When you turn 21, it’s normal to start reflecting on what you need to attain in your life, your desires, and your bucket list items.
Lexie Alford but decided she’d get cracking on her dreams at a miles younger age. The 21-year-vintage has currently grown to be the youngest character to go to every USA in the international. Although nevertheless within the procedure of having all her files accredited by way of the Guinness Book of World Records if you want to make her accomplishment authentic, Alford claims she’s ticked off all 196 nations. This puts her three years ahead of the current authentic document holder, 24-12 months-old Taylor Demonbreun.
Alford informed INSIDER that achieving her dazzling feat has come all the way down to getting to know “a few easy life instructions.”
‘Never take no for a solution.’
Alford instructed INSIDER the 3 maximum critical lessons which helped her smash the document are: “Never take no for a solution, have the courage to pursue what you’re most obsessed with, and problem-remedy like it is no person’s business due to the fact in which there is a will, there may be away.” “There had been such a lot of obstacles to conquer whilst journeying to every u. S. A., And I found out the maximum from the real moments of warfare,” she stated.
While her adventures might also have looked glamorous and interesting on her Instagram account, Alford surely encountered her truthful percentage of boundaries: “Having visas denied, going for walks out of cash, having fitness troubles like malaria and meals poisoning, turning into exhausted and trying to move home after three months on the street, simply to call a few,” she said. “When it came to visas or not possible itineraries or people simply telling me that I wasn’t capable of doing something, by no means giving up and no longer taking no for a solution were given me thru so many tough conditions.”
Alford stated she needed to get around 30 visas earlier, and it became mainly difficult for the West and Central African international locations, wherein tourism infrastructures are much less advanced. “Surprisingly enough, it is also the least visited nations in the world that are the maximum highly-priced to go to due to the fact they don’t have many transportation and accommodation options; hence the operators can charge whatever they need,” she stated. “I now trust that each hassle has a solution if you work tough enough. Of course, there also are several sacrifices you need to make if you need to travel the arena, but if it’s something you are surely passionate about, it simplest takes braveness to pursue it.”
‘Hard paintings, steady saving, smart spending.’
For the general public, the barrier to seeing the world is, properly, loss of money, but Alford managed to fund her travels entirely on her very own. “I started operating a couple of jobs and saving the entirety I’ve earned because I changed into 12 years old,” Alford stated. “I’ve worked in the whole thing from business portray to freelance pictures and blogging to coping with at my mother’s tour business enterprise. I’m fortunate with the intention to structure my work timetable in a manner that incorporates my travels because my bosses are bendy, and I additionally work for myself.” Through a combination of operating even as she travels and saving the whole thing for her adventures, Alford has managed to fund her manner around the arena. She’s really prioritized.
