I’ve always dreamt of travel.  And from as long as I can remember I’ve had dreams of living in foreign places, learning languages and seeing more and more of the world.  And I’m not alone.  There are lots of people out there with dreams to travel the world but when it really comes down to it, it can often seem daunting to know how to even start to make those dreams a reality.  So I’ve laid it out, step by step to help each and every one of you get to fulfilling those dreams as well.  So if you’re like me and you dream of travel and seeing different lands around the world, here are 5 steps to make your travel dreams a reality!

1. Have a dream.

The first one is easy and you probably already have it!  Have a dream!  Think about what it is that you want out of your life.  If that’s saving up your money for one huge trip of a lifetime or it’s a bunch of smaller trips that work into your yearly budget, think about what you want and dream away!

2. Make a plan and save money.

This part is often the most daunting but can easily make or break your dream of travel.  Before you can jump on that airplane to a far away land, you’ll need to make a plan and that plan will need include how you’ll save money to make it happen.  You can’t get to the next step without this one, so take your time and do this step right.  This step might take a few months or it might take a few years but if you sit down and force yourself to make a plan, put money away and figure out the costs and all the necessary information to make your dream a reality, you can be sure that when you get on that airplane, you’ll be glad you took this extremely important step seriously.

3.  Make it happen.

When people ask me how I’ve kept so much travel in my life, and I always respond, “I just make it happen.”  You can also read this step as “keep hustling” if you like.  But either way, I travel a lot in my life because I work really hard in order to be able to do it.  You can have the best intentions in the world, but until you actually make things happen, no one is going to do it for you.  If that means saying no to yourself on that second cup of coffee from Starbucks to save that money in your travel fund or picking up an extra job to make more money, no one else can make your dreams come true other than you so take it seriously.

4.  Be Patient.

Patience is a virtue and yet it’s so damn hard sometimes to wait.  But waiting for your dreams is important.  Waiting for that trip is important.  Because that waiting helps us as humans appreciate what we have or what may be coming ahead and helps us prepare ourselves for what is coming.  Chasing dreams isn’t easy and it takes hard work and a lot of time waiting for things to come through, but if you can be patient and wait it out, I promise the end result will be that much better.  Just give yourself time and don’t expect dreams to come true overnight.

5.  Stay curious.

So what happens when you get to your dream fulfilled?  Stay curious.  Don’t cut yourself off from more learning or chasing a new dream.  There are always more places to see, more people to meet.  And if you can stay curious and keep learning, you’ll be able to chase dreams your entire life.