Do you want to live your life to the fullest? To do so, the one thing you need to do is to enrich your life. You need to broaden your life experiences and taste more of the richness life has to offer.
You might think that you need to spend a lot of money and go overseas for that, but there is actually a cheap and easy alternative. Here it is:
Explore your city.
Yes, explore your city. You don’t need to go overseas. You don’t even need to go out of town.
A while back, there was a Dutch girl who faked a trip to Southeast Asia. She posted pictures on Facebook showing the exciting places she went to. One picture shows her sitting next to a Buddhist monk, as if she was visiting a temple in Southeast Asia. Another picture shows her snorkelling.
But guess what? All those “exciting” places were actually in her own country! In fact, she didn’t even leave her hometown!
My point is: there are interesting experiences waiting for you in your own town. You just need to discover them.
Here is how to do it:
1. Find and list new places to visit.
To find interesting places in your city, a good resource is TripAdvisor. Search for your city and visit its Attractions page (here is an example for my city). The places are already ranked so you can easily see the best ones.
Look at the places listed. Have you visited them all? Chances are that you haven’t. I’ve been in my city for more than 15 years and still haven’t visited some of them. In fact, there are a few that I have never heard of before!
You might also want to broaden your culinary experience by finding new places to eat. Again, TripAdvisor is a good resource for this (here is an example). In my case, there are so many places I haven’t heard of before that it’s like discovering a new world!
2. Visit the places with a tourist mindset.
Now that you have a list of the new places, take time to visit them. You might want to set aside a day (or more) per month for it.
In exploring your city, have a fresh set of eyes. Be like a tourist. Appreciate and absorb the richness of the experience.
3. Find and join a new social club.
Broadening your experience isn’t just about visiting new places – it’s also about meeting new people. You might never get a chance to know the many interesting people in your city if you don’t make the effort to meet them.
A good way to do this is by joining a new social club. In my case, I joined Toastmasters a few months ago. I joined it without knowing anyone there before, so I met entirely new people. And guess what? They are interesting people that I’ve learned a lot from.
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Enriching your life doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming. In fact, you have endless opportunities in your own town. You just need to discover them.
Any thoughts? Comments here.
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Photo by Randen Pederson
When I have visitors I often see my city with new eyes. Thank goodness I have visitors or I might only see my route to work. I think I’m going to make a long list of restaurants I’ve never gone to and explore them as a social outing with friends, one by one. And I’d better up the exercise at the same time.
That’s a good idea, Holly. I hope you will enjoy the experience.
Holly, I can relate.
It’s funny sometimes when guests come back to our house after a day out sightseeing, they ask if I have seen this and that and I say ‘No, where are those places’ and they say 20 mins down the road! LOL!
I am a British/Australian expat living and working in the philippines, so many gorgeous places to visit, just have to make the time to get out and see them.
Thank you, Donald, for a piece of valuable, easy-to-read advice.
Glad you like it, Daniel!
Hi love your style! Made me look at my home town all over again couldn’t believe how many places I haven’t been in my own city fantatsic thanks
Yes, there is an adventure there waiting for you 🙂
I live in a world heritage city – Bath – and I take the opposite view on the tourist mindset. Sometimes we need to get away from what everybody is looking at and find a different view point. For me this would be the view of the city from some of the hills or less fashionable streets.
Interesting perspective, Peter. Thanks for sharing!
This is very true! My hometown has renovated all the dingy alleys in the heart of the city and now there’s eateries and small micro bars turning up all over the place. I’m constantly walking past tiny little bars that I’ve never even heard of before!
Sounds great, Jason 🙂