Just go Anyway: Creating a Solo Adventure Course
Travelling is one of my favourite ways to spend time. Whether it’s a day trip to another town to grab food from a food truck or a week-long excursion in a tropical location, I’m here for it. And maybe you want to be here for it too, but you’re not comfortable travelling on your own. Maybe the idea of a solo adventure scares the crap out of you.
I’ve heard it time and time again from women (especially women with families) that they wish they could travel on their own. But they are afraid, crunched for time, or just don’t see how it’s fair. It’s not fair for them to travel and leave their family home. And I get it. I’ve been there. And I’m here to tell you to go anyway: take the trip.
The trick isn’t to go all in on a month-long adventure and leave everything behind right out of the gate. The trick is to start small and slow: a thing most people don’t want to do. But what I’ve learned about solo travel is that you have to build up your travel muscle just like anything else: one trip at a time.
A Solo Adventure Course is Coming
I’ve had these conversations with people so often that I came up with the idea of creating a new course called Go Anyway: A Solo Travel Guide. It’s going to help you check these important travel items off your bucket list. If you’re like me, you get tired of scouring the internet looking for actionable information. There’s loads of information out there, but it’s hard to piece it together to create the experience you want. You end up spending all your time fact-checking and cross-referencing information to see the full picture.
As an experienced course creator, business owner and adventurer at heart, I know what it’s like to spend hours online trying to find information that gives you the confidence to take action. That’s what I am building my course to give you an introductory, moderate and advanced set of experiences.
Rather than think you need to go all in and spend thousands of dollars to take a month-long road trip or backpack through the mountains alone, we start off with just one night. Yes, an overnight experience to get the ball rolling on your solo adventures. I’ll share with you how I got over the guilt of going away by myself when my family was left home.
Overcoming the Intimidating Factor of Solo Adventures with Confidence
I want to share with you how I planned and budgeted for trips, and how making that kind of experience a priority made me feel so good about myself. Whether you’re hoping to get away for a night or a month, this course is going to teach you how to prep, plan, and take the leap into trusting yourself while building your capacity for solo travel.
I think women are intimidated by the idea of solo travelling for a number of reason, not least of which is the belief that they can’t abandon their posts as mothers, wives, employees, daughters, or even friends. Sometimes when we make choices that benefit only ourselves, we have a hard time believing it’s worth the investment.
I can assure you that taking time for yourself and investing in something that brings you joy, like travelling, will free you up to be better at all of those things later. And if you aren’t worried about pissing someone off with your solo travels, you might worry about finances, safety, or trusting yourself to handle sticky situations if they arise.
What to Expect When You’re Not Sure What to Expect
This course is something I’ve been thinking about doing for a while now and it’s a great time to launch it with the summer coming, but the truth is, you can travel all year long on your own. I’ve spent weeks in the mountains exploring and discovering what Old Man Winter has to offer by myself. I’ve done my fair share of Autumn vacations too and I’ve found myself sweating my ass off in the dead of summer in a tent wishing it had air conditioning. The weather doesn’t have to be perfect for you to get out there and enjoy yourself.
So what can you expect from this course? For starters, think of it more as a guide. I’m going to guide you through the process of deciding to do this. After all, simply buying the course doesn’t mean you’ll take the trip. I want to make sure you take the trip. Then we’ll walk through choosing locations, pricing, experiences and plans, as well as how to stay safe on your own. But the best part is that you’ll work your way through a series of exercises that help you go from one night stands by yourself to multi-week adventures on your own.
You don’t have to wait for friends or family to be ready. You can be ready right now. A simple, step-by-step guide filled with personal stores, what not to do and what to focus on instead, as well as checklists, budget sheets, countdown to go-time trackers, packing lists and more is what you’re going to find when this course drops.
Go Anyway: You Don’t Need a Reason for a Solo Adventure
I am calling it Go Anyway because you’re going to come up with a million reasons not to do this and I know from personal experience that you just need one good reason to go anyway. I’ll help you figure out that reason too.
Each module will walk you through the steps to identify and plan your next solo adventure, starting with an overnight adventure. Then you’ll move on to a weekend trip to get a little more experience doing things on your own. The third module will focus on a week-long excursion, with multiple stops or locations, and finally we’ll end with a multi-week adventure that I’ve based on my 45-day road trip across Canada.
Whether you want to camp your way to solo adventure freedom, or you want to stay at the best hotels money can buy, the steps I’m going to share with you will help you choose your trip, plan and save for it, as well as make the most of your time on the road.
I love a good bonus with any course I buy and I’ve got no shortage of itineraries, checklists, templates, packing advice, and of course, journal prompts. I’m building a travel journal you can download and take with you.
Time Well Spent. Alone.
Maybe you’re not sure what to do with yourself when you’re travelling alone. Maybe you’re not used to filling up with time with things you want to do, or you think to yourself, “I’m just going to watch Netflix anyway so what’s the point of spending the money to just watch TV somewhere else?” If that’s how you want to spend your time, then that’s great. And nobody said it was a waste of money to stay in a hotel and watch your favourite Netflix show.
This is about taking time for yourself and getting out of your element to try something new. I make recommendations on how to use your time if you want to do something other than what you usually do though.
Some of my favourite ways to spend time on a trip are to plan at least one meal at a nice restaurant. And yes, I go into the restaurant and eat by myself. It won’t kill you. You won’t burst into flames. And you can even leave your phone in your pocket and just enjoy the atmosphere. Crazy, I know. But it’s actually really nice to get a break and do different things sometimes. Or, if you want to document the entire thing and share it on Instagram, you can do that too.
The choice is yours and choice is what this is all about. Other activities I like to include in my solo adventures are hiking (yes, I hike alone), popping into little shops in a new place (I rarely buy anything though), and checking out a local beach or lake. I love to read, journal, re-watch some of my favourite movies, and order room service.
It’s fun to get tickets to an event, like a baseball game if you’re in Toronto. You don’t need someone to watch baseball with. Or you can take in a movie. I never understood why we needed people to come to the movies with us: we sit in silence. It’s not like we’re going to talk about the movie like we do at home. Or, you can try a new coffee shop, taste a new food, or just sleep.
How I Spend My Solo Adventure
My ultimate overnighter looks like this:
I arrive just before supper time, unpack and make my dinner. I read or write in my journal for a while. If I’ve got a creative project on the go, I’ll work on that for a few hours. I’ll take a nap, watch a movie, snack on some of my favourite foods and then sleep it off. If I’m camping, I’ll light a fire, have exactly one beer and then call it a night. I always sleep in unless I have to be somewhere the next day. I’ll make breakfast, read for a while and then get ready to head home.
It’s not fancy unless I want it to be. It’s not expensive unless I choose to spend money. An overnight solo adventure is just about giving yourself a small window of time to do only the things you want to do. If you’re not a reader, that’s cool. Watch a movie. If you’re not a movie buff, no worries, take a walk. If you aren’t into walking, drive around town and see some new sights.
The possibilities are endless and yet, you’ll tell yourself there’s no point. The point is going. That’s the only point you need. And if all you ever do is take that one overnight trip, I’ll be proud of you. But I suspect, you’ll find yourself wanting more. What I discovered was a desire to go for longer and longer periods of time. The longer I go, the less need I feel to fill up the time I have. Days become leisurely and time stops mattering. It’s unexpected to feel like time doesn’t matter, especially these days, but it can happen.
Working on the Road
If you’re an entrepreneur like me who works from home and you tell yourself you need to be glued to your desk or your clients will get upset, think again. I’ve taken calls from clients all across this continent. In one year, I was in the four corners of North America, including on a cruise ship in Alaska and was still able to correspond with clients via phone and email.
I discovered that I didn’t need to constantly worry about work if I planned for these trips properly. And if I did need to take a call, say at 4 am in Las Vegas because it was 9 am on the East Coast, then so be it. I got up and took the Zoom call. It’s just an hour of my time to get to have 23 hours more of freedom. It’s worth it. And not as hard to do as you might think.
Go Anyway isn’t ready yet, but with my focus on doing the work I want to do right now in this creative era of mine, it will be ready in no time.
And who am I to teach a course on being a solo traveller? For starters, I’ve travelled thousands of kilometres across Canada and back by myself. I’ve done numerous road trips, flown across the country and back, gone to other countries and have only encountered three major issues which I address in the course. You’ll be happy to know that none of the issues were related to my safety. I’ve been lucky to get to travel alone without fear, but we address fear and how to handle it in the course too.
It’s going to be everything you need to go from idea to your first, second and tenth solo trip!
If you want to get updates on the Go Anyway course and find out when it’s ready, be sure to join my mailing list. I’m only sending updates once a month so you won’t want to miss it.
Life’s too short. Go anyway.
