Best way to 'expand your horizons'?

Will · 30-07-2009 1:13pm #1

I honestly feel that traveling is the best way to get a wider view of the world and how it works. There is nothing more interesting and exciting as traveling/living in a new place in the world.

You can read books, go to college and study weird and wonderful subjects but nothing beats real world experience, especially when out of your comfort zone. There's only so much you can learn from reading, and so much more you can by 'doing'.

I lived in France 3 years ago and it benefited me in so many ways. I learned a new language, new culture, new friends, new food and really just grew a lot out of it as a person.

At the moment I'm debating with myself whether to move back or not. A decision not to be taken lightly.

Anyway it just got me thinking, what is your best way of expanding your horizons?

CerebralCortex · 30-07-2009 1:31pm

Will wrote: »

....what is your best way of expanding your horizons?

Doing anything that expands your horizens its a subjective experience.

Khannie · 30-07-2009 6:18pm

Will wrote: »

At the moment I'm debating with myself whether to move back or not. A decision not to be taken lightly.

Careful you don't go ruining the good memories. I lived in San Diego for a while and I'd be very reluctant to go back there in case it didn't live up to my memories.

Will wrote: »

Anyway it just got me thinking, what is your best way of expanding your horizons?

I'd agree that travel has to be one of the best ways. Especially outside your comfort zone. We went to Thailand for a full month in December / January and took the kids. We travelled around a bit when we were there. The littlest one was too young to benefit really, but you could just see my youngfellas perception of the world changing minute by minute, especially during the first few days. Brilliant stuff.

jumpguy · 30-07-2009 6:39pm

Khannie wrote: »

Careful you don't go ruining the good memories. I lived in San Diego for a while and I'd be very reluctant to go back there in case it didn't live up to my memories.

Is that not abit cowardly though? Shouldn't one just take a bold risk for the chance they might be happy?

Ummm, I haven't travelled too much on account I'm 15, been to France, UK (oohhhh), Spain and Portugal but with the recession the holidays have stopped abit. Would love to travel more, my brother did a massive trip of Europe with his GF about 2 years ago and had many a good story. My sister recently did alot of foreign travel and had some good stories also.

Anyway, another great way to expand your horizons is to take up new hobbies, no matter how dubious you may be. That's how I fell in love with astronomy. I'd been well-read with it but I thought going outside and observing fantastic things in the sky was the reserve of those with big, expensive telescope. I then saw the ISS in January with my naked eye and it snowballed from there. Now, any clear night, I go out with my meek 10x50 binos and look for things in the sky.
Same with rugby, dubious, took it up, got interested, love it. That was while ago though.

anonymous_joe · 31-07-2009 12:29am

Travel's great, but can be quite limiting too. Travelling with a bunch of people can often lead to avoiding new experiences.

On your own gives you more of a chance to experience more.

Porkpie · 31-07-2009 8:40am

^^^
Definitely agree. Travelling on your own is best if you want to mature and broaden your horizons. I hear a lot of people say that doing voluntary work is very fulfilling, although you have to really want to do it first. I lived in Switzerland on my own for 15 months and it was tough at times but I feel it really improved my confidence and my outlook on life. A bit of hardship is good for you in the long run.

Khannie · 31-07-2009 8:14pm

jumpguy wrote: »

Is that not abit cowardly though? Shouldn't one just take a bold risk for the chance they might be happy?

I think it's the easy road .... you know...going somewhere you've already been....eating places you've already eaten etc.

09-08-2009 3:34pm

Travel is undoubtedly one of the greatest ways to expand your horizons; you know what some say, "travel broadens the mind and lengthens the conversation". Elizabeth Drew has added an interesting twist to that, she has said that "too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation". I think that's very true in our modern society, as the vast majority of destinations have become so commercialised and globalised that they're merely outposts of our own country, in that there isn't too much dissimilar in their society and culture from our own home environment.

I haven't travelled a lot myself, but it's certainly something that I hope to do in the future. My dream is to travel the world, not knowing where my next destination is, not knowing how I'll get there, and not carrying so much money as to live overly comfortably; travelling the least travelled path, to the remotest destinations. I think that that is the only way to really broaden the mind with travel, that travel to typical destinations merely lengthens the conversation, leaving the mind as it was.

Apart from travelling, the best way to expand your horizons, in my opinion, is to read and learn. I read a lot myself: on average a book a week. I find that reading books -- both fictitious and factual -- from a different era is a great way to broaden your mind. In reading a book from the 18th century, you're exposing yourself to hints and fragments of that culture, which can do nothing but enlighten you.

In the end, for me anyway, it all boils down to knowledge. Knowledge is the fuel to your minds expansion; it's the one and only thing truely capable of broadening your horizons. I try to soak up as much of it as possible, from every medium and every source (which is why I find this forum brilliant).

JC 2K3 · 09-08-2009 11:00pm

You have to define "expand your horizons" first...

We're so globalised that traveling isn't as great or unique an experience as it perhaps once was, unless it's to somewhere completely alien to our culture, and would agree with what JammyDodger has said above.

What I find to be very good is to take the complete opposite stance to the majority's point of view on something and explore it, maybe even argue for it and see what holes you can pick in the common perception of things. Challenge accepted norms for the sake of exploring their origins and basis. I've admittedly done it on boards before. It can give you a very interesting outlook on things.

Anyway, I'll throw out the controversial one:
Psychoactive drugs, particularly psychedelics. There's something about feeling first hand just how much a tiny amount of a chemical can affect how your mind and body works in such a huge and interesting way, it really conveys to you just how fragile and arbitrary the sober human perception of reality really is.

watty · 10-08-2009 8:19am

There is a good reason it's controversial. It destroys peoples relationships and their lives.

JC 2K3 · 10-08-2009 9:23am

That's a topic for another thread. I don't want my post to turn this thread into a drugs debate.

watty · 10-08-2009 12:28pm

A very wide range of Books (fiction and real), foriegn TV & Radio, actually working & living in another Country (a holiday hardly counts). Meeting people who are not like minded.

WindSock · 10-08-2009 12:42pm

Dr Kawashima's Brain Training.

Or

Temping in temporarial bouts. Even though the job description was the same, every few weeks or few days I would find myself whisked off to new environments which forced me to learn lots of little new things such as names, procedures, building layouts, new commuting routes etc. I think it has benefited my brain a little and stopped it from going stagnant. Now that I have a permanant position, I am getting stupider again

The best way to travel is ALONE though. I can't stress the importance of it. You meet way more people/locals and end up in a lot more interesting places and situations...

--amadeus-- · 10-08-2009 12:52pm

I get teh travel alone thing but travel with a significant other can be great. Two pairs of eyes sees more and talking about what you see / have seen can make you appreciate subtleties you may have missed alone.

I'm a big believer in going outside your comfort zone. Be that by going further upmarket than you would normally (a night at the Royal Ballet or a meal in a real top class restaurant for example) or places where you'd normally never venture (a training session in a boxing gym or rough pub or estate). Anything where you meet people who aren't like you or don't have teh same viewpoints is healthy.

ntlbell · 10-08-2009 12:54pm

WindSock wrote: »

The best way for me to travel is ALONE though. I can't stress how important it is for me. I meet way more people/locals and end up in a lot more interesting places and situations...

FYP

ntlbell · 10-08-2009 12:58pm

--amadeus-- wrote: »

I'm a big believer in going outside your comfort zone. Be that by going further upmarket than you would normally (a night at the Royal Ballet or a meal in a real top class restaurant for example) or places where you'd normally never venture (a training session in a boxing gym or rough pub or estate). Anything where you meet people who aren't like you or don't have teh same viewpoints is healthy.

Yup, It's amazing how people talk about going to Thailand to see different "cultures" etc. When there's as much to learn normally a small bus journey away from your own home.

WindSock · 10-08-2009 1:05pm

ntlbell wrote: »

FYP

? It's not just me who thinks this. While I agree going with the other is also good, it beats heading off with a bunch of mates to go drinking. As far as new experiances go and all that.

Piste · 10-08-2009 10:33pm

I definitely agree about travel broadening the your Horizons. Before going to Barcelona, I hadnt realised how not sleazy Irish guys are compared to their continental counterparts.

ntlbell · 11-08-2009 9:24am

Piste wrote: »

I definitely agree about travel broadening the your Horizons. Before going to Barcelona, I hadnt realised how not sleazy Irish guys are compared to their continental counterparts.

Well it definitely broadens one's repertoire of sweeping generalisations.

We · 13-08-2009 9:01pm

FAO: JC 2K3 .. dude please change your sig so that the link to your blog doesnt stretch across the entire width of my screen.. Incredibly annoying when trying to scroll down by clicking mousewheel, keeps opening your blog by accident in a new tab ;/ It's also completely unnecessary..

Khannie · 14-08-2009 12:08pm

ntlbell wrote: »

Yup, It's amazing how people talk about going to Thailand to see different "cultures" etc. When there's as much to learn normally a small bus journey away from your own home.

I disagree. While I may have some cultural differences with people in Ireland, for the most part we all eat breakfast rolls and drink pints. Thailand is a fine example for me to use because I've been there more than once. Their culture is /vastly/ different from ours in nearly every way (at the most fundamental level, the dominance of Buddhism there affects things in the same way that the dominance of Catholicism does here).

I'm not saying that there isn't a LOT to be learned on your own doorstep.

ntlbell · 14-08-2009 1:22pm

Khannie wrote: »

I'm not saying that there isn't a LOT to be learned on your own doorstep.

And I'm not saying there's not a lot to be learned in Thailand just one doesn't have to go all that way to learn something but it's strange that people who do don't bother to take the time to learn something around the corner.

lizzyvera · 23-08-2009 1:01pm

I worked with an order or enclosed nuns. They were incredibly worldly wise, even though they never left- they pray and work all day. They are thoughtful and considerate all the time. They always knew how I should deal with a situation.

I think I learned more from them than I could from any travels because I never knew how nice people could be before I met them.

Cactus Col · 27-08-2009 11:22am

Khannie wrote: »

I disagree. While I may have some cultural differences with people in Ireland, for the most part we all eat breakfast rolls and drink pints. Thailand is a fine example for me to use because I've been there more than once. Their culture is /vastly/ different from ours in nearly every way (at the most fundamental level, the dominance of Buddhism there affects things in the same way that the dominance of Catholicism does here).

I'm not saying that there isn't a LOT to be learned on your own doorstep.

Sounds to me like somebody's already closed her mind. It's lazy thinking to look so far afield as Thailand, in the hope of "expanding your horizons" when such can be achieved at home.

Ignoring the difference in cultures between irish people, which may be a bit more subtle, you have parts of dublin that have changed dramatically with the influx of peoples from different parts of the world.

Go up to the top of o'connell street and take a right, you'll find an area dominated by asian cultures. You might fob it off and think of it as only a number of restaurants, nothing much interesting, but you'd be missing quite a lot.

Do a bit of research into the different communities that are living on your door. Get more familiar with the Chinese, Korean, Nigerian, Romanian communities in your area.

Or maybe staying in Ireland just isn't glamorous enough.

Best way to 'expand your horizons'?

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