Alright, time to wrap up! As I’m now spending my last days of travel here in New York City I decided to share some thoughts with you from my 7 months on the road. First of all I want to give myself a big hug and “thank you” for believing in myself and making this trip possible. This trip is probably the best investment I’ve ever made in myself. I’ve met so many interesting people, experienced crazy adventures I’ve never thought would be possible and grown a lot as a person.

Time has gone very fast. Can’t believe everything is over and that it’s time to return to home base. But luckily a lot of things have happened. I’m not going to rank specific events. Everything is special in its own way. But reflecting on my trip there is some special memories that come to mind. The absolute best memory has to be that friday night in April when Aly & Fila (trance djs from Egypt) played at Ruby Skye in San Francisco. So good. So unexpected. It was totally beyond belief!

And the funny thing that I realize now, while thinking about everything I’ve been through, is that I can’t honestly think of any bad experiences. I’ve definitely had my far share of bad experiences but they don’t seem to be that significant. When bad things happen I just accept it, laugh about it and move forward. So when I’m sitting here and think back on my travels I just start smiling and remember all the good things and crazy adventures that have happened. Epic memories.

As some of you might have noticed by reading the stuff that I’ve put up here, my main goal on this trip was to come closer to my real self and gain knowledge in personal development. Be more rooted in myself. I just want to be myself in all situations. On a surface level it sounds easy but it’s not. To say that I haven’t been affected by all the standards and ideals that circulate in the society would be a lie. I’m sure that everybody is affected of it to certain extent. “You should do this”. “You have to look like that”. Etc. One of the things I really dislike in myself is when I’m approval seeking and trying to get a good response from people. This is only shown on subtle levels and some might not even see it. But I know it myself. I can feel it.

This leads me in to the biggest epiphany I’ve had under my travels. The importance of authentic communication. What this means is that you are only expressing yourself. Never trying to impress or being scared of what people will think of you. You believe in yourself, the things you do and the way you are. This little gemstone fell into place when I was speaking to an old friend of mine. I was retelling some stories of what had happened to me under my first months of travel. All the stories was boring, I was speaking without passion. Because of this my life felt kinda boring. One day before that I had been speaking to my mentor. While talking to him I didn’t have any thoughts of what he would think of me, if he would dislike me or not. Every time I spoke to him I felt so happy and proud of myself. Because I had been honest. And my life felt great.

So, while I was sitting there and speaking to my old friend I remember  I was thinking: “What is this? Why am I feeling like this?” and then it just hit me. Why do I care of what people think of me? Why not just be honest? Be myself? Not care if I don’t live up to all the standards of modern society and the expectations people have on me. Why not just express myself, be true to myself and the person I want to be?

Most people have two reasons why they do things. One that sounds good and one that is true. Always telling the right reason is what it means to be authentic. Never looking down on yourself and questioning who you are. Accept yourself. This is a habit. Being honest and authentic is not something that happens overnight. It’s a process. After this realization I started to challenge myself and trying to be honest/authentic as much as possible. Taking small steps to more authentic communication. This has been my biggest challenge and still is. There is still a lot to do but I’m happy with the progress I’ve made and the way this is going.

It’s like presenting yourself in front of a group of people that you’ve never seen before. And they haven’t seen you. Why does that make us nervous? Speaking about yourself should be the most natural thing to do. No one knows you more than you do. But when you stand there, self-doubts like: “What will people think of me?”, “What do I say no so she/he/they will like me?” etc. might creep in and you become nervous.

Another big epiphany I’ve had on my travels is how important it is to take action. Every day! Personal development is tough. You have to confront yourself, become self-aware and find spots where you need improvement. Find your weak spots. There is a lot of information out there on how to be happy, be a better person, be confident etc. One common trap that many fall into is that they become a self-help junkie. I’ve been there myself. You read and read and read. The stuff that you read make you happy. But only for a moment. You might feel better overall, but no real change happens. You just want to read more.

Self help books, audios and videos are awesome. I think the information out there is great and everyone should take advantage of it. But it works best in conjunction to taking action. Two halves that completes the whole. It’s like ½ + ½ = 1, not 1 + 1 = 2. Get out of your comfortzone, read books and magic will happen.

Anyway, enough rambling about this. I might write more about it later as I believe it is super important. This is not the end though! It just the beginning. I’m not finished with travelling. There is a lot more things that I want to see and explore around the world. Even though I’m not going to be travelling for a while I’m still planing to post stuff here as I’m evolving and discover new things about life and personal development.

Before I end this I want to take the opportunity to thank everybody that I’ve met on the road. Thanks for inviting me in to your world, all the fun times we had together and all the inspiration you gave me. It’s invaluable! All of you are more than welcome to Stockholm, Sweden. And to all of you that have been reading this blog. Thanks for showning support and appreciation!

To end this message I just want to say one last thing to everybody: GO TRAVEL! If you’ve been thinking about doing it, do it! You don’t want to sit on the bench when you are 80 and regret that you didn’t take the opportunity to travel the world and gain firsthand experience. Instead you want to sit on the bench and tell stories for kids about all your adventures you had in life. So get out there! Expand your life.

/Johan