Last year flew by. I feel like I just blinked and missed it. How could it have been almost a year since we bought Hazel into this world in March? Has it really been five months since we set off on our latest trip in August? Yet today as I was snowboarding in -6ºC temperatures it felt like I was a years away from having played around in the soft sand on Maui’s beaches less than a year ago. Travel does such strange things to time. It stretches it and compacts it at the same time. Memories of past trips can seem so distant but time seems to zoom by on the road.

I feel like I was just getting started in 2014. We’d picked up our travels again after a break in New Zealand to have a baby. After reflecting on our travels in 2014 I realised one thing I want to improve upon. I’m not a big believer in New Year’s resolutions for the sake of them but I do believe strongly in making improvements to life and truly considering what you’re doing on a daily basis, rather than just going through the motions.

So, here’s my one travel resolution for 2015….

Do More Interesting Things

What we do is great, don’t get me wrong. I just feel like I could be doing so much more interesting. I love change. I hate being and feeling boring. I’ve always striven to steer away from the pack. Yet, after my 12th visit to Thailand in 2013 (Yes! Twelve!!) I realised I need to start doing some things differently or my travel-self is going to get boring.

 

With this resolution in mind, I’ve come up with some specific travel goals for 2015. Here they are:

 

Get Outside Our Comfort Zone

Also known as, do more than just go places and eat!

We just spend two months in Las Vegas and I really could not tell you what we did apart from eat. Going forward, my plan is to have a focus for anywhere we spend longer periods of time. Right now we’re in Park City, Utah and I’m learning to snowboard. For the next two months, each week I’m going to spend four days doing at least one hour of snowboarding practice. By the end of our time here I want to be able to ride the chairlift without being scared and complete a run with Lee (he’s really good!) without falling down. Not only should I start to get good at it, snowboarding should help me lose some of that baby weight I haven’t had time to think about.

 

Visit Places That Are More Unique

Also known as, getting beyond the tourist trail.

I don’t know about you, but I’m bored of reading blogs about travelling around Thailand or visiting Bali. I want to read about things that are more unique, unexpected and exciting. I realise that a lot of people love places like Thailand and Bali and I get that. They’re popular destinations so there will always be a need for blog posts about visiting there. I don’t blog for those reasons though. I blog because I love sharing what I’m doing. I want to be a bit more inspiring to my audience and let them know that they can go strange, exotic, interesting places and take their kids along too!

It’s hard to set a specific goal for this right now as we haven’t come up with any firm travel plans for the year but I’ve got a few ideas on how I might go about doing this. I’d love to get my readers involved in choosing a destination to send us to (I’ve seen other bloggers do this and I love it!) and doing some kind of surprise trip where we just pick the next flight out, throw a dart at a map or let the children choose somewhere random.

 

 

Visit at Least Ten New Countries

Also known as stay on track for my 100 countries before 40 goal.

When I turned 30 I set myself a goal to visit 100 countries before I turn 40. I’m pretty determined to achieve this but realise that with small children I need to do the easy countries first. Breaking it down, I need to visit roughly ten new countries a year (for the next seven years). Doable, right!?

Again, it’s hard to plan for this without having firmed up an travel plans for the year but I will be able to visit ten new countries in 2015. For example, if we drive up to Canada after Utah (that’s one!), take a short trip to Europe or the Caribbean (that’s four or five!) then head down to South America (that’s another four or five!) I should be able to comfortably achieve this.

 

Are you making any travel resolutions or goals for 2015? Tell me what they are! I’d love to know.

If you are, I strongly suggest making your goals SMART. That is specific, measurable, accountable, realistic and time-bound. Something I learned from my past corporate life was that using this system of goal setting greatly improves your chances of successfully completing goals. I’m doing this with my goals for 2015 (not just travel but my work, parenting and blog goals) and it’s already getting me on the right track.