At Next Evolution Performance many of our clients are high performing executives or successful owners and therefore need to travel for work. And given we coaches certainly clock up the frequent flyer status too, this topic is extremely close to our hearts.
Recently one of my clients hired me purely to help him deal with his travel situation. He was travelling from across the country for a few days at a time around 3 weeks out of every 4.
So we started with a few easy tips to help manage his energy…….
1. Create routine out of the non-routine
Try to catch the same flight, stay in the same hotels, eat at similar places to save energy credits on the smaller decisions. It also helps you to maintain your energy management closer to how you would normally operate.
2. Schedule in movement while travelling
Especially if you are crossing time zones for a few days at a time, this is a great one to help reset the body and the brain – and do it at a time that works for you and don’t feel guilty about it. (Guilt takes energy credits you need for more important things)
3. Eat right and stay hydrated
Your brain needs all the help it can get – fuel it right!
Once we got the simple things right this client viewed the travel a little better but still wasn’t completely in love with the idea. So we still needed to deal with the bigger mental block of how to view the travel in a more positive way.
For this we employed one of our “rational choice processes” which we won’t go into full details about here. But one of the things the client ended up coming to terms with was that it was his choice to do his role. He really enjoyed his role and as well as the opportunities it provided for him and his family. We did a lot of work around why he does what he does and how we wanted to continue doing it.
He now spends more time focused on the many positives of his work and has now put into perspective how he views the small inconvenience associated with travel.
Overall – it’s all about mindset. If you choose to see the negatives and blow them out of proportion, work travel will feel like a massive inconvenience. So try focusing on all the positives which arise as a result of the work travel and that should help you to deal a little better.