This Is As Far As Most People Go

...And why you don’t have to be one of them

There’s a bit of a ceiling that most of us hit in our travel journey (and in life) long before we ever reach our actual limits.

Not because the world runs out of countries or places, but because we stop challenging the assumptions we’ve built around how life is supposed to work. Comfort creeps in. Routines calcify. “Good enough” starts sounding…well, good enough.

But growth…REAL growth…almost always lives on the other side of shattered expectations.

Sometimes the biggest obstacle isn’t the terrain, it’s the belief that this is as far as you go.

I once spoke with someone who had lived in the same apartment for more than twenty years. Same job. Same routine. Rarely traveled. Never dated. Rarely met new people.

When I asked why, the answer literally sent shivers down my spine:

“Why would I change anything? Life is good enough.”

There’s a kind of peace in that mindset (and I respect it) but it’s completely foreign to me, and I suspect if you’re reading this it is to you as well. Not because I’m restless for the sake of restlessness, but because I genuinely believe most of us have no idea what we’re capable of until we disrupt our patterns.

When I’ve stayed stuck, it’s almost never been fear. It’s been laziness disguised as contentment.

The path you don’t take is often the one that teaches you the most.

Another line I hear a lot goes something like this:

“I’d love to travel more, but I’m in the career/family phase of life.”

As if life follows a rigid blueprint: build the career, buy the house, climb the ladder, then…just maybe…live later. I want to emphasize the maybe here. Maybe it’s where I worked, but I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of former colleagues who worked hard for 30+ years, retired…and never got to live because they were gone within months.

So… what happens when we blow that structure up?

What if the “career phase” doesn’t have to mean postponing curiosity? What if stability and exploration aren’t opposites? Travel has a way of exposing how many rules we follow simply because they were handed to us.

Excuses are easy. Commitment is rarer.

Then there’s the final barrier: resources. Time. Money. Energy. Responsibility.

We all have reasons we can’t. And yet, history is full of people who moved forward anyway, not because they had more resources, but because they had more resolve.

My friend Johnny from One Step 4Ward summed it up perfectly in a recent talk:
resilience > resources.

When I raced Ironman triathlons, I’m pretty sure I was often the most undertrained person on the course. Finishing for me had nothing to do with preparation and everything to do with desire. I wanted it badly enough, so I found a way.

Travel and life work the same way.

Sometimes you don’t find answers, you find better questions.

Reaching your full travel potential (and your full life potential) means being willing to step into uncertainty. To challenge comfort. To abandon “good enough” and see what else might be waiting.

So jump into the abyss with me.

You might not find what you expect, but there’s a damn good chance you’ll find something better.