Work Travel + Life = Chaos? or Maybe Not?
Some ways to address Balancing Life and Work Travel
Traveling has always been my passion, traveling for work seemed like the natural flow for me, I have been doing it for 10 years in different levels of intensity. Some years I’m barely home and some years, I get to spend months at home with some occasional traveling. Whenever I tell people I travel for work, frequently I get a positive response, along the lines of; wow how exciting!
I happen to agree, it’s been very exciting, I’ve been all over Europe the Middle East, the Rain Forest in Brazil, Indonesia, many states in the US and Mexico. I love it, I love the new foods, the different cultures, the new people and perspectives. Nothing like watching a 6 foot Iguana like creature slowly cross by the door of your classroom, to change the rhythm of your presentation!
Ah! But what about the other people?
The ones that say; wow you travel a lot, that must be tiring. They know, they are also the warriors of the road. Yes, I have given that answer myself, because with all the excitement it brings to my life, some days quite honestly, I just want to be home.
Many times, I don’t even get to leave my working area or go sightseeing, it’s not always fun. Many days it is just work. So how have I made it work? How do I keep doing it? Why do I keep doing it? Because let’s be clear, there is always a choice, if I’m still traveling after 10 years, it’s because I still want to.
I travel because I love my job
I keep doing it because I love my job, I truly enjoy what I do, when I’m doing a Transformational Breath® event and I’m all jetlagged, tired, working long days, and then I get a moment when I can just stop and look around my classroom and see the beauty of it, the profound transformation that is taking place in people’s lives, then I know it’s worth it. I think this is the key. Truly enjoying your work, the great parts and the difficult ones. Now asides from loving my work, I find that the first thing to keep present is balance. Balance between work, family, rest and fun. Not always easy…
Here are some of the things that work for me:
1. Establish a routine that you can do anywhere, something that is yours and you can take wherever home is at the time. For me it is doing my breathing and meditation practice every morning, but it can be anything you enjoy and nurtures you.
2. Bringing more of the things you like to have with you helps, making your room your home.
3. If you are spending more than half of your time on the road and you don’t get to enjoy your things and relax while doing it, this could create frustration. I know traveling light is key for the business traveler, but there is always a middle ground to be found.
Flying time
Flying time, of course we all love to work while flying. No distractions and it’s dead time otherwise. But there is more to plane time, keep present this might be the only down time you get, you can do more than work on a plane. Divide the time into segments and work, rest, do something fun. In long flights remember to get up, walk and stretch. Balancing family and travel can be tricky, we want to be there and many times the choice is out of our hands. My husband had a surgery recently and I was in Denmark when it happened, the fact that I couldn’t make it work, created a lot of guilt in me.
Conflicting emotions
When conflicting emotions surface, it helps to see this as an opportunity to grow. The guilt I’m experiencing is for me to work on, if I maintain this feeling inside me I’ll keep trying to overcompensate, but nothing will bring back the time of the surgery. The fact is that I wasn’t there and I can’t change that. I have noticed in the past that if I don’t make peace with these things, it ends up creating more frustration and eventually leads to arguments at home.
Open honest communication
Open honest communication helps a lot in these cases, with a husband or a 5-year-old, explaining our feelings honestly and listening to the feelings of the other can be the key to making it work. When listening, it’s important to manage our own emotions and allow the expression of the other, trying to justify actions or getting defensive will have the opposite effect. Keeping present that we have the right to have this job and they have the right to not be happy about it, is a good place to start. And of course, keep the conversation going, make sure you have a way to stay in touch, phone calls, send each other photos, video calls over any of the available services like Skype, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Zoom.
It’s so nice to see each other. It’s a good idea to have video calls while doing routine things like cooking or filing paperwork. Just set the camera somewhere and chat away while you do your thing. And when you’re finally home, truly be there. Committing to some down time, either at home or while away it’s important, sometimes it has to be scheduled. Make the time!
One last relevant thing is not waiting to be home to continue with your life, live in the moment wherever you are and don’t get so caught up with the impending needs of work that you forget the reason why you are working;
To live your life ♥
Related content:
6 Factors to Make Work Meaningful
