Staying abroad and personal development: How staying abroad can help you grow

A trip abroad - especially over a longer period of time - can help you enormously with your personal development. And in many ways:

Intercultural exchange

When you go abroad, you meet many different people - whether locals or other travelers from all over the world. You get to know new people, make contacts and through this exchange you develop both your communication skills and your intercultural skills.

If you stay in one place for a longer period of time and, for example, do volunteer work or do an internship abroad, you immerse yourself intensively in a different world of life. You become part of local life and get to know everyday life in an authentic way, with everything that goes with it: the usual daily routine, festivals, traditions, food, music, leisure activities, etc. This is perfect, especially if you live with a host family Opportunity to get an insight into the life of the locals.

These encounters and experiences ultimately change your own views. You gain new perspectives, develop more openness and tolerance and expand your horizons. These are valuable aspects in the development of your personality.

Strengthen skills and self-confidence

If you take the step of going abroad for a longer period of time, it will also benefit your self-confidence. Especially if you start this adventure alone. Ultimately, you leave your comfort zone and face new challenges - this makes you more independent and courageous.

Especially if you choose one Volunteering abroad If you decide, you will develop valuable skills and acquire new skills that will help you advance both personally and professionally. In addition to technical knowledge, this includes soft skills such as empathy, the ability to work in a team, problem-solving skills, resilience and calmness.

Self-reflection and self-discovery

At a stay abroad, away from home and stress, you often have a lot of time to think. Whether you're taking a year abroad after graduating from high school or taking a break from your job - take the opportunity to reflect on your life!

A trip abroad can help you learn more not only about yourself, but also about your desires and goals. When you find yourself in a different environment - away from your everyday life, your friends and your family - you have the opportunity to get to know new sides of yourself and to question your own view of yourself.

On the other hand, it is a good idea to break out of your usual environment in order to get a clear view of your wishes and develop an awareness of them. See this stay abroad as an active beginning of changes in your life!

Even when you're back, you'll definitely see a lot of things differently. Because when you've been somewhere else for a long time, you get an outside perspective and you notice things that you may never have thought about before. Therefore, you will appreciate some things more and question others. If you look at everything from a little distance, you may also gain important insights into your life.

Your time abroad will also help you advance in your career. A stay abroad is a big plus on your CV. No matter whether volunteer work, work and travel Internship or a language trip – the main thing is that you used your gap year or time out wisely and gained valuable experience.

Especially if you are active abroad - for example as a volunteer - you not only improve your language skills, but you also develop subject-related skills and acquire new skills that you can apply in your professional life.

Plus, when you travel abroad, you make new contacts with different people - a goldmine for networking! You will also expand your personal network, which will definitely be helpful in your everyday professional life.

A stay abroad can advance your personal development and offers you the opportunity to learn a lot about the world and yourself. Please note, however, that your personal development is a process - it doesn't just happen all of a sudden. So get involved and, in the best case scenario, you will gain experience on site that will help you move forward. Reflect on these experiences after your return, because you can certainly get added value from them for your life.

Would you like to focus specifically on yourself and your personal growth on your big journey? If you with Rainbow Garden Village abroad - whether for volunteer work, an internship abroad or a sabbatical - you will receive the introductory personal development course from our coach Kathrin David free of charge.

This is a video with an accompanying handout. The course is an easy introduction and first impulse into the topic of personal development and is intended to accompany you on your journey and self-discovery. The self-development tools used here are designed to see the journey as an active start to the changes in your life and to create awareness of your own desires.