There’s a certain level of discomfort that comes with change and anyone who runs their own business can relate to this. We can make the most regimented “to do” list and before our 1st cup of coffee is finished that list has to take a back seat or ends up in the “delete” bin because your entire days schedule has been compromised.
Let’s face it with travel comes a certain amount of discomfort.
- Lean into the Discomfort
If you’ve ever had to take an early morning flight from a busy hub, squeezed into an economy seat for 5+ hours or traveled with children you definitely feel me here. When you travel you have to learn to adapt to changes and be flexible. Flight delays, lost luggage and health mishaps to name a few.
Changes like these can help an entrepreneur to think more creatively, can challenge old belief systems and reveal strengths that you didn’t even know existed as well as improve your level of compassion for yourself and others.
2. Lessons in Time Management
Well, one of the most challenging things for any entrepreneur is staying on schedule. When you’re wearing all of the hats and not sure what emergency, what fire you’re going to have to deal with next, sometimes you want to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over your head shutting out the rest of the world and hiding from the smoke and flames.
Travelling teaches you how to stick to a schedule regardless of what may go wrong. Delays in traffic don’t stop you from going to the airport to get your flight, they make you dig in to your problem solving skills and find ways to show up on time despite the barriers that may get in your way.
3. Grow More Effective Communication Skills
“You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar”. Easy to say, but when you find yourself in that stressful situation with a supplier and it’s effecting your client and all that comes to mind is one expletive after another…then what? Losing your mind on someone might make you feel better for about 5 seconds but it hardly solves much in the long run.
Years of travel and running into unexpected situations has taught me how to keep it together with calm and accurate communication. How to be clear about my expectations. How to concisely explain where a misunderstanding has taken place and how to get things sorted so that I can get what I was promised in the 1st place. This is a skill that every entrepreneur can turn into a benefit for themselves in order to build and maintain relationships with clients and partners alike.
4. Confidence Builder
There are several ways in which travel helps to build confidence in a person and just a few of these are: Getting to know people who have a different culture than the one you’re used to living in. Becoming more independent. Learning a different language and becoming more financially savvy. The amount of skill building that goes into just these 4 confidence boosters is enough to fill a resume on their own. So, of course these are all helpful experiences to any entrepreneur out there. https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/language/travel-makes-better-person/
I gave up everything that I was comfortable with in order to trek around the world in unknown spaces and with people who were previously unknown to me and just experience life from outside of my “comfort zone”.
While traveling, your “story” is one of the easiest things you get to share with the people you encounter and I’ve come into contact with other successful entrepreneurs who bolster my confidence with small reminders like “hey, if I can do this so can you”. It’s easily a way to stay engaged and inspired.
All in all, travel helps us all to discover the humanity in ourselves and each other and ultimately helps us to discover a better version of ourselves in the process.
