makes them any more superficial; instead more intense! Intensity and depth are different things? I don’t know… When I am suddenly alone in a country I dive much more deeply in it. I open myself more, meet more people, take more risks, experience an increased amount of new things. I go deeper in myself and everything I touch, by being new, is absorbed with more conscience and desire. Maybe I’m just committed to dabbling…

Actually by travelling I met more people but also usually dealt with less at a time (less than I met say over 5 years living in a community) and, as an almost direct result, had deeper connections.

Touching a hint you leave in that topic: whenever “building on past successes” becomes more important to you than making new ones… it might be time to settle down.

About wandering putting other goals on hold… why so? You have been blessed with that on-the-move career. No more earlier peers leave you behind than you can make new ones. Careers and businesses grow blazingly fast online; which coincidentally is quite compatible with traveling. Sure there is a trade-of… but it doesn’t have to be related to those items.

About jobs… there was another blog that I fail to remember which explored the subject. The post was something like “Should you have a job?” and developed over the possibility of creating your own business, with several branches – so that if one dries up, the other ones continue to bring in their profit – which make it unlikely that all of your income will stop at a given moment when the competition develops a better product than yours. That would be a longer subject to explore but… seemed to make sense to me, even with the obvious attention-splitting issues.

I cannot even think of super-specializing. Knowing nearly everything about nearly nothing would make me a very grumpy old man… while feeling I know a bit of everything, sometimes just enough to improvise on it, makes me smile already. I can make an engaging public speech, build effective spears and rabbit traps with a pocket knife, design an appealing poster, market an idea, perform first-aid, review a law, build a computer from it’s parts, cook a delicious meal, mend a hole in my pants, translate between four languages… that makes me feel more useful, interested in a broad range of subjects and assures I can use different sources of income. Also pretty much guarantees I will never get bored

Biased? Hell yeah. Grab your backpack and ditch Canada asap.

Great blog!