Sometimes Traveling for Work SUCKS!

I just got home from a 2 day trip to the Bay Area. The weather was beautiful, and I got to spend time in Santa Cruz, which I had never done before. But that is where the good times end and the sucky part begins.

When I travel for work it is anything but a picnic. I pack in as many meetings as time will allow so that I maximize my time away. We usually start at 7am and have meetings with clients or prospective clients till 5 and then I have dinner with my reps...which really is another way of saying, MORE MEETINGS! By the time the day is finished it's nearly 9pm and I'm tired.

Having a day that filled certainly makes the time go by fast; which is one of the reasons I pack my days so full. But there is a real downside to days like I outlined. Because we start so early I don't have time to get a good work out in early, and by the time I get home I'm too tired to get a good work out in later. So what usually happens is I do some token push ups and situps and give up. I did better than that on this trip, but only slightly better.

It helps that I'm comitted to this journey; I was able to push my self a bit harder than normal. I did my obligatory push ups and sit ups (enough to break a sweat and have a sore stomach,) and then I ran the stairs outside my hotel room. After the second time up I thought that they had lenthened the rise of the stairs. They seemed so much longer and taller than I remembered them the first time. I thought I'd never reach the top again. I ended up doing 5 sets of the stairs and decided that I'd had enough of that fun, and went back to my room.

I sat on my bed contemplating my navel and thought how much easier it was to get my work outs in when I'm at home and how much more I disliked working out while traveling. My whole routine gets screwed up when I travel. As I sat there complaining to myself about how much it sucked, I kept thinking..."But you travel for a living." That certainly creates a conundrum. I had two choices...1. stop traveling so I can focus on my work outs, or 2. change my attitude and learn to get good solid work outs in while on the road. Being a step above an idiot enabled me to quickly recognize that Number 1 was not going to work, so I'd better focus on Number 2. (No, we're not talking about poopy, people.) So, I'm working on my attitude because I have LOTS more trips over the next 3-4 weeks and I have goals to reach for this journey.

Although my main thoughts centered around my work outs and traveling it made me realize that this lesson can be applied to many areas of our lives. We don't always get to stay in our comfy routine. Sometimes we have to adapt and get creative, or fight through the changes and keep focused on our prize. Work through the challenges and when we come out on the other side it will be that much more sweet.