Fresh starts are important.
That's why for the last three years, we've both shunned a hangover on January 1st for waking up with a sense of renewed focus, optimism and ambition.
After all, we're guaranteed to have more than a few stonking sore heads from boozy nights out in the next 12 months, but the chance to have a single day where everything feels possible ahead of you is almost impossible to replicate.
That's what makes New Year's Day so special.
For travellers, even those who are still feeling the effects of bringing in the New Year into the wee hours of this morning, January 1st represents the perfect opportunity to think about what we want to achieve in the year and how we're going to make it happen.
Here's how to do it and get the year started in the right way.
What's Your Travel Dream for this Year?
Most of us have many of travel dreams and aspirations, and achieving them all this year is probably not realistic. But, if you can work towards ticking just one off the list, then that's something positive.
If money and time weren't an issue, what would you do? Where would you go? How would you experience it?
Is it a first visit to Japan? A road trip in Europe? A return to South America? A different sort of holiday to usual?
Whatever you identify, this is the day to start thinking about what you need to do to make it happen and to turn that travel dream into a reality.
Make Travel Support Your Other Resolutions
If you don't follow the tradition of making New Year's resolutions, then there's no better time to start than today! We know they often get a bad reputation because the majority of us forget them, break them or give up on them after only a few weeks. However, it's an important exercise in self-improvement and telling yourself how you would like to change to be better or do more.
Linking some of your resolutions to this year's travel goals, and therefore making the resolution part of a wider overall commitment, is a great way to add extra motivation to achieving them.
So, let's say that this is the year that you finally make yoga a part of your daily or weekly routine; why not take a look at booking a week at a yoga retreat in somewhere like Costa Rica (or your home country) as a definable goal to work towards and support the wider objective.
If you've always wanted to learn a language, then think about travelling to a country where it's spoken to give you a clear target to work towards in the next six months. Being able to order that first pizza in Napoli in Italian this summer would make it taste all that better and provide you with a richer travel experience overall. Language learning and immersion courses within countries are also becoming more popular, and may be the best way to give you that extra excitement about learning.
Or if it's a fitness goal, book your first 10k run as part of a long weekend in a new city to act as your motivation, your goal and your reward.
Get Out the Calendar
For those of us who work Monday-Friday, there is simply never enough time in the year to travel.
So, get ahead of everyone else in the office by taking 15 minutes today to plan your time off. Start by blocking out dates where you know you simply have to be at work or with family/friends, then get to working around them. Plot out public holidays and discover how to transform four annual leave days into a nine day holiday (check out the UK Bank Holiday dates for 2018 here).
You'll now be able to book holiday out well in advance of everyone else, and give yourself the benefit of time to plan the perfect trip and find cheap flights or deals.
Just don't be too smug about it to your colleagues!
New Year = New Adventures
If you already know exactly what you have planned for 2018 in terms of travel, or your budget considerations mean that the travel dream really won't be possible this year, then do not despair: 2018 can also be the year where we all think about travel and adventures a little differently.
For us, being based in London, we've realised how much we miss and crave the countryside. It really gets us down if we don't get a hit of fresh, open air at least once a month. So, part of our approach this year is to commit to taking a train journey one weekend a month to discover more of what lies outside the city, whilst getting our countryside fix.
The travel mindset is, after all, about new experiences and pushing yourself outside of your daily or weekly routine, not simply visiting new countries. Do some research into what's in your local area - what are the micro-adventures, day trips or new experiences you can do every month?
Find Your Inspiration Sources & Commit It to Paper
Come the second week of January, New Year's resolutions can be difficult to keep.Your daily routine returns to normal, the grind begins to feel all too familiar and time starts to feel somewhat limited. It's all too easy for us to drift back into doing things exactly how we always did.
This year however, is the one where you make your travel goals and resolutions stick!
The first thing to do is to commit your New Year's resolutions and Travel Goals to paper. Start a 2018 travel journal (or even a personal blog) to outline what you're going to do differently this year, and how you're going to achieve it. Use it to put down your ideas, your mini-goals and record your travel experiences - it serves as both a reminder of what you've promised to yourself and an opportunity to spur you on to achieve them. We use this yearly wall planner to chart out our travel plans and schedules for the year ahead.
Secondly, don't spend your free time beholden to the same news websites or lose hours scrolling through your facebook feed. Instead, seek out a new source of inspiration. Fill your hard drive with incredible podcasts or your screens with insightful websites and thought-provoking blogs, subscribe to that weekly magazine or discover a new author. Not got the money? Then do like we did and join the local library - you'll have a never-ending supply of new and old sources full of ideas, and a fantastically free way to explore the world.
Or, why not let us help. Our new monthly newsletter curates a diverse range of travel stories from around the world to make sure travellers like us always have fresh ideas and inspiration for that next adventure - sign up here to join our community for the constantly curious.
Our 2018 Travel Resolutions
To get things started, we thought we'd share two of our New Year's Travel Resolutions; we'd love to know yours in the comments!
Andrew | Travel has been a little too comfortable for me, physically and mentally, this last year. So, I want to challenge myself in terms of fitness and experience in 2018 by taking on a multiday experience in the wilderness, with camping and lack of connection to the outside world. I don't know where it's going to be yet in the UK, but I want to push my limits!
Emily | It's been far too long; it's time to go back to Latin America. I've written before about how I left my heart in Mexico, and I wasn't joking. That part of the world just feels like home, and I'm making damn sure that we head back there at least once this year...
Joint | Learn to surf (again) and discover the best affordable day trips from London.
