My Life as a Million Miler

I’m sitting in LAX airport and preparing to board my flight to Bali where I will be speaking for 4 days. With 2 days of flight time each way I’ll be gone from my family for 8 days. Not a complaint. Just a reality. Talk to anyone who travels and they’ve heard this statement a thousand times, “You are so lucky! You get to travel all over the world and see the most amazing places!”. When in reality, most of the time what we see are airports, the person’s head in the plane seat before us, and the room service menu at the hotel. Not nearly as glamorous as people may think.

Traveling the world is an amazing perk to the business, but for me, the greatest benefit with this perk is what it does to my perspective on life. If I didn’t travel the world, as the majority of Americans never do, I wouldn’t be able to appreciate how great I really have it in America.

Want a new perspective on your problems? Try watching people bathe their babies in gutter water alongside the road. Try spending time with people in Africa who use cut out motorcycle tires for shoes. Take a drive with your friend in London who shows you where she used to live when the IRA blew up a bridge and every window in her appartment shattered into a million pieces like an action movie. Try sleeping in a bed where you have to tie a shirt over your face to keep the insects from biting you as you sleep. Try spending time in the Middle East with some locals 2 weeks after a terrorist attack on their soil only to discover that the propeganda your country reports about it’s dangers are unfounded and in fact, discover that the people in the Middle East are some of the most friendly and warm-hearted people on earth. Do that and you’ll discover benefits to traveling that they never share in a brochure.

Want a new perspective in life? Change your address and explore this big blue marble called earth.