Ivana Robinson was standing on the deck of a cruise ship in Antarctica when she decided to reinvent her life in 2020.

The air was still with serenity. Clouds quietly hovered over snow laced mountains. Robinson took in the peacefulness of the scenery as pride and purpose surged throughout her body. It was her 29th birthday, and she had just accomplished her goal of traveling to all seven continents by 30. Indulging in this moment seemed necessary because she knew this sense of peace was fleeting when she was clocking in and out of work everyday in the United States.

Then an epiphany came to her.

“I deserve to feel like this every day,” she told herself. “I shouldn’t have to wait for vacation to have a 10-out-of-10 day.”

She realized in that moment that she can create the life she wanted to live now. So after chilling with penguins and connecting with other solo travelers, Robinson returned to the U.S. on a Friday. By Monday, she was giving her job her two-weeks notice.

Now 32, Robinson works as a life and leadership coach in Mexico City. Releasing the stability of a seven-year career of consulting in the corporate space wasn’t easy, but it made room for a purpose to help others. Robinson has cherished many opportunities during her travels. She posed in front of the Taj Mahal in India and held a koala bear in Australia. But the Instagramable moments don’t compare to the souvenirs of wisdom she obtained.

So in the spirit of the new year, here are the lessons Robinson learned during her travels that helped her create the life she wanted to live:

Find ‘home’ and make your way there

Robinson was born and raised in Colorado, but being an independent child spellbound by wanderlust she knew something more was calling her spirit beyond the state lines. She went to college in Washington, D.C. Then she decided to study abroad across the pond in London.

“I was always trying to leave,” Robinson said. “My mom would ask me, ‘What are you looking for?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know, but I know it’s not here. This is not my place.’”

She got a hint of where that place was during a birthday trip with two of her friends to Mexico City in 2015 – the same year she set her travel goal. Back then, Robinson said the city was just a whisper amongst traveling gurus. Tourists were few and if they did visit, they weren’t American, she said. The sight of a Black, white and Indian women traveling together stood out against the homogeneity of the city. Despite them barely knowing Spanish, the locals were kind and accommodating as they openly shared their culture and food. Their hospitality made the energy of the big and busy city feel warm.

Robison would visit Mexico City several times after that trip. Colorado didn’t feel like home, but comfort was only a direct flight away. The city gave her the answer to her mother’s question of what she was searching for.

“It’s joy,” Robinson said. “What makes me feel good? That’s always sort of the center question for me.”

Don’t lead with fear

Solo traveling is alluring – and intimidating. Along with the desire to expand one’s horizons, comes with caution of being aware of your environment and those around you.

This valid concern didn’t appear in Robinson’s consciousness when she decided to explore Medellin along with strangers she met during her trip in 2016. The men were also travelers. One of them was Colombian, but never visited Medellin. Their curiosity connected them as they wandered around the city and rode horses.

It wasn’t until they rowed out in the middle of a lake in a rented canoe that Robinson realized she was doing something others wouldn’t advise her to do, especially as a lone woman traveler.

There she was out in the middle of the lake. Just the three of them. No one else was around. Robinson started thinking how she would have never done that in the U.S.

But she never felt unsafe with her new companions. She was having fun. So she allowed joy to be her conscience in that moment.

“I learned that my intuition was real,” Robinson said. “Fear is always there, but that doesn’t mean I need to let it control me, right? I still get to make choices. I still get to be in control.”

Thinking about it now, Robinson realizes that all friends were once strangers to each other until they get to know one another. After the lake excursion, Robinson and the two travelers took a bus together to explore a nation park near Medellin.

“I don’t need to be scared of the world,” Robinson said. “Not to say that bad things don’t happen because they do, but I don’t necessarily need to lead with fear in how I live my life.”

Choose yourself and let people be disappointed

Just because Robinson chose a life of travel doesn’t mean she had unlimited resources to do so. She had to be strategic about when to take time off from work and financial spending.

She originally didn’t have a plan when she traveled to Brazil in 2015. It was November and she had made plans with her mother to be home for Thanksgiving. But when Robinson’s friends told her about their plans to spend the holiday in Brazil, she started crunching some numbers. She realized the price for flight tickets were a little cheaper than her ticket to Colorado.

Robinson made the hard call and told her mother that plans had changed. While her mother was better at allowing her daughter to live the life she wanted to live at that time, Robinson still had to navigate her mother’s grief of missing the holiday with her grandparents. But it was a reality Robinson was ready to accept that reality.

“I just had to be okay with that – like, those were their feelings to hold and to deal with,” Robinson said. “The options were to disappoint myself or to disappoint somebody else and I chose me.”

Other’s expectations isn’t a good measuring stick for your growth

Robinson has crisscrossed the world to Malaysia, Thailand and Morocco. But she didn’t know she was shifting the landscape of her own inner world.

While she was enjoying her adventures around the world, Robinson still found herself hustling for stability in the U.S. The expectation of others became the measuring stick to her success. As a first-generation college graduate in her family, she thought she had to live life according to a certain checklist: Get a good job with benefits. Get married. Buy a house and fill it with kids.

“I was making decisions sort of within those boxes not realizing that the choices I have are greater than that,” Robinson said. “I think it was a life that I thought I wanted, but I just never really stopped to ask why I wanted it.”

When she made the decision to quit her corporate job during a global pandemic, Robinson was more worried about not being able to explain her decision to loved ones. But the uneasiness soon settled into self-trust. She learned not to invest in fears people were projecting onto her, even if they were well meaning.

“People who love you don’t want to see you suffer or struggle, but not every challenge is a struggle,” Robinson said. “If it’s in the vein of the dream that you have, and you know that you want it, sometimes it’s worth the hard part.”

There’s comfort beyond the uncomfortable. As a life coach who is living her best life, Robinson reminders people of their choices. That they don’t have to be stuck in the monotony of misery.

“I think we always have a choice, and I’m not saying that in a shameful way Like, ‘You’re not doing anything,’” Robinson advised. “But I think we often are not questioning, ‘Is this helping me get to what I want?’”

If someone needs help knowing where to go after getting out the cycle, Robinson said let their values be their guide.

“As a coach, values are really important to me,” she said. “I’m always sort of centering my next move on what would bring me joy in this moment. What would make me free? And then going from there.”