Many of us had watched the movie (see the familiar posters above) / read the book about Walter Mitty —the common man, so run-down by the mundanity of his boring life that his imagination takes over, transporting him to other worlds and new adventures. It’s a common theme in the working world in the twenty-first century. We are deluged with emails, meetings, paper work, and other various and constant tasks that such an escape seems not only tantalizing but absolutely necessary!

In a daily routine, we face the same options, the same challenges. What is the best commute for today? What should I grab for lunch? Should I try to make it to the gym after work? Even our choices have an overbearing consistency; bland and grueling. We have moderate security, we have moderate comfort, but what one really craves is a visceral experience — one in which we can feast our eyes on the unimaginable, sate our palate with a spice we have never tried, laugh with new friends from different cultures and feel the wind from another direction.

Traveling literally puts us out of our comfort zone. We have new rules to play by, new languages to roll around in our mouth, and new horizons to find. At first, this chance to escape may seem jarring, or even unrealistic — how crazy is it to think one day you can be working your desk job, and the next hiking the Andes!

Andes mountain range, Peru (Dec 2012) 

It is when I travel that I feel alive. Taking a holiday gives me the chance to make once in a lifetime decisions. Should I hike the Inca trail or take in the scenery of the Sacred Valley by train? Should i travel to an offbeat locale, alone or with friends? Would I rather cycle through Southeast Asia, or spend my time really getting to know a specific region? Am I brave enough to test the street food, or should I play it safe? All of a sudden you have tons of choices, and each one is unique to the location, the moment, and the mood you’re in! You are no longer a robot, fulfilling daily tasks and working out scenarios based on familiar risks and rewards, you’re an adventurer; a pioneer, set out to discover that which has been previously unknown to you.

As creatures of comfort, we often look for fulfillment from security—from living within the stability of routine—and this is understandable in a world of an economy in-flux. But the danger of settling into a routine or settling into fixed and dull choices is a real one—one that will at first leave you dull and robotic, and finally, desperate for escape, be it via plane, train, horse, automobile, or fantastical whimsy (a la, Mr. Mitty). In the end, maybe travel and this visceral experience is no real solution, but only a treatment for a mere symptom of what plagues us in this rat race. Then again, life only begins at the end of your comfort zone, so go out more & see the world!