10 Wishlist Destinations for Every 20-Something Girl

I love traveling. And I know pretty much everybody says that, but I’m one of those people that is so travel-obsessed that I avoid movies and TV shows where the character gets to travel a lot because I get jealous of them. Sad, but true.

Unfortunately, since I am only in my early twenties and bound by this little thing called “getting an education”, I don’t really get the opportunity to go to very many places. My finances are limited and my parents are strict about me wafting off alone to somewhere I’ve never been before. So to tame my wanderlust, I often daydream about the places I’d love to go to someday. Here is a wishlist of my top 10 places I would kill to visit and I think every girl in her 20’s should go to at least once (in no particular order):

1. New York City, United States of America: it’s weird when you haven’t ever been to a place but you feel like you belong there. That’s how I feel about big cities, and The Big Apple is no different. The tall, glassy buildings; the busy streets; Central Park…everything about it seems so appealing. It seems like the sort of place that you’re always exploring and never getting bored of, because there’s always something new to find. And being an avid Gossip Girl watcher doesn’t help my wanderlust either!
2. Paris, France: when I think of Paris, I always think about visiting it with my mom. I don’t know why, but it just seems like the kind of place we would enjoy the most together. I can picture us having an evening walk on the cobbled streets with the Eiffel Tower twinkling in the background, and nothing seems better. The food, the history, and the architecture amongst many things is something I refuse to miss out on in the duration of my life.
3. Venice, Italy: although I’ve heard mixed reviews about this one, you definitely can’t deny that there’s no city that could compare to Venice. Predicted to eventually sink, it has got to be a top priority in everybody’s destination wishlist. I mean, imagine visiting a place that won’t exist in a couple hundred years!
4. Mallorca, Spain: one of my very close friends is from Mallorca, and I literally foam at the mouth every time she shows me pictures of the island. The water is so blue that it looks photoshopped, and it houses the Love Island villa, so that pretty much sells it for me.
   
5. Tokyo, Japan: I am SO smitten by Japan. They have beautiful mountains – and hello cherry blossom trees! I also adore how put together everyone seems there, with perfect hair and perfect skin and perfect outfits.
6. Plovdiv, Bulgaria: I’m going to be honest and tell you that the two reasons Bulgaria was on my wishlist was because a) my best friend lives there, and b) Nina Dobrev is Bulgarian and I love her. However, after some research, I fell in love with the subtle beauty of the country. I want to visit Plovdiv in particular because of my friend, but Verna and Sophia seem just as stunning.
7. Honolulu, United States of America: listen, man, just hand me a hula skirt, a lei, and a coconut bra and I’ll be on my way. Surfing lessons and evening bonfires galore! Visiting Hawaii would be a dream.
8. Bali, Indonesia: I feel like places like Bali should be travelled to alone. I hate to go all Eat, Pray, Love on you, but seriously. All I want to do is hop on a plane there. I want to ride elephants, do yoga with treefrogs, sub dive to see the coral reefs…the possibilities really do seem endless.
   
9. Mykonos, Greece: I got a serious case of itchy feet when I first saw pictures of Mykonos. It looks like one carefully curated Instagram picture, with its perfect ocean and white houses with the blue roofs. I mean, just look at it. Who wouldn’t want to go there?!
10. Anchorage, United States of America: I love the cold, and although I’ve never actually seen snow in real life, I’m convinced I love snow too. I’d like to go to Anchorage in Alaska in the winters. This is probably me asking to die of hypothermia and frostbite, but I don’t care. I just want to stay inside a cabin with a fireplace and an endless supply of hot chocolate and my two cats, and watch romcoms all day long.

Where do you want to go most right now?

How to Achieve Any Goal with a Vision Board

Here’s the thing, you guys: I really don’t believe in tarot cards and horoscopes and fortune tellers and all that other “put it out into the universe” stuff. It’s fun, but I don’t think it’s accurate at all. I do, however, believe that your perspective in situations is one of the biggest driving forces in getting what you want, and that you should use any tools you can to solidify that perspective. In my experience, the most successful of those tools is the vision board.

The premise of the vision board is to be able to visualize, preferably on a daily basis, your ideal outcome of a situation. Today, I’m going to be focusing on creating a vision board for your ideal life within a timeframe. But it’s not as simple as cutting out a bunch of pictures and slapping them on a piece of card all willy-nilly. You have to be in the correct headspace for it. I’ll try and explain it in non-Oprah Winfrey terms: if you don’t have the mindset to move forward, this isn’t for you. Even though vision boards are meant to be “magical” and attract everything you put on there, nothing’s going to happen if all you do is sit in your butt and binge Netflix all day. In fact, this is one of the few times that a Hallmark quote is actually true: “dreams don’t work unless you do”.

Now that we’ve moved past the background bits, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty…

1. Set a timeframe. You need to know when you want to achieve your goals by generally, whether that is a six month, year-long, or even five year period. Something to keep in mind is that longer your timeframe, the more vague your vision board will be, so try to keep it between twelve to eighteen months so that you have something more precise to work towards.
2. Categorise the sections of your life. Some examples of that could be family & friends, health & fitness, travel, career, and so on. Whatever you find important in your life, whatever you want to move forward in and achieve more for, consider it a category.
3. Set your goals. Within your category, write down everything you can and would like to achieve in your timeframe. By all means, be ambitious, but don’t set yourself up for disappointment. Recognize your potential and work within the means of that. For example, if I had a goal of losing 200 pounds in six months, I know for a fact that’s not going to happen, leading me to getting annoyed and discouraged for even trying, and eventually scrapping the rest of my targets. So set good goals! I’ve made a quick printable PDF for you guys, so just save it to your computer and print it out to use as a guideline.
4. Find pictures. Tumblr, Pinterest, magazines, Google images, even your own photos…the possibilities are endless. Pick whatever inspires you, or pushes you to achieve your targets. You can also personalize your board, such as by choosing photos with the same color schemes or filters to create an art piece for your wall. Beware, though, because it might decrease the practicality of it.
5. Put it all together! Another thing you can do is have a virtual copy of your board and set it as your phone or computer wallpaper, ensuring that you see it multiple times a day.

I hope this was helpful! If you guys want another post about me talking about my goals particular, let me know in the comments below.

What sort of goals will you be putting on your board?