My Ins and Outs for Travel & Beyond in 2024

The TikTok/Instagram trend of Ins and Outs of 2024 have brought me a lot of joy. I love this idea of checking our intentions and our reasoning behind our goals. I am a huge fan of goal setting. I’m a huge fan of keeping close tabs on goals and the things that I accomplish. (I took up Bullet Journaling this year and to say I’m obsessed is an understatement.) So, I decided that I’d really like to take that trend a step further and share with you my ‘Ins and Outs of Travel’ and beyond for 2024.

In – Experience Tracking // Out – Country Counting

I’m not saying that I’m no longer tracking the countries I’ve been to, or the states my kids have been to or giving up on my dream to join the 100 countries club. However, I’m not making that my top priority. Instead of seeing that number go up, up, up, I’m looking to track my experiences instead. Of course, I don’t want to only do and see same things over and over, but I don’t care if I go to the same country or state over and over. What’s important to me is collecting experiences and memories. So, yes, I’m going back to Utah for the 4th time since 2020 this fall, but I’m excited to see new things and revisit old favorites!

In – Spontaneous Stops on Road Trips // Out – Only Getting from Point A to Point B

One of the things I’ve missed the most about how we used to adventure is the lack of spontaneity we’ve had since having kiddos. However, starting last summer, we were able to take more mini adventures on drives that we wouldn’t have a couple of years ago and I’m so eager to continue with that this year and I can’t wait to see what spontaneous stops we make in 2024!

In – Embracing Adventure at Home as Well // Out – Living for the Weekend

Obviously, if we’re saving for travel, embracing adventure at home isn’t always something we’ve prioritized because living like that costs money. However, we have annual passes to a couple really amazing things in our area that we’ve been making the most of and plan to continue to do. And, when we eat out, I’m trying to focus on going somewhere local. Also, when we’re home, we love to take walks and hit up some greenways so that we have little mini adventures instead of only keeping our heads down and watching the clock tick by for the weekend. After all, we only get 4,000 weekends in this short little life of ours; we need to live for more than just that.

In – Moving My Body // Out – Feeling Stuck

I’ve definitely found that I feel much more “stuck” when I’m sedentary. I mean more than just travel, though. I mean moving my body. I lived a lot of my “home time” last year in survival mode. I’ve been moving out of that a lot in 2024 – if we could stop getting sick, that is (crazy stomach bug at midnight on new years, whooping cough and now Covid.) One of the things that, between illnesses, is making me feel lightyears better is my yoga practice. I’m also focusing more on hiking, walking, biking and even thinking of giving running a go if I can get healthy enough. I just want to be outside as much as possible and practice yoga as much as possible as well!

In – Giving My Dreams My All // Out – Worrying What Others Think

Matt and I had this wild and crazy dream when we were just dating, talking about what our future would look like. One of the things we said was raising our babies to see the country from a camper. Of course, I get all kinds of comments and questions about how that’s going to be possible. Instead of listening to that, I’m focusing on all the things that I love, all that we can do to show them the world, educate them via travel and give them experiences to last a lifetime. Plus, this is Matt’s and my one life too. I want these experiences for us as well!

In – Setting Boundaries // Out – Stretching Myself Thin

I’m terrible at setting boundaries. My love language for expressing love is acts of service & words of affirmation, which means I have a very hard time saying no. I will stretch myself to a breaking point to try and show all the people that I love how dedicated I am. But then that leads to dropping the ball with others. Mostly myself, my kids and my husband. So, this year, I’m setting boundaries and focusing on the most important things to say yes to and knowing it’s okay to say no on the days that I shouldn’t for myself and my family.

In – Doing the Less Fun Work // Out – Expecting the Best Things to “Just Happen”

I’m terrible at checking my email. Even if I read it, I just hate responding to it. Why? I don’t know, but I do. However, I’ve been getting more opportunities brought to me in my inbox and I need to focus on making that a priority so we can work toward out goals while also getting to contribute to this passion project.

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In – Practicing Positivity + Building Up Others // Out – Negative Words

Words matter. The things we say to ourselves and to others matter. The way we speak about others either nurture or infect ourselves. Instead of jealousy and comparison, I’ve been practicing joy for others and encouragement – there’s room for all of us to succeed. Instead of gossip and negative talk, I’m practicing holding my tongue or focusing on the positive. Instead of finding the negative in various aspects of my life, I’m finding the positive. I’m looking at the way that I treat others and the way I treat myself and even in the short 7 weeks of 2024, I feel the impact this practice is having on my life in really big ways.

Now, this doesn’t mean it’s okay to be steamrolled, or don’t stand up for yourself or others, but there’s a difference in those things.

In – Documenting for Me // Out – Documenting for Others

Like I mentioned above, I am Bullet Journaling this year, and I believe it will be something I do for many, many years to come. I love that I’m doing something creative and it can be exactly what I want it to be. I’m enjoying that trickling throughout other aspects of my life. Last year, one of my goals was to blog fearlessly and I’m definitely getting better and better about that. This post is an example of that! I can’t wait to see how it trickles down in other aspects of the way I document my life and my travels.

What are your ins and outs for traveling, and for life, in 2024? I would love to hear more detailed examples and reasons behind why you’re saying hello to new habits and goodbye to others!

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