My name is Alexis Alford and I was born in a small town called Nevada City, California.
I have been traveling for as long as I can remember with my family who started a travel agency.
I traveled to all 196 countries by 21 years old, breaking the Guinness World Record for the Youngest Person to Travel to Every Country by over 3 years.
I graduated from high school two years early and received my Associate's degree from a local college by 18. At that time I had traveled to 72 countries and that’s when it dawned on me that I could break this world record.
In the beginning, I simply wanted to push the limits of what I thought I could do with my life and see as much of the world as possible in the process. It wasn’t until things started getting really challenging that I realized what I was doing was inspiring the people around me, especially young women.
Feeling that support meant that I couldn’t give up when things got tough. I was determined to show everyone that the world isn’t as scary as the media portrays it to be and that there’s kindness everywhere.
My travels are completely self funded. I’ve done a few brand deals and campaigns along the way that helped fund my project but there’s never been an official sponsorship.
I always knew I wanted to take time off to travel so I’ve working every job I could find and saving since I was 12 years old.
The amount I saved kept me going for the first year and a half of my travels. From there I’ve been working as a travel consultant in my family’s agency when I’m in California and also working as a photographer/blogger while I’m traveling.
I do a lot of research in advance to find the best deals, utilize points and miles for my flights, stay in cheap accommodation like hostels or create content for hotels in exchange for accommodation.
I’ve also made sure to keep my monthly overhead as low as possible by living at home with my parents, I don’t have a car payment or student debt, and I don’t spend my money on unnecessary material possessions.
Life Lessons from the Youngest Person to Travel to Every Country
Lexie AlfordWe are having the wrong conversation about our comfort zone. The phrase "getting out of your comfort zone" is thrown around so much today online and in motivational quotes that it's begun to lose its meaning.关于我们的舒适区，我们的谈话是错误的。“走出你的舒适区”这句话如今在网上和激励性的引语中随处可见，以至于它已经失去了意义。And this is because we don't clearly understand what our comfort zone is, and it seems counter intuitive to leave it because it's where we feel the most safe. It also sounds like we're sugar-coating something that we don't want to talk about, which is fear.这是因为我们不清楚我们的舒适区是什么，离开它似乎违反直觉，因为它是我们感觉最安全的地方。这听起来也像是我们在糖衣上涂了一层我们不想谈论的东西，那就是恐惧。Let me tell you a bit more about my story and how fear has played a role in it. I come from a family of travelers. My mom started a travel agency when she was younger than I am now, and growing up they never left me behind when they went on their adventures.让我告诉你们更多关于我的故事，以及恐惧是如何在其中发挥作用的。我来自一个旅行者家庭。我妈妈在比我小的时候开了一家旅行社，在他们的成长过程中，他们在冒险时从来没有离开过我。I graduated early and got a degree from community college by the time I turned 18. And at that time I had traveled to around 70 countries. This was the point in my life where people began to ask me the most intimidating question that you can ask a young person: "What are you going to do next?"我很早就毕业了，在我18岁的时候获得了社区大学的学位。那时候我去过大约70个国家。这就是我生命中的一个时刻，人们开始问我一个你可以问年轻人的最吓人的问题：“你接下来要做什么？”And in attempt to answer that question, I began by asking myself what I was most passionate about, which has always been travelling, and how to make the most out of the cards that I was dealt, which was how much travel experience I've had at my age.为了回答这个问题，我首先问自己，我最热衷的是什么，一直以来都在旅行，以及如何最大限度地利用我收到的卡片，这就是我在这个年龄有多少旅行经验。That's when it dawned on me. I had over six years to break the world record for the youngest person to travel to every country. And this was the perfect opportunity that I was looking for to get out of the books and into the real world. In retrospect, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.就在那时，我才恍然大悟。我用了六年多的时间打破了世界纪录，成为了世界上最年轻的旅游者。这是一个完美的机会，我正在寻找走出书本，进入现实世界。回想起来，我不知道自己陷入了什么境地。Flash-forward two and a half years later, and I spent countless hours crammed on planes, trains, chicken buses, tuk-tuks and junk boats travelling with nothing but a backpack. I have encountered health issues, spanning from malaria in West Africa to hospital-worthy food poisoning in Pakistan.两年半后，我在飞机、火车、小鸡巴士、tuk tuk和垃圾船上度过了无数个小时，只带着一个背包。我遇到过健康问题，从西非的疟疾到巴基斯坦的医院食物中毒。I learned how to cope with public anxiety attacks by myself in foreign countries, and I endured the brain-sizzling frustration of dealing with bureaucrats from every country that requires a visa. Believe it or not, these have been some of my most treasured memories because they were the most defining moments of my life, spent far, far away from my comfort zone.在国外，我学会了如何独自应对公众焦虑症，我忍受着与每个需要签证的国家的官员打交道时大脑发出的嘶嘶声。信不信由你，这些都是我最珍贵的记忆，因为它们是我生命中最具决定性的时刻，远离我的舒适区。Proving to Guiness World Records that I have traveled to every country was a completely different story. According to a very strict pack of guidelines, I'm required to submit everything from plane tickets to accommodation and taxi receipts, to multiple witness statements from each country. I struggled to find two people in each country that spoke, read and wrote in English that would be willing to help me with my witness statements.向吉尼斯世界纪录证明我去过每个国家是完全不同的故事。根据一套非常严格的指导方针，我需要提交从机票到住宿和出租车收据，再到来自每个国家的多份证人证词的所有内容。我努力在每个国家找到两个人，他们用英语说话、阅读和写作，愿意帮助我做证词。I had to plead with immigration officers at every border to please stamp my passport with enough ink, to be able to read the name and the date on the passport stamp. I am now in the process of submitting nearly 10,000 pieces of evidence in chronological order, documenting how I entered and exited each country, along with a detailed itinerary of what I did in each place.我不得不请求每一个边境的移民官员给我的护照盖上足够的墨水，以便能够读到护照印章上的姓名和日期。我现在正在按时间顺序提交近10000件证据，记录我如何进出每个国家，以及我在每个地方所做事情的详细行程。Beyond this very overwhelming amount of paperwork, somewhere along this journey, I discovered that there was more than one element of my comfort zone that I was going to have to get out of to get to where I wanted to go. I now believe that there is a correlation between our comfort zone and our mind, body and soul.除了这些铺天盖地的文书工作之外，在这段旅程的某个地方，我发现我的舒适区中有不止一个元素是我必须走出的，才能到达我想去的地方。我现在相信，我们的舒适区与我们的思想、身体和灵魂之间存在着关联。If you know that you have fears in general, knowing exactly where those fears are stemming from is the first step towards overcoming them. I personally have a few very distinct fears. I am afraid of heights, which stems from my physical comfort zone. I have - I had a fear of being alone, which was completely controlled by my mind. And I also am terrified of regret, which comes straight from my soul.如果你知道你总的来说有恐惧，那么准确地知道这些恐惧来自哪里是克服它们的第一步。我个人有一些非常明显的恐惧。我恐高，这源于我的身体舒适区。我——我有一种孤独的恐惧，这种恐惧完全由我的大脑控制。我也害怕后悔，后悔直接来自我的灵魂。The reason why so many people are unsuccessful at getting out of their comfort zone is because our comfort zone is not just one thing. It's three. The first is obvious, our physical comfort zone. Naturally, what we fear most is death. We're evolutionarily wired to avoid situations where we could get hurt. And that's why every cell in my body was screaming when I was standing on the edge of a 750-foot drop in Switzerland.这么多人未能成功走出舒适区的原因是，我们的舒适区不仅仅是一回事。三点了。第一个是显而易见的，我们的身体舒适区。当然，我们最害怕的是死亡。我们进化的天性是避免可能受伤的情况。这就是为什么当我站在瑞士一个750英尺的落差边缘时，我体内的每个细胞都在尖叫。The opportunity came up to bungee jump off of the third highest platform in the world, and being someone that was always too afraid to jump off of rocks into the water at the river, this was by far my greatest fear, and the idea of facing it head-on excited me just as much as it terrified me.从世界第三高的平台上蹦极跳下的机会来了，作为一个总是不敢从岩石上跳到河里的人，这是迄今为止我最大的恐惧，面对它的想法让我兴奋，也让我害怕。When they strapped in my ankles and perched me on the edge, I was shaking. Three ... Two ... One ... I plunged into seven and a half seconds of the most intense sensory overload I had ever experienced. Complete terror turned into utter euphoria and resulted in one of the most significant moments of my life.当他们绑住我的脚踝，把我放在边缘时，我在发抖。三二一我投入了七秒半的时间，感受到了我所经历过的最强烈的感官过载。彻底的恐惧变成了极度的喜悦，这是我生命中最重要的时刻之一。In that moment, I realized that I was capable of pushing my body's limits and that it's something that's actually worth doing. I realized what was possible and became instantly hooked on the rush of having new experiences.在那一刻，我意识到我有能力突破身体的极限，这是一件值得去做的事情。我意识到了什么是可能的，并立即被拥有新体验的冲动所吸引。Little did I know at the time that facing my biggest fear was what would ultimately lead me to travelling to every country in the world, and out of 196 countries, I have only found myself in real, physical danger one time. I traveled to Yemen as a photographer for a Norwegian author who was writing a book about the least visited countries in the world.当时我几乎不知道，面对我最大的恐惧，是什么最终会让我去世界上的每一个国家旅行。在196个国家（或地区）中，我只发现自己有一次处于真正的身体危险之中。我作为一名挪威作家的摄影师前往也门，他正在写一本关于世界上访问次数最少的国家的书。On our last night in the country, I woke up to the sound of gunshots outside of my hotel. I jumped out of bed and ran to the window to see that there were 50 or so men congregated in the parking lot, yelling and pushing each other around, with six cars with flashing headlights blocking the only exit. With no security in sight, I grabbed my phone to call my contact in the country, who didn't answer because this was happening around 2:00 in the morning.在乡下的最后一晚，我醒来时听到酒店外的枪声。我跳下床，跑到窗前，看到大约有50名男子聚集在停车场，大喊大叫，互相推搡，六辆车灯闪烁的汽车挡住了唯一的出口。在看不到任何安全措施的情况下，我抓起手机给我在该国的联系人打电话，但对方没有接听，因为事情发生在凌晨2点左右。I could hear voices outside of my hotel room even though I knew that we were the only people staying in the hotel. That was the first time I had ever heard a fully automatic weapon discharged. I literally ducked and looked around the room realistically looking for the best place to hide.我能听到酒店房间外的声音，尽管我知道只有我们住在酒店里。那是我第一次听到全自动武器发射的声音。我真的躲开了，现实地环顾了一下房间，寻找最好的藏身之处。In that moment, there was nothing I could do but sit with my fear of potentially being kidnapped, until eventually, all the men disappeared, and I could cry myself to sleep after the adrenaline wore off.在那一刻，我什么也做不了，只能坐在那里担心可能被绑架，直到最后，所有的人都消失了，肾上腺素消失后，我可以哭着入睡。The next morning, I called - I talked to my contact in the country and asked him what had happened the night before. He responded with,"Oh, that?That was just a wedding party."第二天早上，我打电话给我在这个国家的联系人，问他前一天晚上发生了什么。他回答说：“哦，那？那只是一场婚礼。”Since Yemen is an Islamic country, they do not drink alcohol, and one of the ways that they celebrate is by shooting guns. Basically, what this means is the this scariest thing that has ever happened to me while travelling was only scary because I didn't fully understand the culture.由于也门是一个伊斯兰国家，他们不喝酒，他们庆祝的方式之一就是开枪。基本上，这意味着旅行中发生在我身上最可怕的事情，只是因为我没有完全理解文化。The fun didn't stop there. Getting out of the comfort zone that I had created around myself mentally would prove to be an even greater challenge and would require me to develop an entirely different aspect of my character. We are creatures of habit.乐趣并不止于此。走出我在心理上创造的舒适区将是一个更大的挑战，需要我发展我性格的一个完全不同的方面。我们是习惯的动物。We are most comfortable with things we can easily understand and predict. We fill our lives with routines. We wake up, go to class or work, eat our meals, maybe work out and go to sleep at basically the same times every day. We surround ourselves with the same stable relationships for years. We try so hard to live up to other people's expectations of us that sometimes we let our passions take the back seat because ultimately we don't want to become isolated from our society.我们对自己能够轻松理解和预测的事情最为满意。我们的生活充满了常规。我们每天醒来、上课或工作、吃饭、锻炼和睡觉的时间基本相同。多年来，我们一直保持着同样稳定的关系。我们努力不辜负别人对我们的期望，有时我们会让自己的激情退居二线，因为最终我们不想被社会孤立。After I traveled to the first hundred or so countries, the destinations became more and more obscure, and I stopped being able to talk my friends and family into coming with me. If you've never traveled for an extended period of time by yourself before, it might be hard to imagine what it's like to spend days in transit on airplanes, in airports, just to end up in an empty hotel room by yourself at the end of the night. After months of this for me, it resulted in intense loneliness, which was something I didn't even realize I feared because I had been sheltered from it my whole life.在我去了大约100个国家后，目的地变得越来越模糊，我无法说服我的朋友和家人和我一起去。如果你以前从未独自旅行过很长一段时间，那么你可能很难想象在飞机上、机场上度过几天，最后独自一人在一个空荡荡的酒店房间里过夜是什么感觉。对我来说，在经历了几个月之后，它导致了强烈的孤独，这是我甚至没有意识到我害怕的事情，因为我一辈子都在躲避它。At the peak of my time spent alone, I found myself in the tiny island nation of Tuvalu, in the south Pacific with a population of only 11,000 people. I spent four days in the capital, Funafuti, because that's how often flights go in and out of the country. There was no Wi-Fi, no cell reception, no connection to the outside world whatsoever other than a small post office, which happened to also be the country's number one tourist attraction.在我独处的巅峰时期，我发现自己身处南太平洋的小岛国图瓦卢，人口只有11000人。我在首都富纳富提呆了四天，因为这是航班进出该国的频率。那里没有Wi-Fi，没有手机信号接收，除了一个小邮局之外，与外界没有任何联系，而这个小邮局恰好也是该国第一大旅游景点。When I thought that I would be spending my time in Tuvalu completely alone and without any distraction, I noticed the only other foreigner on the island. She was a kindergarten teacher from the South Side of Chicago who also happened to be travelling to every country. We bonded so quickly and deeply over all of our shared experiences that we ended up going from complete strangers to travelling to Fiji, Tonga, Chad, Central African Republic and Saudi Arabia together.当我想到我将独自一人在图瓦卢度过时光，不受任何干扰时，我注意到岛上唯一的另一个外国人。她是一名来自芝加哥南部的幼儿园老师，碰巧也去了每个国家。我们在所有共同经历中如此迅速而深刻地结合在一起，最终我们从一个完全陌生的人变成了一起前往斐济、汤加、乍得、中非共和国和沙特阿拉伯。From the seven and a half months I spent travelling alone to 50 or so countries, I learned how to be alone without being lonely, and this did wonders for my self-confidence, but it also completely changed the way that I think about the people in my life.从我独自前往50多个国家的七个半月中，我学会了如何独处而不感到孤独，这对我的自信产生了奇迹，但它也彻底改变了我对生活中的人的看法。Now I have an appreciation for the time that I get to spend with the people that I care about the most in a way that I used to take for granted, before I knew what it was truly like to be alone.现在，在我还不知道独处的真实感受之前，我就开始感激与我最关心的人在一起的时光，这种方式我过去认为是理所当然的。I also discovered that we have so much more in common with people around the world than you may think, because ultimately we all want the same things, which is why at the root of our spiritual comfort zone, the layer closest to our souls, we are all looking for fulfillment.我还发现，我们与世界各地的人有着比你们想象的更多的共同点，因为最终我们都想要相同的东西，这就是为什么在我们精神舒适区的根源，最接近我们灵魂的那一层，我们都在寻求实现。We are afraid to leave the safety of our routine to pursue something greater because of our fear of failure. I set myself up for a goal with a very realistic potential for failure, not because my family wanted me to or because it was easy but because I knew that I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't try.因为害怕失败，我们害怕离开日常生活的安全，去追求更伟大的东西。我为自己设定了一个可能会失败的现实目标，不是因为我的家人希望我这么做，也不是因为这很容易，而是因为我知道如果我不尝试，我会后悔一辈子。And now, I make the majority of decisions in my life based on the answer to a very simple question: "Will I regret not doing this?" If the answer is "Yes," I know that I have a moral obligation to myself and the people around me to do it, even if that means jumping off of a 750-foot dam or spending seven months alone or giving a talk in front of strangers.现在，我一生中的大多数决定都是基于一个非常简单的问题的答案：“我会后悔没有这样做吗？”如果答案是“是的”，我知道我对自己和周围的人有道德义务这样做，即使这意味着从750英尺高的大坝上跳下来，或者独自呆上七个月，或者在陌生人面前讲话。Being in a state of comfort itself is freedom from pain, but when we subject ourselves to genuine discomfort, and plunge into the unknown, that's when we learn to transcend the layers of our comfort zone, manage our fears, and become empowered by them. Ask yourselves: How uncomfortable are you willing to become in order to reach your fullest potential? Thank you.处于一种舒适的状态本身就是从痛苦中解脱出来的，但是当我们把自己置于真正的不适之中，投入到未知之中时，我们就学会了超越舒适区的各个层面，管理我们的恐惧，并从中获得力量。问问自己：为了充分发挥自己的潜力，你愿意变得多不舒服？非常感谢。大概每个人心中都有一个环游世界的梦，只是碍于许多原因无法实现。
