How to be more inspired (a world traveler’s advice)

As a seasoned world traveler, I’ve been to many countries. I feel that every time I go to a new place, I feel very inspired and enlightened because travel is indeed an eye-opener. Having said that, you don’t have to travel all the time in order to be inspired. You can do something different today and get some inspiration.

Do something that you usually wouldn’t do.

If you usually work from home, maybe tomorrow you can go to a coffee shop and take your computer with you. Working from a different place surely gives you fresh ideas and new perspectives as the new environment has something different to experience.

Let’s say you usually read personal development books. Now you should begin to read a novel. Please don’t tell me that reading a novel wastes time. I think a novel literally has more examples that you can imitate.

A female friend of mine liked Desperate Housewives and Devious Maids when it comes to TV shows. (These two TV shows were written by the same person, so these stories are a bit similar.) Obviously, Devious Maids and Desperate Housewives were marketed in a way which appealed to ladies. Yet recently my friend has begun to watch Mad Men. Now she says Mad Men is the best TV show ever because it gives her countless ideas to think about in terms of life, marriage, business, marketing and sales.

This friend is also a world traveler, but in 2020 she hasn’t travelled at all due to the pandemic. She says watching different TV shows and reading different books have given her a lot of inspiration.

The thief of joy is comparison.

These days social media sites have surely made comparison happen every day as you only see the highlight of your family and friends’ lives on Instagram and Facebook. Sadly, the thief of joy is comparison!

First of all, pictures on social media are not even realistic. Usually, someone’s social media page is merely a PR version of their daily life. Therefore, it’s a bad idea to compare your life to someone else’s life on the Internet.

Second, you can’t really see the difficult part of anyone’s life online. If a friend of yours posts some pictures of his wildly successful business on social media and you wonder why your business isn’t working, please think again.

In fact, you don’t really know what that friend has done so as to achieve what he has today. Perhaps he has been working hard in his business for decades, whilst this is your second year in business. He does not want to show the hard part when he was still struggling and building the business. Yet he wants to show the glamorous part like having lots of time to travel the world.

Third, you can improve yourself by degrees. So long as you are better than who you were, you are an achiever. Please do not expect your life to be totally changed within one week. You only need to make some progress each day.

When you are inspired, you will make your relationship stronger.

Truthfully, there are four components of a romantic relationship. To make a relationship stronger, you must have a deep understanding of each component below.

The first component of a relationship is admiration. Indeed, when you two admire each other, the Attraction has a capital A.

Always think of your partner’s positive qualities and savor these fully.

The second component of a relationship is connection. Usually, creating a lot of shared experiences can make the connection stronger. That’s why traveling the world with your partner is a good idea.

The third component of a relationship is commitment. Even if you are in a relationship already, you still should strengthen the commitment. You can do that by having a date night regularly and celebrating your anniversary each year.

The fourth component of a relationship is compatibility. This is the most underrated component in a relationship. But it’s literally the single most important element as without compatibility, other components will be vulnerable.

Now ask yourself these questions:

Do you have compatible value systems?

Do you have compatible approaches to things?

Do you have compatible flaws?

After interviewing many world travelers who are in relationships, I have realized that couples who have compatible flaws usually can enjoy sustainable relationships. This is a very interesting finding.