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Tips for Achieving Travel Goals
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STEP 1: Read The Article At The Bottom of This Page!
► Read below: A great comprehensive article on reaching travel goals is How to Achieve Your Travel Goals by Steve Pavlina (graciously, Steve Pavlina has released all copyrights to his body of work). This article is a must read if you are serious about achieving your travel goals. Be warned, this article will likely give you slap, kick and a punch of reality. The article starts at the bottom of this page... STEP 2: Turn Your Perception About Travel Into Lies! ► After you read the article below, take a look at this great post, "What's Your Excuse for Not Traveling? 71 Experts Tell You Why It's Ridiculous!" These travel experts help explain that your beliefs and excuses about traveling are based on perception and not reality. STEP 3: Figure Out Your Goals & Challenges ► Start with a lifetime goal. For example, "Visit all 50 United States" or "Visit Europe". Write your lifetime goals down or keep track of them on our iPad Travel Goal Getter App. ► Refine lifetime goals to fit within the SMART mnemonic making sure they are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Trackable or Time-Bound. For example, "Visit Europe" could turn into "Visit France, Germany and Italy by March 2015". Drill down your goals to countries and then drill down to cities. You will have a better chance of meeting your goal if you are very specific with where and when you want to go. ► Write your refined goals down making sure you prioritize them. ► Share your goals with friends and family to help keep accountable. Feel free to share them with us! Your goals will become more and more real the more people you share them with. ► Be vulnerable: Share with friends and family your challenges and roadblocks to achieving your goal. For example, "I need $1500 for my trip - I don't have $1500!" Write your challenges and roadblocks down. ► Develop strategies to overcome the challenges and roadblocks. For example, "I will save $100 per month for the next 15 months to reach my goal of $1500 to pay for my trip to France, Germany and Italy." Write your solutions to challenges and roadblocks down. See step 4 for some ideas about solutions to challenges. ► Review your goals, challenges, roadblocks and solutions frequently and make changes if needed. STEP 4: Put You Plan Into Action/Solve Challenges ► There are many resources out there that help teach you how to travel on a budget (since one of the most common excuses for NOT traveling is money, we'll focus on resources to overcome that challenge). For example, check out the book How to Travel the World on $50 a Day or visit Extra Pack of Peanuts to learn about traveling using frequent flyer miles. Another resource for learning about credit card travel perks is The Points Guy and read this post, "Traveling For Free - Real World Credit Card Perk Example" to see how easy it is to travel for free. ► Check out this quick article, "How to Save for Your Dream Trip" ► Think outside the box: Many people utilize different avenues for traveling to keep costs down such as couch surfing, work vacations, or volunteer trips. Try Global Aware or STA Travel for some ideas. House sitting or House Swaps are other ways to keep costs down. Also, take a look at willwork4travel.com to see how two women have traveled the world working, house sitting and volunteering. Their site is packed with links and resources to help you learn. ► After you reach your goal, CELEBRATE! You can pat yourself on the back by joining one of our Travel Milestone Clubs!. The article begins below...
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Been to All Fifty States?
Get the Official All Fifty Club T-Shirt! 
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Photos used under Creative Commons from dbbent, kvanhorn, EvelynGiggles, ncaramanico, evocateur, sebbietingzon