05 jan FOMO made me do it,

Sometimes you just have to give yourself a pep talk, but uhm .. Let me do it for you. Okay? “Nobody is having more fun than you. Nobody is living a better life than you. Nobody is experiencing better things than you are.” A question I would like you to ask yourself is: How often are you being hunted by that deep sense of envy .. ? Which they say is one of the effects of Social Media. Well, you know what? It already existed before the world wide web infiltrated our daily life. The offline world has the same dynamics.

Unnecessary pressure,

In a world where our value as people and our own sense of self-worth is determined primarily by our succes, our online-updates and by the photos we post of the touristic hotspots we’ve visited .. Many people are under unnecessary pressure even when they travel. “Tomorrow I’ll have to go sightseeing”, he said. Somehow, I could sense the anxiety that got a hold of him. The possibility that he was missing out on something was hidden in his words. The ‘you should definitely’-ADVICE people had given him, were like planted seeds that had grown into obligations.

Ten out of ten for my instinct,

I knew what he felt. I actually had first hand experience of it. For many years I was hunted by that same feeling. But at a certain point I just gave up. I wanted to travel without necessarily having to prove myself in the way I guess we all have proven ourselves once. Every city has its own hotspots, must sees and if you haven’t seen them .. Well, you just haven’t really been there, right? “They’ve told me I should see this, that and this ..” NO, STOP!

We are training our minds to be where we physically aren’t  

Why go from hotspot to hotspot? Jump on one of those tourist buses to HOP ON and OFF. I’ve never voluntarily sat in one of those buses. A long time ago, in London, I did a friend a favor. A true act of kindness after a long negotiation. Well .. The novelty of sightseeing wore off very quickly. The only thing that we were actually doing was ticking off the sightseeing-boxes with selfies and photos as a result. No real vibes, interaction with locals or any real discoveries. 

Undivided attention

Instead of scanning the highlights of the city from a distance, while the bus drove 20 miles an hour, I prefer to dive deep into experience. I felt like being trapped on a bus, passing by all kinds of details .. Details that had potential unique memories within them. Since a couple of years I am able to remember almost every detail of my trips, because 9 out of 10 times I’m fully engaged .. Living in the actual moment. 

Being swept along, like seaweed in the tide

I’ve been to New York City eight times and I’m actually writing this article in New York City right now. My ninth visit. And I still don’t own one of those awesome photos taken on top of the Rockefeller or the Empire State building. I just don’t. In New York I just let life happen to me and much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.

FOMO, the enemy of valuing your own time,

Some say that the fear of missing out on things actually makes you MISS OUT on everything. Just remember .. When you fear missing out, you’re missing the moment you’re in.

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else