The last three weeks have been interesting global travels. The Poland and Czech Republic front end of the trip was rescheduled due to the volcanic ash cloud emitted from Iceland. The team was successful swapping all our events into virtual forums and we never missed a beat.
The China leg had the typical airplane delays. But, for the first time since I’ve been traveling internationally, a scheduled delay was canceled and the plane left on time. This really screwed up my quick rearrangements! The transition to India was relatively seamless. Of course that was when my traveling colleague lost her voice. She could only nod and smile for two days. That was when she wrote on a piece of paper, “If it’s not a good time, it’s a good story.” I thought this was a pretty positive perspective.
How do you keep a positive attitude during the worst of travels?
Sunday, May 9, 2010
“If it’s not a good time, it’s a good story”
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12 comments:
Hi John,
I guess I always found travel to be a double-edged sword. I had some pretty great trips and some really awful ones. I was never as up beat as your colleague though.
Getting "snowed in" at Dulles on my way to Blacksburg, VA was a character building exercise. And I'm not sure yet, whether is was a good thing or not.
For those that don't travel for work. They never really grasp the drains on a person. Nor do they understand how good it can be. For every day, in Davenport, Iowa, watching a running car, sieze up because it was too cold. It is offset by hanging out near the Old Gate, in Heidelberg germany, sipping a sublimely well done beer. And wondering how that commute is going on the "405" back at the home office.
Travel has done a lot for me. Expanded Horizon's, allowed cultural development, funded some great vacations (YAY frequent flyer miles), and created some enduring frienships.
Travel, to me is a mosaic. Big pieces and small. Good and bad.
So yes, I've had some great stories too. Or at least ones worth retelling. But bad travel was endured, and forgotten.
And... now with LinkedIn, I can stay in contact with some of those friends that are flung more afield. I'm now a reformed traveler, and am glad for it. Some parts of life, can't be fully lived while traveling.
Fred
I thought I had my share of "worst travels", right up until I was waiting for a flight out of Kathmandu when I was told, by a janitor no less, "you go hotel now, you try again tomorow, wing fall off plane". That sent into motion a 4 day wandering, all over Asia, of trying to get back to the US with no luggage except what was in my carry on bag.
What I learned was eventually you start to laugh, and it just gets funnier and funnier. You can either keep a positive attitude and suffer, or have a negative attitude and suffer ...either way you're going to suffer! LOL
If nothing else, it gives you a great story to tell later *)
Should have known it was one of yours, John. ;-)
(I like it.)
I once had a move-the-gate-fruit-basket-upset game at a connection airport that lasted for most of a day. I think our gate changed at least five times and sent us scrambling over a good part of the airport. During that time, I "adopted" someone worse off than me and spent my energy and attention on helping them - including helping them keep their spirits up. That probably helped me more than it helped her. In this situation it was an older woman in a wheelchair. She actually was kinda fun once she got over her anxiety. Other passengers on the same flight used humor and we joined in that too.
When we finally got into the air , they gave us a free movie. The title was kind of appropriate and got a chuckle from most of the passengers:
Failure to Launch.
Stay flexible and go with the flow...there is a tomorrow and when viewed through that lens we will look back at the experience and smile... most of the time. Humor helps as well. Reading, crossword puzzles, stored pod casts. When I first started internationa; travel, my well seasoned travel partner gave me his three rules for international travel...somewhat tongue-in-cheek...(1) stay flixible in your habits (2) eat all the foods (3) and most important...never come home with a new position. I never needed rule 3, but the others were of help!
The key I believe is how you think about the destination which was burned in the brain for years. There are both positive and negative aspects during the worst / best of travels and sometimes the unpleasant experience was connected to the destination by Inherent views instead of logic.
Get prepared to face differences and enjoy them, may help feel better.
Think about "the story," and remember bottled water.
I was once on an overnight train in the Russian heartland and a fat drunk guy gets on the train, carrying a salami, a bottle of cheap cognac, and a hunting knife. He put the knife down IN the table so hard it was quivering, and said "let me tell you about my wife and her lover." This lasted five minutes, after which he passed out, so my Russian friend and I ate the salami and drank the cognac...
I have more crazy stories, one involving German Shepherds on Aeroflot, another involving a drunk Finn in Estonia singing Elvis songs.
What's a few minutes of inconvenience / discomfort / terror compared to a lifetime of stories?
John,
Excellent thought stream - I have found over the years (and as recently as Monday!) that something you endure that may be bass-ackwards, gone awry, disastrous, or just plain difficult, can end up being logged away as a good story to tell later. Especially if there are few juicy bits in there about someone's ill behaviour, ridiculous turn of events, or just plain looks funny or like an adventure when veiwed from 50 thousand feet.
It's a great way to deal with the mud puddles in life/business and move forward with a good attitude! :-)
Thanks for that...My mad Monday will indeed become a good "story". lol.
I can relate to your travel companion's laryngitis. I was a guest speaker at a national conference and couldn't utter so much as a squeak. A friend who had worked on the project that I was to speak about was also there. Between her interpretation and my pantomime, we made a pretty good presentation that got our point across...and made everyone laugh.
Hi John,
Wow, what great stories. I can picture the smiles and laughs they bring to the story teller now vs then.
Here is the bottom line for me, every trip is an adventure, every travel neighbor a potential friend, every bottle of water - precious, and my faith my rock. I was taught as a younger man an old football saying from my father that is embedded in me today:
"Stay low and charge hard, keep your head up and feet moving." I have never found a situation where this did not apply.
Bryan
John and Fred, I agree that travel can expand the mind and soul, but can also be damaging to the body.
Over a brief period in my life, 1997-2000, I traveled to Heidelberg, Germany twice, and to Grenada and to France. On the trip to France, me, my ex, and our business partners traveled to Nice, France for a corporate get together. On our free time, we traveled across borders to Monaco and Northern Italy. We stopped for dinner at a restaurant along the way. I was very careful about what I ate during the trip, but my travel mates were not. They spent the next two days with a stomach bug, while I wandered around Nice and found a very lovely park dedicated to the American soldiers who had liberated the city. It is a memory that I will never forget.
On a personal trip to Grenada, we stayed at a lovely inn called Twelve Degrees North. It was fascinating to see the juxtaposition between the have and have nots, which I'm sure comprise most Caribbean islands. However, what stuck me about the island was that the food was out of my mind wonderful. I don't know how well Grenada survived the hurricane, but I still think it is a great destination and good place to turn off and tune out.
My international travel life was cut short by divorce and lay offs. For the last ten years, my travel has been limited to domestic business travel. Back and forth between Dallas and San Diego, 4 or 5 times by car. Back and forth between San Diego and Boston, 4 of 5 times by plane. Last Spring, I spent 7 out of 12 weeks in a hotel room, working in a foreign office, and surrounded by hostile co-workers. The only two great things that came out of those trips is that it affirmed the fact that I love to travel, and secondly, I watched some great concerts on PBS (one of the few channels I could receive in my hotel room). Don't get me started on the highlights of traveling back and forth between San Diego and Dallas. All I know, is that after driving 12 hours from San Diego to Anthony, TX, checking into the Best Western in Anthony, TX (mile marker 0) is priceless. I always wished I had more time to travel because there are probably a dozen or more places where I wish I could have turned off the highway.
Anyway, what I learned through all of my travels is that the trip is more likely to be successful if you learn to check your attitude at security and open your mind for the rest of the trip.
I agree that travel can expand the mind and soul, but can also be damaging to the body.
Over a brief period in my life, 1997-2000, I traveled to Heidelberg, Germany twice, and to Grenada, and to France.
On the trips to Heidelberg, almost everything was wonderful. The only downside, which I won't describe fully, is that there was evidence that they haven't fully escaped their affinity to the terror groups of the past. When traveling overseas, you have to be careful where you go.
On the trip to France, me, my ex, and our business partners traveled to Nice, France for a corporate get together. On our free time, we traveled across borders to Monaco and Northern Italy. We stopped for dinner at a restaurant along the way. I was very careful about what I ate during the trip, but my travel mates were not. They spent the next two days with a stomach bug, while I wandered around Nice and found a very lovely park dedicated to the American soldiers who had liberated the city. It is a memory that I will never forget.
On a personal trip to Grenada, we stayed at a lovely inn called Twelve Degrees North. It was fascinating to see the juxtaposition between the have and have nots, which I'm sure comprise most Caribbean islands. However, what stuck me about the island was that the food was out of my mind wonderful. I don't know how well Grenada survived the hurricane, but I still think it is a great destination and good place to turn off and tune out.
My international travel life was cut short by divorce and lay offs. For the last ten years, my travel has been limited to domestic business travel. Back and forth between Dallas and San Diego, 4 or 5 times by car. Back and forth between San Diego and Boston, 4 of 5 times by plane. Last Spring, I spent 7 out of 12 weeks in a hotel room, working in a foreign office, and surrounded by hostile co-workers. The only two great things that came out of those trips is that it affirmed the fact that I love to travel, and secondly, I watched some great concerts on PBS (one of the few channels I could receive in my hotel room). Don't get me started on the highlights of traveling back and forth between San Diego and Dallas. All I know, is that after driving 12 hours from San Diego to Anthony, TX, checking into the Best Western in Anthony, TX (mile marker 0) is priceless. I always wished I had more time to travel because there are probably a dozen or more places where I wish I could have turned off the highway.
Anyway, what I learned through all of my travels is that the trip is more likely to be successful if you learn to check your attitude at security and open your mind for the rest of the trip.
I simply have learned not to fret over those things which are beyond my control. I KNOW I cannot control nature's volcanic eruptions any more than I can tell Amtrak how to run a railroad or American how to fly planes. So, I don't worry about it. Thanks to the geniuses who invented instant communications technologies, I can conduct any urgent business (personal and/or corporate) from just about anywhere in the world. Get imaginative if you have something you absolutely have to do.
Once the "fear" of "not being there to do...." is gone, relax, make new friends, and listen to the stories other people have to tell. There's a world of adventure out there, and it becomes ever more enticing when the world is throwing obstacles at you.
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