There are many different kinds of travel and I have given most of them a go. My travel does tend to involve drinking, eating, sitting around, relaxing (and gaining weight). This is just as it should be given that you have flogged yourself all year just to get a couple of weeks off, right?
The problem with fitting as much of everything as possible into your well-earned “me time” is that it actually involves more effort than staying at work. You take two weeks off and pack those two weeks with seeing everything that needs to be seen or doing everything that needs to be done.
When you get back, having had 10 working days off, you may actually be worse off than before you left. Yes, you may have ticked a few boxes but overall you will be less fit and more clogged in the head than prior to burning up your very hard to come by annual leave.
There is another way to travel that no one seems to talk about. I (and my partner Cara) discovered it unsurprisingly by travelling, but travelling in a different way to many. There were so many positive side affects to this ‘concept’ that we did it again and then again. The benefits remained trip after trip.
Frankly this time away netted us such a high level of improved personal well being and business success that we decided to give it a name.
“Life Improvement Through Distraction”
It may be a little bit of a mouthful, but it sort of describes what we experienced.
The key thing we noticed is that all of the benefits (which I will list over the next few blogs,and there were many) were achieved without us really seeming to make any effort. Certainly there was nowhere near the amount of effort (mental strain and self control) it generally takes to not eat the chocolate sitting in the fridge next to the apples. Or (for me), the impossible levels of motivation required to haul my butt out of bed in the dark to nip down to the local gym for an hour of mental and physical torture. Gyms are surely the most awful invention in human history!
So why travel? I’m easily distracted…but I also form habits. Most of my habits are not good… two to three beers a night, every night. These beers are followed by (probably) a very healthy dinner but then further followed by a decent quantity of fine quality chocolate. I tell myself I work hard I deserve it!
Mmmm.. well maybe I do deserve it, but I know it isn’t doing me any good and the scales (unless they have been tampered with) prove it. Travel is my thing though. I get excited and ‘distracted’ by new places, people and being out of my comfort zone. I get distracted by the planning, the getting there, the occasional drama and the occasional unexpected amazing moment.
My travelling has matured (code word for I’ve gotten older) and I’m happy to travel more to see less. In other words, I go more frequently and for longer, but I stay grounded in each place and really experience it rather than living out of a suitcase for the entirety of the trip. I notice I have come home more rested, clearer in the head and more ready to get on with work rather than shirking the thought and frankly never wanting to go back.
Soooo.. having done a particularly long trip, mostly all in one place, I couldn’t fail to notice how it really got my brain pumping. One accommodation only, no real planning and no stress at all. I was chucking around ideas for all sorts of new projects and made a tough, key business decision that translated to the real world in a very real and positive way.
What is interesting and more exciting was a massive loss in weight and a gain in fitness. Considering the sheer volume of fantastic food, cheeses and salamis, beer, wine and chocolate consumed in this particular month I was stunned!
I had dropped nearly 10% of my body mass while enjoying myself doing all the things I love to do – travel, eat, drive, sleep.
I had to do it again just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. We did do it again and it certainly wasn’t. This is the tip of the iceberg. Have a read through my other postings for the benefits and the how to of this life improvement technique.
