December 2023
Why “Someday” Should Be Today: Silencing the Inner Critic About a Tour Guiding Career
How often have you daydreamed about leading groups on overseas adventures? Of swapping spreadsheet monotony for ancient ruins and beachside sunsets? For many, tour directing summons a siren’s call – one silenced by self-doubt’s nagging refrain. But the common excuses holding you back likely ring hollow when you trace their roots.
Consider the prohibitive training costs. While certifications impress employers, remarkable guides also shine through passion and personability. With an industry baking under wanderlust’s growing fever, determined applicants find tuition’s dividends repay themselves through rewarding work.
Perhaps lingering safety concerns still give you pause in an unstable world. But darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. And what brighter light exists than a traveler’s compassion and curiosity, outshining ignorance’s shadows? While vigilance has its place, living fearfully surrenders something deeper – the human connections making life worth living.
Other times, conventional pressures masquerade as practicality. Well-meaning friends and family envision corporate ladders in your future, viewing tour directing as simply a frivolous desire. But their confusion stems from stereotypes that obscure the profession’s meaningful impact. Guiding links strangers into lasting communities. What nobler purpose exists than forging bonds of understanding for cultures, and traditions around the globe? In time, even skeptics recognize that vision.
Of course, some still grapple more with complacency than criticism. You tolerate your office job’s gray mediocrities – pointless meetings, petty tyrants – buoyed by assurances of stability. But does a decade toiling solely for retirement’s distant deliverance truly constitute success? Wouldn’t fulfillment come faster by conveying what you love about seeing the world?
Perhaps past paths now diverge into doubt. Guiding’s unpredictable cadence gives cold feet after specializing in a field, attaining hard-won benchmarks that now seem surrendered. But there is an ITMI Community where others have stood here before – weighing security against passion until envisioning their contributions in travel. Growth depends on first steps forward during uncertain times.
Budgetary knots, time or life stage transitions also loom large when contemplating dramatic change. But guiding accommodates nearly all lifestyles given seasonal rhythms. With planning, and choosing between ITMI’s Personalized Choice programming you control the pace; fate cares little either way.
At day’s end, every barrier blocking guiding as any profession traces back to some fear – of financial risk, bodily harm, lifestyle instability, or lost social status. But place these beside a traveler’s joy upon returning home transformed by discoveries that challenges assumptions. How do those temporary anxieties measure against awakening human potential? To helping to harmonizing groups of people, sharing perspectives through simple storytelling to people of all ages, cultures and traditions.
Is your someday today?
#itallstartedwithITMI #travel #roamtheworld #wanderlust #adventure awaits
