Maybe your first business trip is still ahead of you. Maybe you’ve reached gold status as frequent flyer, and remember your first business trip well. I remember mine – I guess I was about 18 years old. Meanwhile, I’ve made hundreds of flights and have seen most of Europe’s major airports. No matter if you are a travelling abroad for work on a weekly basis, or if your first ever business trip is still ahead of you, a few suggestions to make your business trips more pleasant might be welcome anyway! I learned it the hard way by trial and error, so I’d be happy to share my experiences with you!

Don’t make it a big deal

I travel a lot for my work and I am extremely grateful for that opportunity. Sometimes people come to me and say: “You’re travelling so much… You must be exhausted!” In fact, I am not. Ok, a rare delay or a speedy trip to the airport, or a bumpy flight are not the most pleasant experiences that travelling has to offer. But I can’t say I am annoyed by it. Especially things you can’t change, such as flight delay or turbulence, are not worth to get stressed about since they are given facts.

Take advantage from it

If you travel on company expenses, you should deliver accordingly. However, no one will blame you for taking the best out of your business trip! There are several ways you can take more out of it. If your schedule allows, go out and visit town or a landmark. Ideally, you could extend your trip with a day or two at your own expenses to get an impression of your destination. It contributes to a better understanding of the country and its people, and that affects your business there too. Another opportunity lies in the free time you have while on planes and trains. I have a ‘golden rule’ for myself: Whenever I fly, I buy a new book. A 1/2-hour flight is enough to get an impression of a book, and a 3-hour flight is enough to read a 120-pager. If you fly somewhere once a month, you have read 24 books, or at least got an impression of them, by the end of the year. It’s also a great opportunity to answer and organize your emails. Once you’ve arrived, find a wifi-spot and send them out!

Prepare well

Preparing your trip well saves a lot of stress. Know where you’re going, know who you’re meeting, clearly set out your goals and know your schedule. Don’t start your journey with a lack of sleep, and avoid alcohol. Follow these simple rules and you’re already half way of making your business trip more pleasant.

Improve the experience

An experience is worth so much more when you actively register it. I can recommend you to keep a diary, to describe what you have seen, learned and experienced on your business trip. A short business trip with a tight schedule can be very overwhelming, and you might forget your impressions quickly. Take photos, videos, and keep your diary, even if you only have the time to write down a few lines or even keywords.

Other ways to improve the experience are checking in online, travelling with hand luggage only, pick a seat between row 1 and 10 on a plane, use speedy boarding possibilities, collect air miles to receive upgrades and lounge access and use iris scan facitilies when possible.

Avoid classical mistakes

There are a few classical mistakes, often made on business trips. Try to avoid them!

• “Let’s save some money and go for a cheap hotel and flight” - Yes, you have to be cost-efficient. But not as far as compromising on your physical well-being and a good night sleep! Your business trip can be so much more effective if you pick the second cheapest option!
• “We have to be at the airport 2,5 hours in advance” – No way! Airlines would like to make sure all passengers are at the gate in time, to avoid delays. They also want to avoid lines at the check-in counter. In case you go to the airport 2,5 hours in advance, you will find yourself bored out of your mind for at least 1,5 hours in 90 percent of the time. Look at the time it takes to get to the airport, take into consideration lines and make a realistic calculation, including some buffer time. 2,5 hours might sometimes be realistic, but certainly not all the time. In Amsterdam, where I live, I usually make sure to be at the airport about 30 minutes before boarding starts.
• “Let’s hit the bar!” – Socializing, yes. Hanging out in the hotel bar until 2:00 in the morning, no. Doing whatever you have to do the next morning won’t be easy with a headache, and certainly not with a hangover!

Most important…

My suggestions are the ones that work for me. You might figure out how to do things in a different way that suits you better. Try to figure out what works best for you, and keep refining! Have a good journey!

Photo by tania64

This blog post is a very personal one. It is my vision, my belief. I am actually writing this blog post from the balcony of my hotel room with ocean view, from where I can hear guitar sounds and singing people on the street as waves hit the shores. Being on holiday made me think about holiday…

In western society, most people only have a couple of weeks a year to enjoy a relaxing holiday, during which they are supposed to recharge physically and emotionally. Disappointment strikes as after a week back in business, the holiday feels like an event long gone. You must have heard the following line, if not from your own mouth: “Uff, back at work just a week and I already feel like I can use another holiday.”

Why is that so? Why is the effect of a holiday so minimal for many people? I gave it a thought, and I think I figured it out: Most people switch off!

You go on holiday, try to think as little as possible about… well, anything. You just try to relax, while keeping your brain clear from thoughts, fully focusing on food and drinks, the beach, the pool side and good-looking people that pass by. You switch of your system, and as soon as you get back to work, you switch it back on… To find yourself in the same state as you were before you shut it down.

I spend my holidays doing the same things as most people do – eating, drinking, sunbathing, swimming, exploring new places… But at the same time, I think. I think a lot! I use my holidays to reflect on my life, to find out what I enjoy and what I’d like to change. I literally look at my daily life from a distance to figure out if I’m still at the right track. I keep notes, scribble down rough ideas that pop up in my mind and organize my thoughts. When I get back and engage in day-to-day routine again, I am not just more energetic because I took a physical rest, I also feel happier, more organized and more focused.

This might work for you as well, or not. All I would like to recommend you is to spend some time consciously thinking about the way you spend your holidays so you can find the most effective way to spend those few precious weeks a year. A more effective holiday can literally change your life forever!

Photo by offnowgirl

YouTube is a great resource featuring millions of videos and comments from as many viewers from around the globe. Over the years, I’ve probably seen hundreds, if not thousands of videos covering a wide range of topics. From politics to self-development, and from videos related to the Eurovision Song Contest (which I have the privilege to work for) to childhood cartoons. In this post, I would like to share with you five videos seen on YouTube that had such a great impact on my life, that I can say without doubt that they actually changed my life and the way I look at things.

Tony Robbins – Why We Do What We Do (TED 2006)
This video was my introduction to Tony Robbins, the world’s greatest and most inspiring coach and speaker alive today. Not only his story is remarkable, he is extremely down-to-earth and energetic. Ever since, Robbins is one of my great examples.

Randy Pausch – The Last Lecture; Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
On September 18, 2007, computer science professor Randy Pausch stepped in front of an audience of 400 people at Carnegie Mellon University to deliver a last lecture. With slides of his CT scans beaming out to the audience, Randy told his audience about the cancer that is devouring his pancreas and that will claim his life in a matter of months. Randy’s lecture has become a phenomenon, as has the book he wrote based on the same principles, celebrating the dreams we all strive to make realities. When I found this video and checked if Pausch was still alive, somewhere over the course of summer 2008, I found out he had just died a few weeks earlier.

The Secret (first 20 minutes trailer)
The Secret reveals the most powerful law in the universe – the law of attraction. Rhonda Byrne’s discovery of The Secret began with a glimpse of the truth through a 100 year old book (The Science Of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles). She went back through centuries, tracing and uncovering a common truth that lay at the core of the most powerful philosophies, teachings and religions in the world. What Rhonda discovered – though not really a secret – is now captured in The Secret, a film that has been viewed by millions around the world. Despite some remarks, it was truly inspiring to me. This is the 20-minute preview to the documentary film that introduced me to it.

Barack Obama – Highlights from the 2004 Democratic National Convention
This video was my first introduction to Barack Obama, when he just announced his run to become President of the United States. I was inspired by his speech, as well as his eloquence and presentation. Ever since, I followed and studied the Obama campaign closely.

Discover Tallinn
This wonderful promotion video of the Estonian capital Tallinn made me decide to move there, after considering it for some time. My then-girlfriend was Estonian and was, work-wise, bound to her geographic location. I was not, and thus decided to move to Tallinn in August of 2007. I moved back to Amsterdam in early 2009, but still consider Tallinn as one of my home cities.

Over the past years, and despite my age – I’m 25 years young now – I had the opportunity to travel a lot and to different countries. In Europe, I’ve had the opportunity to visit nearly every country for at least a couple of days, while I’ve lived in Tallinn, Estonia, for a bit over a year. Recently I’ve also been to the United States and later this year I will go to Dubai for a conference. I’ve noticed myself the impact of traveling, and I can see the impact around me. Several people around me are about to dive into some pretty exciting travel experiences, and with this post I’d like to share some of my experiences with them.

1. You might never get home again. This is a tricky one. I don’t mean that you might not safely return home – there is always a risk, but let’s focus on getting back safely! What I mean with never getting home again is that during your absence, you might come to the conclusion that what you considered to be home has a lot of less pleasant aspects. For self-protection purposes, people often start to devaluate their former home base, while they idealize their new habitat. However, it takes a long time to really feel at home on your new spot – if ever! I experienced this when I lived in Tallinn for a year. Amsterdam became just another city on the map where I happened to have spend some years of my life, while Tallinn didn’t feel completely at home either. At the same time, the people you used to have around continue their lives without you, getting new friends, making small and big changes in their lives and so on. Result: Nothing feels like home as it did before. It did make me feel more European, though.

2. More appreciation. Being away from family, friends and certain commodities makes you to appreciate them more. You might discover and value more that true friendship from people who support you at distance and stay in touch with you despite your physical absence. You might actually start to appreciate the quality, frequency and availability of public transport in your former home town (Amsterdam, in my case). While traveling, you might just end up by yourself, without any comfort zone. No family. No friends. No familiar food on the table. The longer you stay away, the more you will find out about what is truly important to you, and you will start to appreciate it more.

3. Less appreciation. This might sound like a contradiction, but it’s not. While you start to appreciate certain people, places, commodities and yourself more, you will also find out that some things and people you used to care about are just not worth it. I’ll give you a rather funny example. Despite the better quality, higher frequency and broader availability of public transport in the Netherlands compared to Estonia, I was both surprised and upset to find out that free wireless internet is available on all intercity buses and trains in Estonia. For quite some time already, so I was told. Meanwhile (and two years later), in the Netherlands, not a single bus or train has wireless internet on board. Back in the Netherlands, I also missed a sense of national pride like people showed in Estonia. These kind of things made me to appreciate my own country less.

4. Broader perspective. When you lived in one country (or even never traveled abroad) for 10 years, 20 years or even longer, you are very used to the way things are supposed to go, both in the way things are organized in society as well as in human interaction. When you go abroad for a longer period, you quickly find out that certain signs mean different things, that what is polite at home is extremely rude abroad, that what you call friendly in one country, can be intimidating somewhere else. You might see some of your presumptions confirmed, others might fall apart instantly.

5. A trip can change your life completely. Whether it is a short trip you’re heading for, or a longer one, or one that has no fixed end date yet, it can change your life radically. Changing the outside = changing the inside. You might meet someone who is going to change your life, bump into a life-transforming career opportunity, experience things that will forever change the way you think about things. Realizing this, you also have to be aware of the fact that you have a big stake in deciding whether such change will be for the better or for the worse.

Whatever you experience, whether it is positive or negative, always ask yourself: What’s the worst that can happen to me in these circumstances, and what is the best that I can learn and get out of this?

Have a wonderful and, above all, safe journey!

Photo by gundolf