“There is the risk you cannot afford to take, (and) there is the risk you cannot afford not to take.” – Peter Drucker

That quote got me.

I found it in Steve Zikman’s book “The Power of Travel” and within the hour I bought the book. Within two years I left on my 6-month trip through Australia. It’s not single-handedly responsible for that trip, but I think that it helped to nurture the seed that had already been planted. The book’s quotes and musings address the themes of travel in one-page doses. It’s the kind of book that has just the right inspiration, no matter your mindset or stage of travels when you open up its pages. It sits, waiting, in my own bookshelf.

On embracing ‘go:’

“We let go of our reasons not to go. Money. Family. Work. Career. Obligations nad responsibilities. We can’t get away. No time. Keeping us from our dreams. From ourselves. From Us. We think of the reasons we have created for not going. We write down each reason, every last one. Then we erase each reason, one by one, until the page is blank. No more excuses.”

On anonymity:

“Suddenly, at any given moment, on any given day, in any given place, we realize that nobody in the world knows where we are. Nobody…We do not fear our anonymity. We extol its exhilarating and liberating qualities. We are comforted by its release. We savor its power, the power of its unleashing. We go forth in its energy, its open agenda. We are prepared for its potential. In that moment, we are whoever we want to be.”

On serendipity:

“Travel surprises us. A turn down the next street, right instead of left, and a new friend is created, a friend for life. Left instead of right, and we rediscover the charming little restaurant we’d visited years before and long forgotten…No matter our intended design or schedule, Chance is our ever-present travel partner in discovery. Fate and Destiny orchestrate our journey, map out our path. Fortune and Luck plot our course, serve as our compass. We applaud the happenstance of our ways, our happy accidents, our little miracles. We recognize and celebrate the Kismet in our travels, the synchronistic signposts of our soul.”