So You Want to Be a Travel Blogger

Every now and then I like to check in here and write a post about travel blogging. It is relevant to a lot of readers, and it might just be relevant to you, the person who is sitting at home contemplating this travel blogging lifestyle.

A lifestyle that currently has me sitting at Sydney airport awaiting a flight to Bangkok for a week press trip after a week blog trip kayaking, surfing, and sunset harbour cruising in Sydney.

Glamorous? Perhaps. Hard work? Definitely. Fun? Of course. How could travel not be?

BUT

A major caveat is needed here:

This blogging life is hard slog, with great sacrifices and for the first couple of years, little reward.

You have to totally dedicate your life to making this nomadic travel lifestyle a reality.

And I mean dedicate.

Say goodbye to sleep, to fancy cars, and luxurious items. Say goodbye to nights out with friends and family, and day trips as well. Say goodbye to time out, to conversations that don?t involve multi-tasking on the side of you tweeting, facebooking and instagraming.

This is the reality.

The sacrifices are many and often I am left questioning my sanity.

It?s too late for me, I can?t turn back. This is the life we committed ourselves to, the lives we have dreamed about for so long and slowly we can see them becoming a reality.

I don?t want to tell you go for it, start a blog, you?ll get free travel and live this glamorous life as it?s not the truth?

?but it could be.

It just depends on YOU. How much work do you want to put into it? How much are you willing to allow your life to be overtaken by it?

It depends on your MISSION.

Your WHY.

If you just want to do it to get free travel then I am going to help you out here by telling you FORGET it. It is not worth it. You will have to give up far too much just in order for you to gain free travel.

Time is far more valuable than money.

Dreams are Made For Keeping You Awake at Night

There has to be something else there for you. There has to be a greater why. An itch that you just can?t scratch.

A driving force within you telling you to be more, to do more, to make a difference.

And you just can?t stop until you do. You just can?t sleep until you do.

Because you KNOW that this is the path you were meant to walk, a path that is strewn with thorns and bristles and overgrown weeds that confuse you as to where it goes.

Your feet will bleed, your heart will ache, and you will be so so tired. But you?ll keep walking, hell, sometimes you?ll run, because you know that this thing you are doing is BIGGER than you and you can?t stop it.

It is so much bigger than you that you will even agree to leave your children for a week. That is when the knife slices through your total being and you sit in an airport chair sobbing.

That is when you really question your sanity.

And that is my greatest sacrifice. It is why I can?t stop; will not stop.

Because my WHY is so much bigger than me.

It is so my daughters will have a mother who LOVES what she does. It?s so they can learn that THIS is the way we should live our life and to NEVER ever take second best. To NEVER let your dreams pass by because of fear or doubt, or tiredness.

It is so my daughters can spend the majority of their days with their mother and father experiencing the world together.

It is so they learn that the world is an amazing place, that whether we live in igloos in Alaska, sleep under the stars at night in a Bedouin camp, prostate to a GOD named Allah, or spend our days surfing waves, we are all far too similar than we are different.

It?s so they know that life is far better when you share it, and you CAN make a difference and you CAN spend your days inspiring and helping others.

And so I say YES. I will dedicate my whole life to this. I will leave my children for a week. I will cry every day and this gigantic hole inside of me that longs for my arms to be wrapped around them will intensify to the point where I feel I can?t breathe.

I will do all of this because I believe in that which is greater than myself. I believe what this sacrifice will eventually give us.

I have to believe in it; otherwise I am wasting my time.

Yes. You can have this dream life of yours.

Absolutely! There is NO reason why you can?t.

You just need that reason WHY YOU CAN. It?s going to be a reason that hurts you.

It?s the ONLY way we commit and dedicate.

What?s your pain? What?s your why?

Until you get clear on that, until you accept that, you will never walk the path you were meant to walk.