LiveWorkBalance

Looking over yesterday’s post, I realized that it takes a somewhat one-sided look at the impact travel can have on work/life balance; a slightly negative look, giving you tips how to work around it.

But last night, as I was enjoying some delicious chicken fingers (no joke, these were no store bought breadcrumby chicken fingers. If you’re ever in Winnipeg, you need to try Mitzi’s Chicken Fingers, down on St. Mary Avenue near Main) I started looking at some of the upsides of travel.

Sure it can be tough to be away from home, but following advice from people such as Gretchin Rubin of The Happiness Project, and Steve Pavlina, of Personal Development for Smart People, and trying something I’ve been working on myself, your attitude towards something has a significant impact on your perception of that thing. Basically, if you’re going to only think of the negatives of travel, that’s what you’re going to end up experiencing. So the thought goes, think positive and and see what happens!

For example, my day yesterday was supposed to be packed full of meetings. It turns out my meetings ended a little earlier than expected, so I was able to set myself up in an empty office (one that had a much nicer view than I usually get to experience), and get a lot of work done. I was able to start to analyse the results of the meeting and see how things fit together. But as I work from a laptop and have a mobile phone, I was able to get just as much of my other work done as well. That change in perspective served as somewhat as a mental reboot. I figure today before my flight, I may get some more work done as well.

Additionally, travel can be a great opportunity to either try something new. Case in point, as I mentioned above, I ended up eating at a restaurant called Mitzi’s Chicken Fingers. Basically, last night I was trying to decide where to go for dinner, and as I didn’t have a car and it was raining, I wanted somewhere that was a fairly quick walk from the hotel. The hotel I was staying at had links to reviews for a few local restaurants on the portal when I logged into the internet (this is a great idea, actually). Seeing the name of that restaurant, I was intrigued, and clicked through to nothing but glowing reviews.

Now, a small confession, I still wasn’t convinced. I fell into old habits and walked over to the chain restaurant I usually eat at. Good food, but its the usual option. So I go in, and lo and behold, the wait for a table for one is at least 25 minutes. Now, I don’t mind waiting for a table if I’ve got company for dinner, but spending 25 minutes or more waiting for a table isn’t exactly what I was looking for. So I end up walking over to Mitzi’s, and find delicious food, no wait, great prices, and a new experience.

Basically, if you’ve got a few extra hours in your destination, try something with it. Check out a few local museums, galleries, parks or other venues, and see what happen.

So what’s the moral of the story? Travel isn’t all bad. My thoughts on the matter are that if you look for the positive in the travel, maintaining the balance as discussed yesterday gets a whole lot easier. So next time you’re on the road, try to take that positive outlook, and see how quickly you get home!

Posted on October 19th, 2007 under General • Tags: travel, work-life balance. •  Print This Post •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback