Before we begin (and feel free to skip this chapter), I think it needs to be said why I've dedicated my life to traveling, because I think a lot of people see it differently. Most people take vacation, and there's a big difference between vacationing and traveling. If you haven't traveled, let me share some of these insights with you as to why you should and how much it can change your life.

The Masai Mara, Kenya.

I've been traveling for almost two decades at the time of writing. In all those years I've spent time among Mongolian nomads, Jordanian beduins, and a few tribal men and women. I've rubbed shoulders with some of the richest people in the world and some of the poorest. I've shared drinks and underwater encounters with divers, and felt what it's like to live in the jungle, the desert, or the highest city on earth. I've walked over a 100 kilometers up and down several mountains until my legs learned how to scream at me, and I've flown in one of the most luxurious airline's first class suites in the world. I am just an average person with an average income, but I feel like a billionaire most of the time when it comes to how rich my life has been, and how many times I've stood in a place, feeling breathless and swept away as I discovered and rediscovered how it feels to really live and feel alive.

Masai Mara, Kenya

So why does traveling make me feel that way?

The answer, I think, lies in the word, "new." From the time of our birth we only grow through new experiences, whether it's a bad one or a rewarding one. The only difference between a child and an adult besides what appears on the outside is the number of new and different experiences they possess. We admire the wisdom of some older people because they seem to have everything figured out and know exactly who they are, where they're going, and how to deal with any given situation, because they've been through life a lot longer than us. We need new experiences to grow as a person, to understand more of the world and its people so we can live safer and better, to find out who we really are and what we truly want, to collect more wisdom in the pursuit of happiness.

Inle lake, Myanmar

Traveling does that. It can pack a hundred new experiences in a week and make you grow ten years wiser than someone twice your age who lives the same way everyday if you truly travel. When you go somewhere new you're stepping out of your comfort zone whether it's by a little or by a lot. You're often forced to face situations when things don't go according to plan, to take risks and chances, or to try something you never imagined yourself doing. You don't get to do a lot of that just living a life between your home and office, eating the same meal, speaking the same language everyday. But how important is it to get out of your comfort zone, you may ask. Why do you need something new when you're happy with your life being safe and planned and certain?

Laguna Colorada, Bolivia

Do you remember the first time you learned to ride a bike? The anxiety of not knowing what to do and knowing you could fall could be considered crippling to some. Then once you make that fearless leap and succeed you feel a sudden, unexpected rush of invincibility like you've just grown a pair of wings! It's that empowering feeling of having faced your fear and overcome it, of accomplishing something you felt like you couldn't do that traveling can offer and is so rarely found in life otherwise. When you travel to a new country you're forced to overcome your anxiety in a similar way. You don't know where everything is, what the food tastes like, how people react. Most of the time you don't speak the language, and you feel out of place everywhere, anytime. If you travel independently you'll have to face the unknown and navigate through new situations even if you've planned things to the T, and sometimes do things that could be considered dangerous. The strength you take back from having done that, from knowing you can survive in a land that's not your home, on your own, however, is immense. It can make you stronger, braver, and wiser in the way you may not have ever imagined and double your self-esteem and confidence in as little as a week (depending on how many anxiety-ridden things you do). It makes you a better version of yourself and shows you what you're really made of, who you can really be.

Bolivia Salt Flat (Uyuni)

I am severely addicted to that empowering feeling. Traveling has made me fearless of the future and the unknown, because if I have encountered things I didn't know in a place I didn't recognize and survived through everything not going as planned, I know I can survive any situation. That is what traveling (to a new place) can give you - the mindset that you're invincible. You can plan your life to the T, ace your tests, and graduate with a Ph.D., but life is never always going to go as you planned. To survive life you need survival skills, and you don't get that playing safe going from home to the office and vacationing in only places you know. To succeed you need to be fearless. You need to know whatever comes you can deal with it (and how to survive when five people try to con you around the Cairo museum!) Traveling has taught me to tackle life with a machete, which allows me to teach my children to tackle life with a machete. That alone is worth paying for, if nothing else.

Wadi Rum, Jordan

But then traveling usually gives you more than that. Infinitely more. As you try new things you learn to love new things (and hate some), and your horizon expands with it. It allows you to see things in a completely new perspective because different cultures see and do things differently if you choose to notice and accept it. The same dish can taste better eaten a different way. You may think you don't like tea until you've tried the 'right' tea made by someone on the other side of the planet. The word 'sea slug' had disgusted me until I started diving and discovered my obsession for nudibranch. I've feared all kinds of insects from childhood and now I look for beautiful bugs everywhere I go remembering how spectacular they were in the Amazon. When you travel you'll see people smile over things you'd never thought of, find happiness in the way you'd never imagined, and if you're not too afraid to step out of your comfort zone to try them too, you may find a thousand other things you enjoy besides what you already know. Traveling with an open mind for a few weeks can sometimes change you more than ten years of life ever could, and pack your life with exponentially more memorable moments than simply staying at home staring at your bank account.

Petra by night, Jordan

Ask me to today what makes me happy and I wouldn't know how to answer - there's just too many. My life is so full of things I want to do, so full of dreams to accomplish because every trip opens up a new horizon for me. I am over forty, and I feel as giddy as a ten-year old just looking at the places I can go and things I can try. The world makes more sense when you've travelled a lot. It becomes prettier, more interesting, more exciting and bursting with colors the moment you walk out the door to do something new, even if it's just trying out a restaurant next to your house you've never cared to try. And if something new with so little effort can spice up your day, imagine that there is a whole world out there with something new at every corner for you to discover.

Bora Bora, French Polynesia

That is why traveling is so addictive. Why we can't stop. Why we make a point at throwing every dime we make into nothing else and sometimes even taking out a mortgage to do so. Traveling is an education, an experience that allows you to grow in wisdom, in strength, in confidence, and in self-esteem. These are things you won't learn at school, things that will help you lead a better life and make the right decision, things that allow you to become the better person, to be the very best version of you. If that is not as important as paying for school and getting a degree, then I don't know what is.

So cancel that same old vacation you always take every summer, take a leap and go somewhere new you think you'd never go, try an activity you think you'd never do, or simply go to a new restaurant and taste a new cuisine, and I guarantee you'll feel a lot richer overnight even with a lighter wallet you'll have to work hard to fill again when you return. After all, money is only paper until you spend it, but whether you turn it into personal growth and unforgettable memories that last a lifetime or an expensive purse is all up to you to decide.