Kelly McDermott: Travel Tour Guide
“Sometimes it takes something life-shattering to wake us up.”
One would never guess that Kelly McDermott was a part of the Wall Street world when she hops off her bike trainer to talk passionately about her upcoming guided travel groups she’s planned. But this WI native left the corporate vision to pursue one that made her feel something. Feel whole. Feel complete. And feel ready to take on any challenge the world throws at her.
Kelly recognizes that people in New York can go anywhere and talk about going everywhere. But too often, she recalls, “the city consumes you,” and you end up going nowhere. Finding herself back with her Wisconsin family after a divorce, she remembered her “big three” bucket list places to visit: historic Machu Picchu, the Egyptian pyramids, and the Buddhist temple, Angkor Wat, in Cambodia. While deciding what to do for work in the area, she realized that she was in a good place to do a little traveling. That “little” bit of traveling turned into a 6-month, 15-country trip where she crossed off so much more than her Bucket List Big Three. She traveled mostly solo, but also joined a few selective groups, all the while making safe, smart choices to stay in hostels, rent the occasional quiet spot, and to trust her gut along the way. Coming back from her trip, she knew she would never return to the corporate world and is now living out her life guiding small group travel tours.
The decision to make this change for herself was not initially her own choice. After her divorce, she had to learn to start saying yes to new things. Kelly knew she needed to start experiencing life again, even if it was scary. She took up activities like yoga and kickboxing, she recalls, “when I felt like I was at ground zero and needed to start feeling again.” Through these activities, she met new people, started connecting in different ways, and began making herself vulnerable to learn what life had in store. She started to see strengths in herself that there was no room to see before. Taking on new activities and trying new things, she noticed a trajectory forming and a motivation to keep that movement going.
Kelly knows she is extrinsically motivated. Like many of us, myself included, she is not a person who says, “Oh, I’m just going to do this thing now.” She needs the accountability of trusted friends, the motivation of an external goal or reward, and the inspiration that comes with seeing one’s own dreams fulfilled. She found freedom and motivation in reading Gretchen Rubin’s book, Better Than Before, and making intentional changes to the way she broke and formed habits. She joined group workouts at the gym near her home, and she accepts various public challenges to remain transparent and accountable in her new goals. She also keeps a journal to lay out her plans and keep her dreams organized and focused.
In fact, that organization, Kelly would say, is her biggest hurdle to seeing her goals met. She sees the wide range of potential that her new life can bring her, and she recognizes how easy it can be to get distracted by idea after idea. She writes everything down and revisits it often, keeping herself focused, goal-minded, and clear with how her next steps will set up her future.
I asked Kelly what advice she would give to someone who wanted to try traveling solo or changing careers or was faced with a change they didn’t plan. She reminded me that we often use our own past victories to fuel our future selves. So first, stop and remember times in the past where you’ve had a victory. Remind yourself that you did that then - you can do this now.
She also teaches us to identify your fears first when faced with them. She says, “Fears are really abstract.” We may say to solo travel, “Oh, that’s really scary. I couldn’t do that.” Kelly suggests we define that word “scary.” What’s scary about it? Try to pinpoint the exact part that is scary and identify where the fear actually lies. Once we identify it, we can often put it into perspective. We might realize it’s a fear of doing something new - which we’ve all done before. Maybe it’s a fear of the unknown - which we’ve all experienced before. Maybe it’s a fear that is grounded in something unrealistic or really only happens in the movies. “We undermine our strengths,” Kelly reminds us. We place too much value on our fears and not nearly enough on what we can do. Women, we alone have the power in us to change that mindset in ourselves. We at Strong Girls Travel love how Kelly took a life changing negative situation and turned it around to live a positive, intentional life.
Kelly is busy living her best life while supporting others’ desires to live theirs! You can follow her Facebook or Instagram adventures and keep up with her web presence at www.apathlesstaken.com. There you’ll find her travel writing blog, her next plans for small group tours to epic places, and her drive for finding the adventurer that was buried behind the corporate suit all those years ago.
Kelly at Thailand’s Elephant Sanctuary
