Mental Preparation

[paul_r]

How do people prepare mentally for the trip that is potentially once in a life time. I am talking about the big one, the one that takes you away from everything you know for 12mths, maybe longer.

Does the fact that I am even questioning this imply I may not be ready to leave yet?

I look forward to your replies.

[Frank Warner]

It is like jumping out of a plane, just take the first step. You'll be fine. You have done some preperation? Read a few guide books, travel books, wandered around this site. Then just step forward - don't look back - and have fun.

[jeff_watts]

To feel nervous and excited is absolutely natural, and indeed if you arn't feeling these emotions, perhaps your not ready for the trip.
Dont look on it as a twelve month trip, look on it as 365 individual days, each different, each a blank canvas. And what makes you think you'll only do it once!believe me its addictive
Go for it and enjoy!

jeff

ONE LIFE LIVE IT

www.gonewandering.co.uk

[This message has been edited by jeff_watts (edited 13 January 2006).]

[Red Bull]

Though I haven't ever been on a trip like those mentioned here ever before, I feel hosting some RTW rider passing through your country at your place would be great.
You get to hear from them first hand about the experiences!!!! There is nothing like this, Believe ME!
and Of course If you are in those few lucky places, you could always attend the HU meeting :-)
Best Luck,
Red Bull

[DougieB]

think about taking the pressure off a bit. it's likey 'the big one' will turn out to be 'the first big one', and you'll be planning a new trip as soon as you're back. Or even half way through your first trip!

You don't have to get everything right the first time out. Who's to say what's right anyway? Isn't that part of why your going anyway, because 'this' isn't right?

btw, it turns you into a gibbering wreck when you get back

I think we're all born ready, we just forget.

have a good one.

[Matt Cartney]

I'm quacking myself! I've done some smaller trips but the one I'm planning is much bigger than anything else I've done before. I find talking to people who've gone before helps (like on this forum).
Whenever I feel I'm getting too concerned about an aspect of my trip I just imagine myself cruising along an open expanse of flat desert, dunes rising on the horizon; or brewing up at the top of a high alpine pass; or rumbling along a winding coastal road (maybe with a foxy pillion picked up somewhere en-route )
I think we all get a bit worried, it's not something to be worried about, if you see what I mean! I like that advice about mentally breaking your trip into manageable chunks and thinking about it that way.
Matt

[Wheelie]

It's nothing like jumping out of a plane, I know because I have done it. All I could think about after that first step was to get back into the airplane, which I found, no matter how hard I flapped my arms, was quite impossible.

If you should find that your trip was as cruel and horrifying as I found skydiving, well, then you have the option to turn around. I think that fact is important to take with you in your mental preparation. Reserve a year, or any length of time you want, but when you travel, decide that you will take it one day at a time and return home at any time if you feel like it. If you in adition keep an open mind to be flexible in your plans, be open to any change in needs and wants that may occur, and adapt your itinerary to whatever feels good at the time, then you will most certainly be okay. It might not even get you out of your home town. The first bit of hardship, like a sore back from riding a bike for hours or lacking the comfort of ones own home, but atleast you travelled as far as you wanted. On the other hand, it might bring you to distances places, you might even get lost for ever as you join some tribe in the Amazon. The point is, whatever you do you do it because you want to, you are not doing this for someone else (unless somebody you really care for wants you far gone, or worse, those that really don't like you but have brass knuckles and guns).

Now, you've heard this before, but it holds much truth. "It is better to regret having done something than to regret not having done something". Immagine living the rest of your life wondering how things would have been different if you had only taken that trip! I think it would be much more frightening to prepare spending the rest of my life at home... how would one deal with that? If you are even concodering taking such a trip, and you have found your way to this website, then you have an extraordinary need to explore the world. This means that you would feel uncomplete if you atleast did not find out what it wa all about, you'd be restless and die depressed and bitter. I really don't see that you have a choice! You must atleast find out what it is all about, you must try. Preparing to stay at home, that is the frightening option. Just go for it!

[jeff_watts]

nice post wheelie...at 62 i regret the things haven't done not the things i have... (specially that blonde on the plane to lusaka in 1978..hmmmm)..where was I?? oh yes I am still packing the "done that!" in, but the list of "to do!" is getting longer..you can always get more money never more time

jeff

[Wheelie]

After this post I imagined planning and deciding to make those steps that would likely have me rooted forever... Feeling that my options of ever getting to explore dwindeling away, I almost panicked. If you can't just go with it, and you feel you have to make a decision, then deciding to stay put must be much more horryfying than deciding to leave... Think about the lyrics of The Clash "Should I stay or should I go now, if I stay there will trouble, if I go there will be double"... the lyrics would have been better reversed...

To me it is not so much deciding IF, but more about WHEN... You will feel much better once you have decided, and sworn in blood, that you will go! Then you can start worrying about when.

[This message has been edited by Wheelie (edited 13 January 2006).]

[Matt Cartney]

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though chequered with failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows no victory nor defeat" Theodore Roosevelt

[mrdexplorer]

Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.

Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom:

[BklynDakar]

I am now under 6 months to my depart date and I must admit to a case of the nerves. I would try to identify what you are worried about and try to resolve the issue. For example, I know nothing about moto repair and I am taking trying to learn as much as possible before I leave. If it is just nerves about the trip then others have given good advice.

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Brooklyn Dakar
http://motorcycleramblings.blogspot.com/

"This is the story of America. Everybody's doing what they think they're supposed to do." J Kerouac
"Who's more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him" OW Kenobi

[Frank Warner]

Originally posted by Wheelie:
you have the option to turn around.
-----
Just go for it!

Err once you have shipped your bike, gear and your on the plane ... The turn around option is rather expensive.

Take it a day at a time - a series of short trips - won't look as long.

The main thing you need to realise... what ever you have planed won't happen. Well not all of it - you'll find something else to see or do in preference to what you had planed. Or something will be close, flooded or the things you went to see in a gallery are now on tour in your home country. Don't be too concerned with your plan; the details will fall into place as the journey happens. Your plan is a frame work - you can and will change it as time passes. The more time the more changes will take place. Let it happen. It is part of the adventure.

[Mombassa]

I am 3 months to the day from bagging it all. Started the rebuilt bike today for the first time... Leaving for Europe April 15, leaving from Brussels May 15... Greece, Turkey, Iran,..Ending in Bangkok in April 2007. Then onwards ...

Yes, it's weird to see a full appartment, knowing it all needs to be moved, leaving friends behind ... But it's worth it.

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Kevin

http://www.nohorizons.net