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The not to travel fan

Travel moves us. That this is true literally, is obvious. The movement that happens in space and time however is only part of the appeal. Travel also enables us to learn things on the journey; it provides opportunities for personal reflection and growth, physically and emotionally. It doesn’t just move us; it moves us. In the words of Rush’s little-known but excellent 1987 song ‘Prime Mover’:
“The point of the journey is not to arrive. Anything can happen.”
When I found out about Beata’s plan to sail around the world, my first thought was just an exercise in how many synonyms I could find for the word ‘awesome’. Then I began asking questions that you might be asking yourself now: How long would it take? How big was the boat? What was the route? How dangerous was it?
Pretty soon though, I settled on the question that really matters. Why was she doing it? We had been talking a lot about the word ‘why’ in our work together as part of the TRL Academy. We both had an appreciation of Simon Sinek’s ‘start with why’ mantra, and at the time we were working a lot on company strategy and vision - the definition of ‘why’ in business.
We had also been talking about blog articles. Something I had been doing more of - spurred on by the experience of the early Covid lockdowns in the UK - was writing them. Typically, they covered transport safety and new mobility topics; speed limits, perception of risk, how great cycling is for everything and everyone - that kind of thing. A couple of the articles had explored more philosophical topics, and these had been inspired by conversations with Beata around the innovation and ‘why’ type discussions we needed to have if we were to really make transport better for everyone.
And so here we are, at this blog. It started with that simple question. Why? From my personal perspective, despite understanding how awesome it was, I just couldn’t see the appeal of what Beata was taking on. I really dislike travel. I also get really seasick. Sailing around the world is just about the last thing you would find me doing. But I'm not the one doing it. Beata is. In our early discussions on the topic, I had suggested that our respective positions on such a grand undertaking might serve as an interesting basis for an article when she got back. She was making one journey around the world; I would be largely at home, and we thought it would be an interesting counterpoint if rather than taking a long journey once, I took a short journey many times. We could then ask, what had we both learned? Was the growth and personal learning gained from travel far and wide really any different to that gained from a detailed appreciation of a single place?
Things have evolved since then, as you will see. The blog is now planned to be in real time, as a journey in itself. There will be a number of articles, and they will doubtless evolve as we go, touching on differences and similarities in our respective viewpoints, in terms of more than just the number of legs to each journey, or their lengths. One of us is sailing around the world. One of us is not sailing around the world. We are both writing about journeys though, and how they move us. 
I am endlessly thankful to Beata for allowing me to get involved in the centerpiece of all of this - the challenge she is taking on. When I asked her the question "Why are you doing it" while finishing this introduction, she said it was about three things: her restlessness, her need for inspiration, and her curiosity. She also said, "I want to make my 8 years old and 80 years old self proud by doing something unusual". Notice how none of these motivations has anything explicitly to do with destinations. The point of the journey is not to arrive. What will we both learn? Anything can happen.
Shaun Helman. Early October 2022.

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Co-author

Shaun Helman

​Shaun is an Applied Psychologist who has worked in transport for most of his career. He has always had a fascination with travel, not as a participant but as an observer. From an early age he noticed that his own disdain for travel made him something of an outsider in social circles, such was the prevailing wisdom that travel is a prerequisite for learning about the world, and oneself. He never accepted this, believing instead that such learning can be achieved through local understanding, as well as global. He is excited to write about his own experiences over the next 18 months - experiences based on an intimate and repeating relationship with his local area - to be compared with (and maybe to) Beata's journey around the world.  Shaun lives in Berkshire with his wife Kim, and their cats.

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