Hello {{ name | there }},
Welcome to this issue of the Modern Compass newsletter. Each issue I take one topic relative to personal development in our daily lives and we go one layer deeper together to find new perspectives that create movement in your life. If someone forwarded this to you, please [subscribe here] so you don’t miss a future issue.
A few weeks backs I sent out a survey to ask you all my subscribers a couple of questions as I’m working through a workshop to better position the value prop and welcome sequence of this newsletter. That survey, is still open and I wholeheartedly welcome more submissions if you can spare the time.
One subscriber, who will remain nameless since the survey is anonymous, answered the question, “What’s an area of your life that may not be working the way you want, and you haven’t quite gotten unstuck in?” with: “Making time for travel.” I thought, I love travel and think I could take a shot digging deeper on this and provide something meaningful.
To start, there are always the obvious constraints (finances, family, physical limitations, and so on) and I have no doubt other more travel focused newsletters have these covered well if one of these is specifically relevant to you.
Additionally, I’m working with limited context on this survey response if time pertains to limited paid time off from work or other time based constraints, like kids, pets, caring for family members, etc, but I’m going to make some assumptions around this.
I’ll start with a quick story on what making time for travel looked like for me in one example. About 6 years ago, I recognized my dad’s continued decline in health and had a feeling that time was limited. How limited, I didn’t know at the time. I recognized though that before my wife, I traveled with my parents often, on cruises mostly. There had been a few years gap between those and I missed that. I got with siblings and we planned a 3 day weekend out at a ranch that we rented on AirBnB and it was a blast. Chilling by the pool, talking, and so on. At the time, my dad just had one leg amputated up to his knee from diabetes, I had my own struggles of being a first time dad to a colicky baby, and our first trip with our first born, so… lot going on with that trip.
That first family trip was in 2020, and we’ve done at least 4+ others since then. Some with sibling(s) and occasionally without siblings if schedules didn’t work out and before my dad passed. Additionally, what started out as being focused on making memories with my dad, morphed into creating opportunities for our kids to connect with both sides of our family in travel so you should expect the reasons for travel to shift as well.
For consistent readers, you’ll note this layer deeper is somewhat of a new format. It’s really not a huge deviation from past issues, it’s really more to align to the purpose of this section. Back to time for travel, I want to touch on 2 key things around making time for travel before a few prompts for you to consider.
Step up to the planner plate: There are those in groups that take ownership of trip planning and those that don’t. If for whatever reason, you don’t have the planner in your group you want to make time for travel and assuming you can financially, you may need to step into the role of the planner. Do things that make it easier on you. For me, and because we don’t always have the luxury to talk through every decision of a trip within a group, I built a family travel planner web app (see below) based on a travel app we really liked that went out of business that helps with all the voting on dates, locations, lodging, etc. Don’t worry, I’m not trying to pitch it here nor am I going to share this one. However, AI can help you become the planner if you need help. Whether that’s creating plans, ideating, or creating apps that help you manage the chaos. Creating apps becomes a little trickier when you need to host them for others to interactive with, so that may be a bigger rabbit hole than you want to get into just FYI.
Sometimes, plan unapologetically: Obviously there is a select group of people you may want to travel with on a given trip, but schedules don’t always work out. Additionally, people go in seasons where they may be down to travel with you one year and not the next. This saying works here just as it does elsewhere. “Don’t let perfect, be the enemy of good”. Enjoy the trip for those who want to participate and don’t fret over the friction.
Additionally, it’s worthwhile to think beyond the pictures or simple pleasures of relaxing, to what you would like to get out of the travel. I would suggest thinking through it from the Modern Compass framework at a high level and think through a few of the below prompts that resonate for you.
Self
Could this travel help connect me to self worth
Do I stand to gain evidence that helps create confidence from this travel
Trust
Could this travel help connect me to instilling trust in broader scale of humanity
Help develop or test trust with a particular person before a larger decision
Relationships
Creating an opportunity to expand your network
Is there a relationship you want to build or nurture
Character
Travel to see contrast from your world
Travel that inspires integrity or appreciation
Additionally, I asked my LinkedIn network this question and while there weren’t a ton of responses, relationships was the front runner there.
For me, most of my travel these days if I had to boil it down is often rooted in relationships and character. Relationships is the easy one, but take my recent Grand Canyon trip in July for example. When I go to a place, I develop an appreciation for the contrast in comparison to where I live, but also the history of the place. That appreciation, even if at a micro level, can influence how I move throughout the world and display my character.
That is how you can look a layer deeper on making time for travel.
Sharing is Caring
If you have a travel story you’d like to tell and potentially be shared on the next issue, or reading this gave you an idea for a good topic to cover next, hit reply to this email and let me know.
Modern Compass Book Updates
Well I am yet again behind on my editing schedule…story of my life on editing. Last month’s issue I laid out a clear week-by-week plan with whiteboard pic as proof for accountability and I have an editor scheduled for copy editing on Dec 1st. That went by the wayside, but I’m not going to beat myself up about it.
In a 2 week span, I’ve dealt with car buying and car selling (for my mom), a scammer, rental property issues, and 3yr old with fever filled nights last week. I joined and wrapping up a 4 week newsletter program (really enjoyed this but did detour my efforts some), and then came time to write this issue before getting back to it. Life happens, and duty called elsewhere. I’ve got today (Friday) off leading into my bday weekend (turning 45) and I’ll be hitting the editing hard today to try and make up for lost time.
-Josh Imholte
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