Travel - Is it From a Positive or Negative Emotion?

It is a few days short of 5 months since I removed myself from the rigours of daily Corporate Life filled with Finance, Investment, Funds and Egos, plus some excellent people too.

I probably enjoyed 60% of what I was doing and happily tolerated another 10%.

I did not enjoy the petty politics, fragile egos free of substance, pretence of care and meetings without purpose. I did not enjoy integrity and honesty practiced without conviction, messages of convenience or working with Leadership colleagues who operated in subservience at the expense of honesty and ethical conviction.

On the whole though, I have worked with many excellent and professional colleagues.

I will shortly embark on my 4^th travel adventure of these five months and it has occurred to me just how different travelling is now I am out of the day to day clutter of the Corporate World.

Prior to my European departure back in September, I wrote about the difference having a less stressful life made by way of having proper time to pack and consider what was needed.

But it is much more than that.

I have realised I now look forward to travel opportunities more so than ever. I get to  better plan my travel and already have three trips organised for next year and only this week said no to an opportunity to go to London in April.

I was contemplating today just what it is that makes travel feel so much better now and more looked forward too.

I have come to realise travel now comes from a purely positive perspective.

I now look forward to going to my destination or destinations. I look forward to the experience of the journey as well. I look forward to what I will discover and learn and what I will see, hear and smell. I am also more open to who I will meet and the conversations I will have.

My focus is wholly on travelling too somewhere; it is a positive emotion.

My realisation is that previously, it was more about travelling away from something. It was about escape and recharging. It was about re-energising in order to come back and do it all again, and again.

In other words, the emotional driver was a negative one.

My self-promise is, if I return to a more structured or more formal work life, I will maintain a positive travel perspective. Further, I will encourage, coach and mentor others to do the same.

I do hope my flights are on time.