Ep 166: Adventures Back Out in the World

I have had a couple of weeks off from my podcast after I finished my, “Tina's Travel is Back Tour”. I got back last weekend from five weeks away after going on the most epic trip; I think when I realised travel was back, I got a little carried away in planning and just kept adding additional destinations because it’s been such a long time since I travelled. I went to LA, then Palm Springs, Sedona, Costa Rica, Miami, Cabo Mexico, Orange County and then finished off in Fiji. Like I said, just epic.

I launched while I was travelling, I ran a retreat, I was a participant in another retreat and I caught up with so many people. Those of you trepidatious about travelling again may be wondering and asking how?… why? I can't even tell you the number of messages I got while I was away asking how I could leave my family and team and how I keep the business running, but the reason I run my own business is to enjoy such freedom and flexibility. In the absence of that for two years, I’ve been getting itchy feet…really itchy feet, and it felt so good to remember why I work so hard. To remember the beautiful life that I get to live as a result of my business. It felt wonderful to be back out living the Laptop Life.

So when you’re away for five weeks there’s a huge amount of preparation involved, in terms of business, family and home. There's so much that goes into being on the road. On top of that, I had to be prepared for Covid to strike me down at any point. As I travelled, I had half a suitcase filled with medication to look after myself if I got it. I had prepared so many things, particularly for the launch, so if I did contract Covid, everything was pre-written and pre-done. I had fallback plans for things in case I couldn't perform. The only thing I wasn’t prepared for was how hard it would be to leave.

Even as a pretty conditioned traveller, leaving my family was hard. If you've been following me for a long time, you know that I travel a lot, so I’m used to, and my kids are used to, me being away, but I’ve not been away from my family for two years. I often have Mums ask me how I can leave my kids, particularly when they were young. It’s always been hard but the thing that I have learned is…I love travel. I'm super unapologetic about that. I love to have space. I love the creativity. I love letting my imagination run wild. I love being exposed to different cultures and languages and ideas and bigger picture thinking, and that just doesn't happen everyday in the four walls of my office. Sitting at my desk is just routine for me, it helps me function well and be productive, but it doesn't bring my highest self. It doesn’t get all of those ideas percolating and overflowing and encourage that fountain of energy that I get when I travel. So I really, really know that I need that. Just because you travel doesn't mean you don't love your family. I don't believe in the martyrdom of going, well, I have a family so I have to stay home and I can never go and chase my dreams. You can do both at one time.

My boys are now 12 and 14. We spoke every single day while I was away and they were like, “Yeah Mum, go set the world on fire. Go have fun. I’m off to the surf, see-ya”. They were totally fine and I was kind of like, oh, that whole era of them really missing me has now ended. When I came home they said the house was so empty without me and they were happy to have me back, but it's an interesting balance that leaving was much harder for me than it was for them. The upside of that is, I can travel a lot more now. So that's okay.

I feel nothing but lucky that I actually got to go on my epic trip. My retreat, which was held in Palm Springs, was originally scheduled for March 2020. Back then I was in the US two days before the retreat was due to commence when I got notification to get on a plane, turn around and come back home. I have been waiting ever since that moment to make it up to attending members and run that retreat again. When we rescheduled it, of course, there was part of me going, “Gosh, is this going to come off?” I worked on the theory I'm going to proceed as if everything is going to be okay, and then at the moment things aren’t okay, I'll implement my contingency plan. Until then, full steam ahead.

I love Palm Springs…Palm Springs could be my spirit animal. I know a lot of people seem to find it really hard to take space for themselves but after being there for about 48 hours, by myself, taking in the experience and looking up to see the clouds, my thoughts ran wild. With no interruptions and I felt like I could disappear from the world a little bit. I could just feel a world of possibilities open back up again. My mind was just racing as I was walking down the street…I haven't thought like that in a long time. That’s why I love travel, because oh my gosh, I jump way out of the box and I let my mind go crazy.

I ran the Palm Springs retreat in this incredibly bougie house. It was a dream of mine to have that beautiful space… a space for people to come and think differently, and envisage a world of possibilities as they were getting so loved up and spoiled. There were only 12 participants, and we had world class speakers and a private chef for all in-house catering. We went out to a sound bath and had dinner at a honky-tonk bar, and members enjoyed hot seat sessions and mini photo shoots. It was a huge success and I'm so incredibly grateful that we got to show up first of all, in addition to witnessing the emotions and growth that often comes from such small, exclusive retreats.

I had such adventures on my epic trip. I hope after you listen to my podcast (episode #166) you’re inspired to take massive action yourself. That is my goal and my wish for you. It is a big, beautiful world that we live in and it's back. We now get to go out in it. We get to expand our minds and we get to have different experiences. This whole life is for living and going, “How can we have a more enriched experience? How can we deliver more value to the world and experience joy while we're doing it?” So get out there, have the best time and take what you need. If you need something to perform well in business, in life, go do it. Show up fully as you and really embrace that.