We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sam MacLean a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Sam, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
Confidence is something that I have struggled with in my life and it was made even more challenging when I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 14.
I hated how this made me different from others in my school and classes and it only heightened my self-consciousness. I still remember getting in trouble with the doctors for not testing my blood sugar levels in school – I wasn’t lazy or unaware of the importance of doing this, I just hated being different and drawing attention, looks, and questions.
This self-consciousness continued through my teenage and early adult years. I didn’t like being asked about my diabetes and tried my best to avoid drawing attention to it.
However, the turning point came when I graduated from university and decided that I wanted to spend a year travelling the world with my girlfriend, Lucy.
At first, I had huge self-doubt about the practicalities of travelling with type 1 diabetes and was very unsure about leaving the UK for such a long period.
I’d filled my head with all these ‘what-if’ scenarios that were reinforced by my struggle to find concrete information online about travelling long-term with diabetes. How could I get insulin and other diabetes supplies abroad? How much would it cost as a foreign national? How would I keep my insulin cold while travelling around (as it needs to be stored at fridge temperature)? What if my bag with medication got lost or stolen?
However, with the support of Lucy, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and we went for it.
And what a journey it has turned out to be. What started as a one year Working Holiday in Australia has now turned into nearly 6 years of backpacker travel through six continents and 50+ countries!
The experience of the last 6 years has not only shaped my professional/career goals but also completely changed and developed my confidence to a place it has never been before!
In short, my confidence has been hugely developed by just pushing myself outside of my comfort zone. I know this is much easier said than done, but it really does work wonders!
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I come from a small seaside town in the Scottish Highlands, however not long into our travels Lucy and I decided that the digital nomad lifestyle was more suited to us. Essentially we wanted to pursue this dream of being able to work from our laptops to give us the freedom to travel and experience other parts of the world full time.
After a period of backpacking using money we had saved up, we trained as ESL teachers and now teach English online while we travel. The lifestyle isn’t all that you see plastered on Instagram – working from beach clubs in Bali with coconut in hand and adventuring every day. However, we love having the freedom to explore (itchy feet is definitely a thing for us) while also being able to sustain this lifestyle in a job that allows us to help others and feel satisfied. Currently, we are discovering the ancient history and Red Sea coast of Egypt!
I also have my own travel blog, type1travelling.com, where I write helpful and practical information about the destinations I visit, how to travel with diabetes confidently, and tips for travelling on a budget.
The seed for this was planted after our first year travelling in Australia. I’d realised travelling with type 1 diabetes wasn’t as scary as I’d first thought and wanted to get my experience out there for others to benefit from – specifically addressing the lack of information on the questions I had before our trip. This year I’m prioritising writing more content for the website and growing it into a great resource not only for other diabetics who want to travel, but also for anyone planning trips to any of the destinations I’ve visited in depth.
It’s kind of ironic that while my teenage years were spent shying away and hiding my diabetes, I now have a passion for spreading awareness and showing it is possible to travel the world, follow your dreams and not be held back by type 1 diabetes. I now like it when people ask about it so I can help them learn about the condition and improve their understanding of it. Most people revert to the myth that it is your own fault for eating too much sugar and that you now can’t eat any sugar at all, which isn’t true for type 1. With this type, there’s no clear reason for developing it and it’s most commonly diagnosed between the age of 4-14.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1. Photography
As well as confidence, creativity was something that never came naturally to me. I have more of a ‘maths brain’ in which I prefer numbers, exact formulas and black and white answers to creative and artistic subjects.
However, my creative side was unlocked when I picked up my first camera in Australia. All I was looking for was something better quality than my iPhone 7 snaps at the time. But over the next few years I enjoyed learning about camera settings, light and composition and suddenly I had a new passion – capturing our travels through my lens.
This sparked a deeper level to my travels. As well as sharing my photos on Instagram, it became another motivation to start my own travel blog. Not only did I want to describe destinations in words but I wanted to combine this with showcasing their beauty through photographs.
Without discovering my passion for photography and capturing travel destinations, I’m not sure I’d have fully committed to the creative project of building the blog!
2. Personal Finance
This is an underrated part of my journey. Travelling is great, taking photos is great, working remotely is great, and building a travel blog is great. But none of this would have been possible if I wasn’t good at managing my money and making it stretch as far as possible. I’d have had to retreat to Scotland at some point along the way and probably had to get myself a ‘real job’ or ‘come back to reality’ as most people in my hometown put it!
Without the ability to manage my money and budget well, I wouldn’t have been able to travel for as long as I have and wouldn’t have had the time to figure out how to make this lifestyle sustainable!
3. Communication Skills
This has impacted my journey in many different ways. Not only from the amazing experiences I’ve had interacting with local people in the countries I’ve visited but also professionally. Having great communication while being patient and personable has been pivotal in effectively teaching English as a second language. Being successful in this job has been huge for allowing me to live my travel and digital nomad lifestyle.
My advice would be to just do it and take action, even if it is messy action. Many of us delay starting something or working on something as we’re waiting for the perfect time. Whether it is learning about photography or improving your personal finance or communication skills just get started now!
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
My biggest area of growth in the last 12 months has been with my self-discipline and time management.
Having my teaching schedule is easy. I’ve got my times and my students and there’s nothing more to think about. However, when it comes to managing my time around that it’s a different story. Whether it is working on my website or other creative projects, exploring the places I’m travelling in or dedicating time to fitness and other hobbies, I find it difficult to get a healthy balance and have struggled to manage my time well in the past.
However, I’ve improved in this area in the last year and have worked on prioritising what’s important in my life and creating a schedule for my personal projects (and sticking to it). It is a work in progress and something I’m always trying to improve – but it is a skill that’s important for succeeding in this lifestyle!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://type1travelling.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/type1.travelling/
