Posts Tagged Travel
The Cost of Enjoying Change
Posted by Travis Austin in Ramblings on May 12, 2010
I love to travel. I really do. I like to see new places, meet new people, and just get away from my normal routine in favor of something new and different. I’m told that I’m a serial entrepreneur, and my enjoyment for travel is probably rooted in the same thing that causes me to be an entrepreneur: I enjoy change. I enjoy travel because I like the change of scenery, people, climate, schedule, and pace that comes with each new destination. Very little remains constant or settled when I travel.
I just did the math, and from January to April, 2010, I went on 21 trips to 16 different places and I was gone a total of 43 days. Over the course of these four months, 36% of my days were spent on the road. Many of trips were back-to-back (I had several trips which were comprised of 3-4 destinations back-to-back without going home in between).
All this travel meant I gave up on many of my daily and weekly disciplines: I went to gym only twice in those 4 months, I gave up on healthy eating, I spent little to no time to myself, I let my personal bills get behind, and my house get quite messy. Now, it’s May, and I find my life quite out of balance.
If the first 4 moths of the year were defined by my travel schedule, I hope to make the next few months defined by my lack of travel. I will go to the gym regularly, to focus on eating more healthily, to not work constantly, and to keep up with my personal affairs. I will spend many days quietly in my office working quietly by myself, with my phone on do-not-disturb and my Outlook closed (I’ll check these a few times a day). If the first 4 months of the year could be described as crazy and unpredictable, the next few months will be defined as regimented and predictable.
I like change, a lot… but now it’s time to change my pace and slow down, a lot. Just for a little while, though. It will soon be time to travel again, but, in the meantime, I am going to enjoy some normalcy and predictability in my life.