New Year’s resolution to travel more in 2020: How to go on more trips!

New Year’s resolutions are often full of doing less: less sugar, less procrastinating, less spending. But this year, I want more, and I’m betting there’s something you want more of, too: more travel! That’s why I’m sharing 10 smart ways to make it easy to follow through on your New Year’s resolution to travel more. If you’re wondering how to travel more, then this is the article for you.

Why add “Travel more!” to your New Year’s resolutions?

Travel is fun—and it gives you and your kids a chance to learn about the world and each other in ways you can’t do at home. For example, I get insights into what Maxine and Edie are most interested in by what they notice and gravitate toward when we’re out of our routine.

There are plenty of research-backed reasons to travel more as a family, too.

Studies consistently show that when children travel, they’re spending more time exploring and playing—good things for a kid’s brain development. And the vast majority of educators think travel helps kids grow in ways that benefit them in the classroom, too.

Now that you know some of the reasons to add this goal to your resolutions, let’s talk about how to travel more in 2020.

1.Set a goal

You already know that getting specific is one of the best ways to follow through on goals and resolutions. So instead of just saying you want to travel more in 2020, get concrete.

How often do you want to travel as a family? Do you want to take any trips without the kids this year? What kinds of travel do you want to do—road trips, camping, international getaways? How ambitious or long-term do you want to travel? Do you have any destinations in mind?

Write out these concrete intentions (or #vacationgoals!).

For example, I aim to travel at least once a month with my kids. Sometimes those are short trips—like a weekend at the Oregon Coast. Other times, my plans are grander, like the 12-day trip to China Edie and I are taking!

2. Reflect on the why behind your resolution

If you made a New Year’s resolution to travel more in 2020, or you’re focusing on this goal at another time of year, then it’s clear exploring more is important to you. It’s time to ask yourself why.

Understanding the motivation behind your goal—the why—makes you more likely to follow through, research shows. So write a paragraph or some bullet points on why traveling more in 2020 is important enough to make this commitment.

When you’re feeling stuck, or when it feels like you won’t be able to make your resolution happen, look back on this reflection. Reminding yourself of why family travel is important will keep you motivated in the months to come.

3. Write down your intention—in the present tense

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear writes that your identity drives your habits. In that way, when you think of yourself as someone who travels with their family, you’re more likely to take action that matches your identity as a traveler.

Writing down your intention in the present tense—that you’re already the kind of person who travels more—helps you see yourself as the person you want to become. That way, you’re more likely to follow through.

So try it out! Write down your travel more in 2020 goal and put it someplace you’ll see it often. You might write

• I plan a family trip every quarter
• I’m a traveler who explores my state with my kids
• I’m an outdoorsy mom who hikes with the kids every month

Test it out—and let me know how it works for you!

4. Review your existing commitments

If you’re ever set resolutions before—and if you’re like 99% of the population, then you have—you know that simply putting your desire down on paper isn’t what makes a goal happen. You have to make a plan.

In fact, you won’t be surprised to learn that research shows we’re roughly three to five times more likely to follow through when you make a concrete plan of exactly how you’ll follow through. Reviewing your existing commitments is the first step in making a plan to travel more this year.

So look ahead at your calendar. Are there weddings you’re attending out of town? Conferences for work? Kids’ sports tournaments? A girls getaway with your friends? Note these down, and make sure they’re on your calendar.

It can feel as though these commitments are taking away your time to travel more as a family. The opposite can be true, though: You can extend some of these commitments into a family vacation. When we went to Michigan last year for my husband’s cousin’s wedding, we stayed for a few days extra and drove to Chicago. It was a blast! And this July, I’m attending a conference in San Diego—the perfect opportunity to bring my whole family for a few extra days of fun.

5. Review your family’s PTO

If you or your partner work for someone else—that is, if you’re not self-employed—then you probably get paid time off, or PTO. Do you know how many days or weeks you get? If not, this is a great time to remind yourself.

I’m beyond depressed that more than half of working Americans don’t use all their paid time off. After all, PTO is a part of your reimbursement package, along with your wages or salary and your insurance. You wouldn’t just leave hundreds of dollars from a paycheck unclaimed, would you? Then you shouldn’t leave PTO unclaimed, either.

Commit to using every single darn day of PTO this year!

Now, if you work for yourself—like me—you need to consider how well you’re treating your employee(s). (That’s you.) Decide on how many days off you should give yourself. Then commit to taking those days off.

That’s sometimes challenging for me because I’m busy and really ambitious in my career. But I remind myself that my kids are little now—but won’t stay little. And I’ll never get this time back with them. So I know I need to take advantage of the now to make memories together as a family.

6. Mark down ideal times to travel

Next on your plan to make good on your goal to travel more this year: Going through your calendar and marking down the best times to travel as a family.

If your kids are in school, you’ll want to get a school calendar for this step. If your kids are in sports or other extracurriculars, bring that information to the table, too. If you or your partner have time off at work, find out when.

Then look at all these calendars to find when would be the best time to travel as a family. I take a 12-month calendar and highlight the windows when we can travel more easily. These times include days the kids have off school (like teacher in-service days) and days I get off work but might not always think of (like Martin Luther King, Jr. Day).

7. Block off travel windows in your calendar

Now you have a goal—say, traveling as a family 4 times a year—as well as ideal times to go. Next it’s time to match those to make traveling more in 2020 a reality!

Pick ideal travel windows or add days to your existing commitments to meet your goal. So if you want to travel once per season, look at each quarter’s calendars to find times when you could travel together.

Even if you don’t know where you’ll go or what you do, block off these windows in your calendar. That way you won’t RSVP yes to invitations on those days. You can figure out where to go later.

This step is so important. Although spontaneous travel is great for some people in some walks of life, kids don’t make spur-of-the-moment trips very likely. So you have to plan to make family travel actually happen. Blocking out these travel windows is the best way to do just that.

8. Focus on what you can do

This is where you might get discouraged. You might think that you don’t have the money for a vacation, or that you can’t take a week off to go to Hawaii like your neighbors just did. But you get to decide what your family travel will look like, and it doesn’t have to fit any one mold.

So instead of getting bogged down in what you can’t do, focus on what you can do in your vacations.

Let me get metaphorical here for a second. Have you ever told your kids “watch where you’re going!” when they were running or riding a bike? Did they start to veer off-path when they were looking over their shoulder or staring at the flowers in a neighbor’s yard? That’s because we go where our eyes are pointing.

The same goes for your resolution to travel more. If you’re focused on what you can’t do, you’ll stay put. If you focus on what you can do, you’ll figure out how to travel more.

So maybe finances don’t allow to take the whole family on a plane ride. That’s ok! Direct your energy into road trips together. Or you can’t stay in a super nice hotel. Well, book cheaper accommodation instead!

Let me give you a personal example. In my family, we often travel with our dog, Finn. That means we don’t go to as many national parks as I’d like, since dogs are required to stay on paved paths only. (That puts a damper on hiking, which we love to do.) Instead of feeling defeated that we can’t visit many national parks, we plan more trips to amazing state parks, most of which do allow animals on trails.

So every time you get caught in a comparison trap (like if your college friend’s family is going to Disney World but it’s not in the realm of possibility for you this year), remind yourself to look where you’re going! Focus on what you can do with family travel.

9. Don’t discount nearby travel

Let’s say that you want to travel more in 2020 with your family and you got specific, like taking five trips this year. Awesome! Then you might start to doubt yourself, especially if you’re like my family and you’re on a tight budget.

Here’s the thing, though. No one made a rule that family travel has to be extravagant to be worthwhile. So consider trips to destinations that are closer. You might drive to a vacation spot a few hours from home, for example. That counts! So as you work on making your travel goals into travel plans, keep in mind that nearby travel can be just as fun and memorable as a big, elaborate trip.

10. Plan with a friend

If any of this feels overwhelming or unfamiliar, do this with a friend! Chances are, you know someone who also wants to travel more in 2020. So why not get the kids together for a play date and spend an hour with a friend setting your travel goals and planning how you’ll achieve them?

That way, you can help each other when you get stuck. You’ll also encourage each other. And once you’re finished, you can check in on one another.

After all, research also shows that having an accountability buddy makes you more likely to follow through on resolutions and goals. So ask each other how your vacation planning is going. And celebrate together when you take a family getaway!