The Mindset of Traveling: Why It’s Simpler Than You Think
— And How Freedom, Money, and Perspective Shift Everything
For the longest time, I thought traveling was a big hustle.
Packing, planning, booking tickets, wondering what if someone needs me, or what if people don’t know where I am—it all felt like this giant task that needed too much energy. So I’d put it off. I’d stay put. I told myself I was being “responsible,” when really, I was just tangled in imaginary threads in my own mind.
But something clicked recently.
It hit me that I’ve already been “traveling” all the time—just not in the way I defined it. Even in my home city, Shanghai, I bounce around constantly: staying at friends’ places, crashing at my girl’s spot, or pulling late nights at the office and just sleeping there. I’m not always at “home”—yet no one ever calls asking where I am. People assume I’m just working, or chilling. Life goes on.
That’s when I realized: traveling is just a change in space, not time.
There are still 24 hours in a day whether you’re in Shanghai, Hangzhou, or Paris. What changes is where you spend them, not how you spend them.
Today I took a spontaneous day trip to a nearby city. Woke up early, hopped on a train, and didn’t tell anyone. Guess what? No one noticed. No one needed to. I wasn’t “gone.” I was just… living life in a different space.
And that’s the secret:
Once you shift your mindset, traveling becomes as casual as trying a new coffee shop down the street.
It stops being a “big event” and starts being a natural extension of your freedom.
Now, of course, I recognize there’s privilege in this. I run my own business, so I control my time. And these days, I’ve got a bit more money than I used to—which means I don’t stress about the cost of a train ticket or worry about whether a cab ride will mess up my budget. (Back in the day, even a subway ride felt like a splurge I had to overthink.)
So yes—money does buy freedom, but maybe not in the way you think.
It buys experiments.
It buys the permission to try.
And through trying, your mind expands.
That’s how I got here: from thinking travel is a hassle, to realizing it’s just a small shift in space. Same time, different vibe.
And I like that.
Try This:
Next time you feel stuck or hesitant to travel, don’t plan a grand escape. Just go somewhere else for a few hours. A park. A nearby town. A new café. Watch how your energy shifts—and maybe, your mindset too.
Because in the end, it’s not the miles you move.
It’s the mind.