Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity

by Gregory V. Diehl

Explorers and innovators actively pursue discomfort. They rely on their ability to figure things out in the moment and readily change themselves. They cannot foresee every detail that will aid this process, only prepare their minds to watch for new information and adapt in response.

I understood why the adventurer cannot ever go home again. They change, but everything around them stays the same.

Countries with similar programs include Bulgaria, Croatia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Rwanda, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine, though the specifics of each country’s program vary.

The real limits in life are the ones we use to structure our thinking. When someone thinks they have the answer to something, they stop taking in new information about it.

Or if you prefer the Tao Te Ching, “those who think they know never learn.”

Coordinating projects among teams across many locations makes things even more cumbersome. I now have a policy of only hiring people who can manage their own time and work-flow. Dependability is more important than ability when I choose who to work with.

You are most susceptible to erratic change when you are deepest in despair.

Enslavement, in fact, can teach us more about ourselves than freedom.

Overcoming the belief that learning is difficult can be a bigger challenge than learning itself,

You accept other people’s definitions when you are too weak to make your own.

That’s the innovative spirit of the human race I think we lose as we become too comfortable. We must, at some point, suffer to discover ourselves completely.