Are you trapped in a FOMO cycle? Probably youāre not feeling too great about your life! Is it?
Okay. Let us understand what is FOMO?
FOMO stands for āFear of Missing Outā. The frequently used word was added to the Oxford dictionary in June 2015. FOMO is the state of emotional or mental strain caused by the fear of missing out. It is an anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on social media. FOMO often leads to unhappiness. The sad irony about this epidemic of FOMO is that we do miss out and end up withdrawing our own lives. Life turns into something that simply happens while we are waiting for something better-something else to happen.
The bucket list
The term bucket list comes to mind when I think about FOMO. A bucket list contains a group of activities or items that you want to accomplish in life. Itās like you donāt want to miss out an opportunity on doing something. These activities or items generally relate to travel, sports, events, etc.
Purpose of a bucket list
Bucket lists involve such activities or items that you have never done before, they push your limits to do something different from our normal life. They focus on the perceived opportunity to be happy resulting from an external event.
Let us understand how building your personal travel bucket list will help you to overcome FOMO:
1. Remind yourself of your goals
We are always busy in our everyday lives and so we tend to forget how vast our world is in reality. Making a travel bucket list and putting it on display constantly reminds us about the various cultures that we havenāt explored till date and we have a lot to learn about them.
2. Understand your interests better
A travel bucket list is a great way to find out where your interests lie, what you would like to accomplish in life and to get a better understanding of what makes your mind tick.
3. Prioritize
Put your hobbies, your likes and dislikes be on your top list. For e.g.: you love to paint. Painting your favorite portrait, landscape or something you like will release your FOMO and youāll find happiness along with self-satisfaction. In short, prioritize those things that bring happiness in your life.
4. Learn new skills
Think about what skill you want to learn or what skill you wanted to learn in life but became a sideline. Be it a new language, new activities, new sports, learning new recipes, etc will enhance your confidence and leave you FOMO free.
5. Explore yourself and identify your fears
Sometimes it is necessary to take out time and explore yourself! What fears you in life, anything that is pulling you down? Itās not like you have the FOMO on things outside of your daily life, but you may miss out on things that are in your control. Think, do you ignore or undervalue the blessings that are a crucial part of your daily life.
6. Social media worsens FOMO but its also a cure
Take a break! It actually triggers your FOMO and even cures it. The more you stay online there are more chances of FOMO slowly creeping in for sure. When people you know post their best photos on various social media platforms you think they are enjoying. You feel missed out, maybe you canāt keep up with them, and eventually, you will feel burned out! Even those phone notifications and anticipation of the latest information coming across our devices do not allow you to be present. Hence, you feel distracted, confused and totally unaware of what matters now! This is the right time to set limits to using your devices and build your personal travel bucket list.Ā
7. Calm yourself and stop taking everything as an emergency
If you are living or working under stressful conditions, you may be taking every single thing as an emergency. Stop that! Choose to respond thoughtfully, under-react, leave the stress and leave the drama too. Building your own travel bucket list will help you to give yourself room to breathe and rejuvenate you.
8. Live your life happily
A personal travel bucket list helps you to live your life happily. When you were a small kid, went out to play and never worried about anything else right! You never thought what people thought of you. So tick the next destination on your travel bucket list you want to travel and lose yourself in natureās beauty. Visit some of the top destinations in the world.
In fact, itās all just so simple, yet very difficult to understand when you are trapped in the unrealistic world of FOMO.
So, come out of your FOMO, build your personal travel bucket list and start the immense joy of traveling. Explore some of the most wonderful places in the world while you are alive.
Itās my hope that few of the travel bucket list ideas and examples that I have listed below will inspire you to create your personal travel bucket list filled with satisfaction, happiness, and joy. Some of the must-see travel destinations are:
- See the Northern Lights in Iceland, Sweden, Canada or Norway.
- Hike the Inca Trail.
- Bathe in the Blue Lagoon Geothermal Spa, Iceland.
- Go white water rafting in Maine.
- Visit Machu Pichu in Peru.
- An expedition to Antarctica.
- Island hopping in Greece.
- Trek the Himalayas.
- Explore the Great Barrier Reef.
- Walk across the Great Wall of China.
- Experience the Alaskan Cruise.
- Wander the streets of Paris, France.
- Backpack Europe.
- Relax at Blue Lagoon.
- Explore the Glowworm Cave.
- Snorkel on Komodo Island.
- Admire the breath-taking view from Burj Khalifa, Dubai.
- Hike on the Rainbow Mountain.
- Get splashed at Niagara Falls.
- Experience a wild South African Safari at Serengeti National Park.
- Discover the Iguaza Falls.
- Visit St. Peterās Basilica, Italy.
- Marvel The Taj Mahal, India.
- Discover the Amazon Rainforest and River.
- Explore Petra, Jordan.
I hope my recommendations above and the bucket list trips of a lifetime will help you build your own travel bucket list and so you get the best travel journeys to enjoy.
Happy traveling, Goodbye FOMO!