Living the globetrotter dream, with Adrian Nicholls

Have you ever wanted to pick yourself up, pack a bag or two and hop on a few random flights around the world? Sounds impractical, doesn’t it? Not for Adrian Nicholls. There’s a sign of admiration when I think of what Adrian has done in his life, and that was leaving what he felt comfortable with, leaving his ‘safe-zone’ and travelling the world just because he wanted to.

Growing up, I told myself the same thing over and over again; that it would be ‘nice’ to travel the world, it would be ‘cool’ to do so, but unfortunately, I can’t. Why was I telling myself that I couldn’t do it? It’s because the way I was raised, I was taught to go to school, get a job, get married and settle because doing crazy things like travelling the world is just plain old ‘silly.’ Now that I’ve actually grown up, I’ve seen so many places around this beautiful world and I now realize the power of travelling. What travelling does to you is it allows you to be more open-minded. It allows you to accept different cultures, different religions, different people and introduces you to different values that you may have never had before.

My conversation with Adrian was an exciting one because, for a few moments, I had the chance to live vicariously through Adrian’s experiences. I haven’t travelled as much as Adrian, and I consider myself to have some amazing, open-minded experiences from travelling. When you meet a guy like Adrian, who’s lived in many countries for months at a time, that is truly sometime to admire.

Here are some of the key takeaways from my interview with Mr. Globetrotter:

  1. Get to know yourself- Adrian talks about the importance of getting to know yourself, and the ease of doing this through travelling. When I speak to friends and family about travelling, I always tell him that it’s a good way to get to know who you are. In my example, living by myself or travelling by myself allows me to get to know Shiv; likes, dislikes, values, routines etc.
  2. Live every night like a Saturday night–  Hell yeah, sign me up. This is a HUGE point Adrian brings up. His desire to live every night like a weekend was his drive to get into a business that would allow him to be free, and in turn, give him the freedom to travel the globe. He spoke about stressing about your job and the negative toll that can have on you. We understand that not everyone can do this, but it’s the message that’s important: Live a life where you’re genuinely excited to wake up the next day and own it.
  3. JUMP– For those of you who know me personally, jump is one of my favourite four-letter words (so much so, that it’s probably the next tattoo!). Adrian talks about the importance of just ‘jumping’ into something that may make you feel uncomfortable, but will present to you opportunities that you’d never dream were possible. Jump into the danger zone once in a while, and you’ll be surprised how strong during that process.

Overall, the conversation I had with Adrian was so inspiring that it made me book a flight to Shanghai next year April. Why? For starters, I’ve never been to anywhere in Asia, and secondly, I’m genuinely excited to embrace the multiple cultures I will experience! Thank you for the inspiration, Adrian!

If you’d like to contact Adrian, please do so on the social media tags below!

Facebook: Adrian Nicholls

Instagram: @Adrian_Nicholls