Today we find ourselves in a battle for the traveler’s soul. The current phenomenon in the travel world is to shrink the world and make it classifiable. What we don’t understand is scary, so the aim of travel resources, guide books, and television shows is to break the world down into small, understandable categories. If only the inhabitants who call Earth home were that simple.

Why do you care if the world is large or small, you ask? We’ve become a society consumed by the little things in life, at the expense of the big, important things. Our lives are consumed by keeping busy, not living. We check our emails too much. We rely on search engines to satisfy our need for information overload. We have tunnel vision for the unimportant. Seeing the vastness of the world, the differences of cultures, and taking part in epic journeys refocuses our lives to the things that matter.

A place, like a person, can be filled with the fascinating, the extraordinary, and the mysterious. I revel in all three, and shy away from travel as a form of self-improvement, movement, and escape. Self-improvement, as opposed to self-understanding and self-knowledge, focuses on the internal. But, the world is not internal, and you are likely to miss much of what there is to experience if you are gazed inward.

Secondly, whether you are talking about travel, business, or your personal life movement for movement’s sake is an inefficient way to live. For thousands of years people have not had the luxury of traveling for self-improvement. Immigrants, refugees, nomadic hunters, and warring generals traveled out of necessity.

Travel is a search, above all else, not an escape to the “10 best bars in Madrid,” or “Best beaches in the world.”A search for what? Only you can answer that. Travel is a search for what’s possible in the world, for the mysteries of civilizations, for a better understanding of world cultures, and for a glimpse into the natural and man-made wonders of the world. These things are humbling, and in humility the world expands exponentially. This is the epic journey as it was meant to be. No cruise ships, no guided tours. This is the journey of your pilgrimage, oracle, or God. But, above all else this is heroic travel.

What is Heroic Travel?

Heroes are known for several things:

Humility: Heroes displaying excessive pride were often killed or destroyed because of their weakness. Those who knew how vast the world was, and how little they knew about it thrived.

Self-knowledge: Life is a process of continual learning. A hero who isn’t willing to learn about the world, people, and how he fits in to the bigger picture is eventually overtaken by someone willing to keep an open mind to the world.

Independent: These individuals can do the things that no others can do, usually because they have a greater willpower and inner strength. Heroes do what is needed because they know it is the right thing to do. Travelers do the same, whether it be living in poverty like the locals or spending time away from home and family and friends.

Epic Journeys: Also known as a hero’s quest. Some heroes need to rescue a fair-maiden from a dragon. Others kill a Cyclops or get a golden fleece. This is the most important piece of the hero—he, or she lives deeply and engages in life-giving experiences. This is the hero’s quest. This is your quest.