Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity QUOTES

1 " There is a holistic approach to global travel that will fundamentally change you as a person. "

― Gregory V. Diehl , Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity

2 " To operate as oneself is to create a specific kind of change in the pursuit of one’s own satisfaction. Armed with that principle, every day is a chance to grow the scale of its implementation. "

― Gregory V. Diehl , Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity

3 " The world is a book of many pages waiting to be read. The self is a library of ancient tomes written in languages you cannot fully understand. You grow accustomed with the characters you find on the first shelf and never get to know what remains on the vast arena of you. "

― Gregory V. Diehl , Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity

4 " Do whatever is difficult until it is no longer difficult. Let yourself grow into all the ways you are capable of being. "

― Gregory V. Diehl , Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity

5 " People fear what they cannot categorize, which is another way of saying what they don’t understand. You will feel lost for a time without a solid category to belong to. Don’t let that fool you into choosing a premature identity. There is no single way to be a traveler, an artist, a scholar, a superhero, or a philosopher. You accept other people’s definitions when you are too weak to make your own. "

― Gregory V. Diehl , Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity

6 " Freedom is choosing for yourself what problems you want to place within your sphere of attachment to solve. You alone are the arbiter of what deserves space in your life, or what is worth facing stress over. If you must have problems, make them problems worth having. Choose your attachments wisely. Figure out for yourself what is worth fighting and dying for – a principle bigger than yourself. "

― Gregory V. Diehl , Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity

7 " I understand now why it was impossible for me to go back to my old life. I also know why it was impossible for the influences of that life to come with me to the new one. There was no reference for the path I was on. I watched them get snatched up, one by one, by the overwhelming influence of their culture, hardening themselves into part of a larger group identity in which I had no place. I realized then that people can only learn whatever fits their existing presuppositions. New ideas must match what they are prepared to consider. Opening the mind to new possibilities is painful. Removing old, deeply rooted ideas is psychologically damaging. "

― Gregory V. Diehl , Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity

8 " To spend your life as anything other than what you are is madness. It’s the madness that leads to the multitude of social problems forever plaguing our world – things like war, poverty, crimes, and slavery in all its forms. To save yourself and our world, you only need to abandon the chaotic thinking of culture that has led us astray for so long. When you are finally free, you will want to stop the spread of this madness any further. The cycle begins again with every new generation, and your children will be no exception if you don’t change things now. "

― Gregory V. Diehl , Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity

9 " Beginning the journey is easy. Recognizing its conclusion is much more elusive. There is no finish line to cross and no contest to win. The game stays in play as long as you exist. People cannot accept that there is no big end to personal development. They lust after some perfect state of enlightenment, which is a fictional characteristic we project when we need a hero to look up to, no matter how high we ascend. The concept of enlightenment prevents us from ever mastering our inherited limitations. Instead, we should aspire to become ideal forces for our authentic values through our actions. "

― Gregory V. Diehl , Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity

10 " When you’ve figured out your role, you’ve got the difficult task of expressing it as congruent with the cultures of the world. You’ve got to take what is valuable to you and find a place for it in the hearts of others. "

― Gregory V. Diehl , Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity

11 " Deeply imagine what you would spend your time doing if you never had to do anything at all. You must be brave enough to answer why you don’t spend all your time doing that. An honest answer now will set the trajectory for the rest of your life. "

― Gregory V. Diehl , Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity

12 " Part of me has always thought that if the world found out what I really was, it would reject me. The people in my life could not be ready for what I saw within myself. I was tempted, for the longest time, to walk away from the human world and remain on my own until I expired. Having already acquired the independence I would need to survive, both physically and spiritually, I had grown comfortable with my existence and did not fear isolation. I saw no way for the person I was becoming to coexist with the world as I perceived it. Similar sentiments have echoed endlessly in the past as individuals have grown aware of themselves. In my recent past, my ambition changed. Maybe I got stronger. Maybe I became more aware of what the problem was and realized what I could do about it. I reached the conclusion that I had a place somewhere. I would still be something of an outsider – living on the fringe and doing things the way I wanted– but I would not completely abandon the trappings of society. Everything I have seen so far gives me a vantage place from which to plot my involvement in the world. I see better now what people need, and I understand what I am equipped to provide. "

― Gregory V. Diehl , Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity

13 " Gregory Diehl had to be someone I could live with. It was a matter of presenting myself as the type of person the world could accept, but who would still push against the limits of culture. It became a balancing act of staying one step beyond their complacency. Too far would upset them and not far enough would be benign. It took trial and error, experimenting with how the world would respond to different versions of me. There was a type of person in a certain place in their life who would value what I offered. They would seek me out and hold onto me when they found me. "

― Gregory V. Diehl , Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity

14 " From the first moment we are conscious of our own existence, we pick up on how the world works. Because we are born feeble, we endow our parents with the burden of preparing us for life as they already know it to be. They show us not just how to survive, but how to be at ease with existence. They pass on what they have learned so we will be able to navigate the world without them. The ideas they implant linger with us throughout life, making their unfinished business our own. They create our culture. The irony of this sad situation is that independence cannot be taught by someone who has not first obtained it. Emotional maturity cannot be demonstrated by someone who isn’t fully self-expressed. Effective instructions for living can’t be imparted by people who haven’t learned how to live. "

― Gregory V. Diehl , Travel as Transformation: Conquer the Limits of Culture to Discover Your Own Identity