HOW TO TRAVEL THE WORLD IN 4 EASY STEPS

I fell 50-feet climbing in Yosemite, got hit by a car, and then diagnosed with skin cancer — all in one month. Two weeks later, I traveled to the 7 New Wonders of the World in just 13 days. Two years later and I am still getting asked, “how did you pull off that crazy trip?”. Well… today, I decided to let you in on my secret travel tips and give you an easy 4 STEP GUIDE to make traveling the world a reality. Here we go:

STEP #1: Buy the Ticket

Some people like to binge-watch Netflix series until 3AM, I on the other hand, used to waste my time researching the most affordable international flights. I would bounce from one budget airline website to another, refreshing my cookies along the way, which always resulted with the same realization — I just spent 4 hours finding the exact flight price that I started with… wait… it’s actually $10 more.

Do yourself a favor and stop wasting your time. Simply go to a website like skyscanner.com (not an Ad) and sign up for their flight alerts. Once it hits within your price range, purchase it directly from the Airline — NOT the budget website (see… I told you this wasn’t an Ad). Most airlines these days will match any price that you find online. This will help you down the road for any changes, missed or canceled flights.

Now, if you are like me and plan trips just days before departure, simply realize what your time is worth and buy the best rate on the site and go back to watching Stranger Things.

In short, buy the ticket (insert inspirational quote here about taking the first step/jumping in/#livemorenow etc. etc.)

STEP #2: Work

It’s pretty simple, you need money to travel. Unless you are blessed with an inheritance or a sugar mama, you need to work and save. I’ve been wearing the same jeans for about three years now and nobody has noticed… yet. Buy less, live simply, eat frozen burritos, manage your money and work hard.

PRO TIP: Bring your water canteen into the bars filled with boxed wine. Everyone will just assume that you are a health nut, when in all reality you’re getting intoxicated while saving a ton on your bar tab.

STEP #3: Hit Rock Bottom

…and not just rock bottom, lower than that… to the inner core — yeah… I watched Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Rewind to 10 years ago when you married your first boyfriend right after college based on the preconceived notion that we only get “one soulmate”. Forget the red flags and proceed to drop all of your ambitions because for that moment, being a wife gives you a false sense of fulfillment.

Follow his dreams to California because his career is more important and will provide more. Buy a car. Get a puppy. Watch Ellen at 3PM every day and forget about your dream of one day being a filmmaker.

Worry everyday about the finances and purchase clothes you can’t afford to fill the deepening void within. Until one day you find a job that you are passionate about, even if it means cleaning the toilets at the production house while editing on your lunch break — because for that hour, you feel creative purpose for the first time in years.

Beg the studio to give you a full-time gig, even if the pay is minimum wage, and start working nights and weekends.

Notice your husband become resentful to the growing absence of your company. Watch as that resentment turns destructive. Leave him for the first time after a night of drunken rage followed by a morning of sober regret. Come back to him as a former shell of yourself and make excuses for his actions. After the third time, take the car, pack up one suitcase, and leave it all behind shattered.

Feel the weight of all the expectations fall off your shoulders and onto the road behind you.

For the first time in 4 years, start to dream again.

For the next 4 years, use the pain and sorrow as fuel to make you more driven than you ever thought imaginable.

Join a climbing gym.

Sell the car.

Buy a Vespa.

Upgrade your job.

Set goals for the next 5 years.

Accomplish those within 1 and then set new ones.

Decide that you are going to one day travel to the 7 New Wonders of the World and make a film about the journey.

Visit Yosemite for the first time and become obsessed with rock climbing. Set a goal to climb the Nose route on El Capitan. Climb on your lunch breaks and set off on weekend adventures with new friends who teach you a world without material possessions. Read a lot of Paulo Coelho and decide that you are going to find your personal legend. The next day make an Instagram account @megthelegend. Change it 4 years later when you realize that nobody gets the association — @themegansullivan

Pursue your career and climbing ambitions and move to San Francisco. Leave your first climbing partner behind who tells you that you will never be able to climb the Nose within a year. Go to the gym every night after the 3 hour round trip commute on the Apple bus fueled by the energy of proving him wrong.

Lead your first big wall. Watch the sunrise over Half Dome while sleeping on the side of Washington Column. Smile.

Come down to sea level and find out that both your parents have cancer. Feel like you were just hit in the stomach. Move to Seattle to spend more time with family. In three months, find out that both of your parents are in remission. Breath.

Climb.

Drive to Yosemite Valley.

Sleep in the dirt.

Work.

Eat Clif bars.

Repeat.

Wake up in a hospital room after a knee surgery that leaves you in crutches for 1 month. Curse the Universe for the 4 flights of stairs to your studio apartment and the cellulite from the atrophy. Cry for the first time in 2 years.

Go to physical therapy with the determination to recover faster than any human on the planet.

Eat. Climb. Work. Yosemite. Work. Repeat.

Ask for that promotion at work, because for the first time you know your worth and you are not afraid to ask for what is deserved.

Find a partner to climb the Nose. Set the date. Fly down to LA as your career progresses and fly back on the weekends to train in Yosemite. Start to feel the butterflies knowing that you are one weekend away from your 3 year goal.

Climb the Nose.

Fall 50-feet.

Feel the pain of a body bruised and an ego destroyed.

A week later, ride that Vespa you purchased right after the divorce and get hit by a car.

Go to the ER. Feel defeated. Question everything.

One week after that, join the family club and find out that you have skin cancer.

Cry yourself to sleep.

Wake up.

Get the surgery.

Tell your boss you need two weeks off.

Sell your engagement ring.

Buy the ticket.

10 days later… travel to the 7 New Wonders of the World in 13 days to make that film project you have been dreaming of.

Realize that after failing repeatedly, you finally understand that with loss comes an amazing opportunity to change your life by filling a void with something new. Take the tragedy and turn your dreams into reality.

After all, traveling the world is just logistics. The decision to follow any dream is to embrace the loss in your life and turn that dream into a reality.

STEP #4: Get a Passport

You will need this. Also, make sure that it won’t expire within 6 months — most countries will not let you in.