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I love fresh starts and I cannot lie.

Paul has been on the road awhile and he has the weight to prove it.

He’s not big on New Years Resolutions with his only New Years Resolution this year is to not have any resolutions!

But he would like to make some changes as a business traveler and leverage the new year as a catalyst.

Things aren’t bad per se, but they definitely could use a lot of improvement.

 

Paul is typically ahead of the pack in many ways and when he feels bad about himself, he sadly resorts to comparing himself to others which allows him to feel better about himself.

But that’s not who he is most of the time.

Paul wants to get better not just get by and make the necessary changes leveraging the road to do it this upcoming year.

He has what it takes but needs to get momentum and focus on his side.

Paul’s story is like many that come to me asking for a better way.

And it all comes down to two primary words: ROAD HABITS.

 

These road habits encompass Three Focus Areas:

 

 

Too often, we struggle or even lose our health and our home life for the sake of work. You know, that job that never turns off and always demands more and more of you especially on the road?

Paul knows he can improve his work life but also knows if he improved his health and home life, his work would immediately improve as well.

As Paul and I unpacked this conversation, we found his biggest struggle was his mindset of his road life. He viewed the road for all that he couldn’t do:

• It’s a challenge to eat healthy on the road
• It’s hard to sleep in a hotel
• I don’t have time to get in a good workout or a workout at all for that matter when I travel
• I check in with the fam back home when I can but things get busy

… and on and on and on.

If you were to join my conversation with Paul, this is what you would hear…

 

Six Habits to Leverage a New Year as a Road Warrior

The first thing I told Paul was to view the road differently. Instead of what he can’t do, look for what the road will enable you to do then leverage it.

In other words, change his mindset of the road.

For example, his family doesn’t travel with him so he has his early mornings all to himself.

Paul creates his own travel schedule and does have some flexibility in when and how he travels, when and how he works.

Then we turned the corner to how to view certain habits, energy habits, through the lenses of not only work but also health and home life, the three focus areas of Elite Road Warrior.

The first three are physical energy habits:

Habit One – MOVE

 

Most of the time, the road does the moving for us. We’re just always sitting: to the airport, at the gate, on a plane, in a car, in a meeting, at a restaurant, then laying on a bed after a long day mindlessly surfing the tv or a device.

Most road warriors could make one simple change this new year and it would be to move more on the road.

But how?

 

Move leverages the Increase M4X Formula:

• Stand More – think up on my feet not down on my butt
• Walk More – think forward not still
• Run More – think cardio and getting your heart rate up
• Lift More – think strength training by using bodyweight, dumbbells, and resistance bands

Stand More – at the gate, on the plane, in a meeting, create a stand-up desk in the lobby, etc.

Walk More – take the stairs not the elevator, walk up the escalator, choose a higher floor at your hotel and take the stairs, park further in the parking lot, take a phone call on a walk.

Run More – actually use the treadmill or elliptical in the fitness center, try burpees in your hotel room, take an outside walk and turn it into a sprint for 30 seconds.

Lift More – actually use the dumbbells in the fitness center, do pushups and leg squats, bring resistance bands with you.

Key Concept: Movement Creates Energy

Challenge – choose one of the four Increase M4X this next month to focus on and master it for all its worth.

Do you need to stand more? Walk more? Run more? Lift more?

What would be the easiest for you to implement to get some quick wins?

What would challenge and push you to start the year with the energy habit of MOVE?

Resource – podcast episode #018 – How to Workout in a Hotel Room / #028 – MOVE and Posture with Dr. Keith Giaquinto

 

Habit Two – FUEL

One of the joys of the road is the amazing food and drink always at our fingertips.

I’ve eaten meals most people would die for. I’ve had a variety of foods that make your mouth water from local specialties to international cuisine. Kansas City barbecue, Seattle fish to Paella (pie-ay-a) in Spain.

There’s the Freshman 15 then the Travel 20.

But being the recovering over-achiever I earned the Entitled 40.

Aka: Heavyweight champion of the… road.

My food choices were as follows:

The easiest choice
The quickest choice
The tastiest choice
The largest choice

As a result, the weight gain and hating how I looked in the hotel room mirror – that guy followed me all over the country and showed up in every single hotel room mirror.

Something had to change.

Fuel encompasses the MTHC Formula: (Make the Healthiest Choice)

• Continually Hydrate – adding more water into my road day
• Clean & Green – cleaner foods and more greens with each meal
• Carry a Controlled Substance – having healthy snacks always available

Continually Hydrate – drinking water 1st thing in the morning, drink more water throughout the day especially on a flight, adding 1 glass of water with every alcoholic drink – I even developed and now use the Elite Road Warrior branded water bottle on the road

Clean & Green – less ingredients, less sugar, cleaner meats, more greens in your meals

Carry a Controlled Substance – having healthy snack options available to you at all times to always MTHC – I chose to bring an actual snack bag with me

Key Concept: Food is Fuel and Fuel is Energy

Challenge – choose one of the three in the MTHC Formula to focus on this new year

Do you need to add more water to your day? Could you eat more clean and green? Can you start carrying healthy snack options with you?

What would be the easiest for you to implement to get some quick wins?

What would challenge and push you to start the year with the energy habit of FUEL?

Resource – podcast episode #043 – Five Decisions You Must Make at Every Restaurant on the Road / #037 – Why You Must Carry a Lunch Box to Work on the Road

 

Habit Three – REST

If there was one habit that I neglected the most for the longest time, it was rest. Who has time to sleep on the road?

Sleep was completely optional to me.

I didn’t like it and felt it was a waste of time.

It just didn’t matter to me.

 

I was the guy who:

• Had dinner with my laptop lover then took her up for a nightcap
• Had every possible light and screen on
• Went to bed way too late binge-watching and falling asleep with the TV on
• Woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and felt like I had swallowed a dozen cotton balls
• Woke up feeling sharp as a bowling ball
• Never took a break and came home absolutely exhausted useless to my family and work

The Problem: I viewed rest as the enemy not as my biggest performance enhancer on the road

Rest encompasses the Strategic Resting Formula:

• Sleep – Improve Than Increase
• Breaks – Move the Body, Rest the Mind
• Downtime – Time to Be, NOT to Be On

Sleep – having a bedtime ritual and a set bedtime, keeping your room cool, completely dark, using blue-blocker glasses, Bose sleep buds, Dep Sleepwear, bedtime meditations all to improve my sleep before ever even increasing my sleep

Breaks – taking micro-breaks that lasts seconds, mini-breaks that last a couple of minutes, macro breaks that take 15-30 minutes all with the goal of stretching, going for a walk, getting some water, going to the bathroom, meditating, anything to move the body and rest the mind

Downtime – finding your Road Thing that brings you energy whether going to a ballgame, being a tourist in the city, going to BN or a coffee shop just to read, etc.

Key Concept: Rest Creates Energy

Challenge – choose one of the three in the Strategic Resting Formula to focus on this new year

Do you need to have a clearer bedtime and evening routine? Do you start taking a break to move the body and rest the mind? Do you need to find your Road Thing to have some time just to be and not be on so you can ultimately be more productive?

What would be the easiest for you to implement to get some quick wins?

What would challenge and push you to start the year with the energy habit of REST?

Resource – podcast episode #035 – Why I Have a Sleep Kit and What Goes in It on the Road / #037 – Six Ways to Take an Energy-Giving Break on the Road

 

Now, we’ll focus on the three mental energy habits:

 

Habit Four – PERFORM

This is why you’re on the road – to perform. I truly believe most of us want to perform at a high level on the road.

But here’s the problem: we’re not willing to pay the price to perform at a high level.

We’re just so used to doing business as usual on the road and just getting by.

Or we compare ourselves to others and doing better than the other guy or girl but not our personal best. This was Paul’s go-to-move.

 

The key is being intentional so we can perform at an elite level.

Perform encompasses the Intentional Performance Formula:

• Road Plan – is planning your day on paper, every part, and even finding the potential margins that may arise and what to do with them when they do appear
• Block & Tackle – is focusing on one task for a set period of time
• Energy Pacing – is knowing why and when your energy is low then how to pair tasks according to your energy

Road Plan – using a resource like the Full Focus Planner to think through your Big 3 of the Day, when you’ll have the gift or margins and an exact plan how to use that time

Block & Tackle – once you have a Time Block to work, spending, for example, 25 minutes to ONLY email and knowing which emails hold the most weight then attack them. Do the same concept for phone calls, CRM, proposals or quotes, etc.

Energy Pacing – actually look at your energy highs and lows through the day. When do they come? Do you need a break? Food? Movement? Change and work on a low energy task due to low energy? This change makes a huge difference for your performance on the road

Key Concept: High Performance Requires Intentionality

Challenge – choose one of the three in the Intentional Performance Formula

Do you need to create a road plan? Do you need two be more intentional with the margins that appear within your day? Do you need to focus on one task for a set period of time? Do you know to pay more attention to your energy so you can know how to pair your tasks accordingly?

What would be the easiest for you to implement to get some quick wins?

What would challenge and push you to start the year with the energy habit of PERFORM?

Resource – podcast episode #022 – How to be Productive in the Margins on the Road / #009 – One Change Every Business Traveler Must Make on the 1st Day of Every Trip

 

Habit Five – DEVELOP

If there is one habit that is often completely neglected on the road it would be professional and personal development.

How could there possibly be time to do anything but work especially time to read or learn?

But once we learn the margins of the road and become intentional about development, you’ll find more than enough time on any business trip to implement this critical energy habit to become an elite road warrior.

 

Develop encompasses the Invest in You Formula:

• Sharpen the Mind – putting content in
• Process the Thoughts – getting content out
• Monitor the Heart – finding out how you’re REALLY doing

Sharpen the Mind – reading books, articles, or podcast with the intent to learn – possibly leverage the moment you find your seat on a plane until you reach 10K feet

Process the Thoughts – putting your thoughts on paper called Think Space into one central location

Monitor the Heart – taking time even 5-15 minutes to ask key questions to make sure your priorities and your heart are in the right place

Key Concept: Learning is Selfish and Something Only YOU Can Do

Challenge – Choose one of the three in the Invest in You Formula

Do you need to find a book to focus and read (like the Elite Road Warrior book for example)? Do you need to get a journal to write down your thoughts for Think Space and to Monitor the Heart?

I highly recommend the Elite Road Warrior Journal – black leather branded journal with two inserts, one to process the thoughts in the Think Space Journal side and one to monitor the heart in the Road Life Journal side. You can order the Elite Road Warrior Journal at www.EliteRoadWarrior.com .

What would be the easiest for you to implement to get some quick wins?
What would challenge and push you to start the year with the energy habit of DEVELOP?

Resource – podcast episode #041 – Eight Questions I Answer Every Morning on the Road / #040 – Why Personal Development is Important on the Road with Scott Mawdesley

 

Habit Six – CONNECT

For the longest time, my connect time with my family and friends back home was very narcissistic, meaning it revolved only around my schedule when it was best for me.

I rarely considered my family’s dinner time, homework time, sports practice, piano lessons, bedtime, just what worked for me.

I was busy os it was okay, right?

 

It consisted of only the following:

Text
Phone call
Video chat
Now, there’s nothing wrong with these three.

But it’s what I call the bare minimums to connect with those we love back home.

Nothing special and reactive.

Connect encompasses the Protect Connect Formula:

• Connect Intentionally – on purpose
• Connect Thoughtfully – reflective
• Connect Creatively – memorable

Connect Intentionally – thinking outside of the reactive text, call or video chat and choosing a time and method to connect on purpose.

Connect Thoughtfully – pre-writing messages to send to people that will really mean something to them when they read the text, recording audio or video for your family to listen or watch over and over, leveraging the Not Forgotten Journal by taking two minutes to write down a memory, encouragement, challenge, speaking words of life into your significant other.

Connect Creatively – sending postcards to your kids from the city you’re in, leaving or sending Connect Cards for your kids to open, creating Flat Kiddos to take pictures of your locations such as your rental car, hotel, people you meet so your kids feel part of your trip, creating a map of the country and draw out where you’ll be on what days so your family knows where you are, having your kids do some research on your location for the trip .

Key Concept: Become a Connect-In Guy or a Connect-In Girl on the road

Challenge – Choose one of the three in the Protect Connect Formula

Do you need to become more intentional about how you connect with those you love back home? Do you need to schedule Think Space time to write meaningful words to others? How can you leverage the creative ideas suggested to begin to implement immediately?

You can order the Not Forgotten Journal, Connect Cards, and Flat Kiddos at www.EliteRoadWarrior.com

What would be the easiest for you to implement to get some quick wins?
What would challenge and push you to start the year with the energy habit of CONNECT?

Resource – podcast episode #029 – How I Shocked My Wife with the Not Forgotten Journal / #013 – Three Mindset Shifts to Stay Connected With Those Back Home

 

Let’s Land This Plane

Back to Paul’s story at the beginning of the episode… He wants to leverage the new year to make some changes not only in his work but also his health, and his home life.

These six energy habits are the basis of the Elite Road Warrior book and philosophy to master the business travel life.

I challenge, double-dog road warrior style dare you to choose one of the six habits and leverage the energy habit for all its worth to become an elite road warrior.

If you’re interested in listening to this article, check out Episode 051 of the Elite Road Warrior Podcast.

I’m a road warrior. My father was a road warrior. I’ve done travel horribly at times. I’ve killed it (and me) on the road, and I have the story to prove it.

 

THE BACK STORY

As a kid growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, lots of my friends thought I was lucky to be a Buckley. On the outside, it looked pretty good – my dad was a prominent figure in the community as well as an avid business traveler, and our family was well known as “hard workers,” a value my dad had pounded into me since I was old enough to do my first chores.

This hard work had its payoffs – I learned the art of public speaking at a very early age and I could play the piano well enough to perform in front of hundreds and even thousands of people. What people didn’t know was the huge weight this (being a Buckley) was to carry everywhere I went. It was a perk that came with a ton of responsibility.

Until I left for college, this was normal life for me – I knew much of our position was due to the fact we were hard workers, and we were willing to make the sacrifices in order to achieve – consistently.

But in early August 1988, everything changed when my parents dropped me off in Lynchburg, Virginia, at Liberty University. The name of the university was fitting because absolutely no one knew who I was or what it meant to be a “Buckley,” which was challenging and liberating at the same time.

This was a defining moment: for the first time in my life, I was free to choose my path. That sense of freedom ignited a drive in me to achieve my own results on my own terms, and this helped to shape the rest of my life.

The two most important lessons I learned in college were to build relationships to connect with people and to work not just hard, but smart. I watched, asked questions, and learned how to navigate from high achievers and top performers. This paid off – I was elected junior class president and student body vice president my senior year.

DRIVING HARD

This success carried on through my 20s and 30s. I was learning how to maximize my time and outperform most people. My friends saw me as someone who viewed sleep as optional and a necessary evil. I worked out but also ate whatever I wanted. I ate fast, walked fast, talked fast, and even drove fast. Just get it done at all costs was my life theme.

I started traveling at this early time in my life. I would travel for research. I would travel to speak all over the country. I didn’t have a care in the world, as most in their 20s have a feeling of invincibility. The late nights, bad food, and lack of proper rest were difficult for “everyone else” who didn’t have my drive and energy level.

When I worked from my personal strengths, I felt the only thing that could stop me was not having enough time. I pushed so hard. My desire to show others I could make it on my own led me to take on almost any and every challenge that came my way, which soon would prove to have disastrous effects on my life.

SOMETHING IS WRONG

Decades later, my lifestyle was that of a professional business traveler. I was eating the best of the king’s food and drinking the best of the king’s wine, but in February of 2011, my body started kicking back with some unusual symptoms.

On my 40th birthday, my wife gave me the gift of a one-way ticket to the doctor for a full panel of tests. (She’s generous like that.)

Not knowing what to do with me, they ran extensive tests. The good news was they couldn’t find anything wrong. The bad news was they couldn’t find anything wrong.

But I knew in my heart that something was definitely wrong … and then I willingly chose to ignore that feeling. I had too much to do and not enough time to do it in, so I went back to business (travel, that is) as usual. I hit the road harder, and my early inner warning signal was quickly ignored. I showed them. Like so many other business travelers, I lived by this quote:

IF YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING, YOU’LL FIND A WAY. IF YOU DON’T, YOU’LL FIND AN EXCUSE. -JIM ROHN

If you’re like me and willing to justify avoiding something you really don’t want to do, then you’ll understand what I did next. The truth was I didn’t want to stop and rest. My identity was in my drive and in producing results. If I stopped, I thought I would lose ground and ultimately lose.

I hate losing.

I pushed even harder, traveling an insane number of miles for business. I increased my pace and responsibility. I lived in the moment and was willing to sacrifice everything—including my health and family.

THE COST OF THE RESULTS

Then it happened.

I hit the wall, and this time it hit back, and I didn’t get up quickly. In March of 2015, my business travel life finally began to catch up with me. All my Energizer Bunny energy was gone.

Everything that came naturally to me began to take more energy, and I began to crash— and crash hard. It didn’t happen all of a sudden, but my pace (which was one of my marks of success) and my stress levels were ultimately the cause of my demise.

I found myself unable to get up in the morning like I always had; the hours before everyone arose were “my time,” and I had never missed using them. I started sleeping as much as I could on the road. My breathing was off. My face was constantly flushed. I would get body aches that felt like the flu … without the flu. Headaches led to migraines. My mind would shut down to the point I couldn’t concentrate or even read. It was brutal on my pride and on me.

And I wasn’t the only one affected.

My wife got more than her fill of this madness. She already felt like a single mother when I was away, and now I was completely useless to her when I was home—I was one more person she had to take care of. C’mon, Buckley.

Those were dark days in our home filled with confusion, resentment, and hopelessness. The hard-driving me was becoming a thing of the past. But how? I was only 45 years old! Although I still felt like I was getting more done than most people, it was not at my pace or at my energy level.

I went back to the doctor, this time with a completely different attitude: one of humility and openness. Over the next few weeks, I underwent extensive medical tests that were exhausting, stressful, and expensive. But I needed to know and understand what was going on in my body.

This time, the doctors knew something was wrong, but they just weren’t sure what to do next. I was encouraged to learn that nothing major was wrong since my family tree included a legacy of heart disease and cancer. I was relieved, yet still tired most of the time and unable to run races, work out, and push it like I always had any time I’d wanted to in the past.

I was officially concerned and worried. I knew I had so much more in me … but not the energy to produce the results I wanted, and especially not in the acceptable (to me) turnaround time I was used to.

I’d hit a wall and needed a new fuel. I’d been using cheap gas and not doing the maintenance needed on a high-performance car. I was treating my Ferrari like a cheap, beat-up old Camry work car. Repair work had consisted of “do the minimum and get me back on the road.” I needed to quickly learn how to maintain this gift of a car for the long haul.

Years and then decades of doing it “my way” had wrecked my body. Pushing this hard without really taking care of my body had finally caught up to me. The cost of getting the results “my way” was forcing me to pay a price I didn’t want to pay … and oh, I would pay for a long time.

Everything was going to have to change. I needed to do things differently. My health and family literally depended on it.

THE DIAGNOSIS

Over the next few months, I was diagnosed with HPA Axis Dysfunction. Translation: I was running my body into the ground. My stress and pace had damaged my nervous and endocrine systems, which produced my energy. Something had to change, or it would literally shut down my body.

To be honest, this really scared me. I was the sole financial provider for my family. I was literally forced to change. I also didn’t have all the answers, but I knew it would not be a quick fix (if fixable at all). This was not the place I wanted to be in, but my focus was now on getting myself healthy.

Everyone who knew me or met me was completely shocked that I had “energy issues” because I was still so active and intense. But now, my energy was a commodity that needed to be spent on the things that really matter.

I actually view this diagnosis as a rare gift. It forced me to get focused on how to manage and increase my energy so I could maximize my results both on the road and at home.

UNDER THE HOOD

Once I was grounded (literally), I was forced to begin asking deeper questions, the answers to which were very revealing to me. Those close to me were ready to confront me in a loving way to lead me to the truth about myself.

There was this underlying stress to always perform, to always be at my best, and to “be on.” There were all these expectations that I ultimately realized were self-imposed. Others saw my results or my on-stage persona, not the off-stage toll it was taking on me.

Why did I feel the need to push all the time? What had once been my secret sauce had become my poison.

I asked myself, “What do I actually do when I rest? I’m always doing something. I don’t know how to be still or just be with others. This is not right.” I felt lonely, empty, drained, discouraged, confused, paralyzed, and humbled. And I wasn’t even in touch with my feelings!

I didn’t hear of high performers on the road getting sleep, taking breaks, and having downtime. I didn’t know how to refuel myself with all I was asking and taking from myself. I deeply lacked true rest, the very thing that would heal my body, mind, and soul.

Finally, I began to really look at myself as I was, not as I thought I had to be. Yes, there were expectations, but who had set them? I realized I had let others set my expectations for myself, and it was exhausting.

RESTED, REFUELED, AND RE-ENGAGED ON THE ROAD

Slowly, every part of me was beginning to heal. I was on a strict rest and supplement protocol that was brutal yet necessary. Through non-traditional medicine and a holistic practitioner named Treva Thompson of Living Tree Health and Wellness, I began to see hope, and my body literally regained life and energy.

Ironically, my character was deepened along with my faith during this journey, which is still ongoing, and the key has been self-awareness. I’ve learned to really listen to my body. What does it need right now? For a driven, high performer, this is a DRASTIC change of operation for me. But it’s necessary and it has literally saved and changed my life.

There are many of you road warriors out there who are like me. Some part of my story is your story. You’re somewhere along my journey. My hope is you find enlightenment, encouragement, and hope in knowing there is someone else out there like you.

I get you. I am you, road warrior.

I’m back on the road and now live a completely different road lifestyle. I no longer view a trip as a vacation but as my vocation. I’m the “one of these guys is not like the other” when traveling. And I love it. There are enough of those guys out there and I’m on a mission to challenge and inspire more to stop going off-road on the road.

As a result, the Six Energy Habits of The Elite Road Warrior came to life literally to save my road life and put me back at my best in a way that is sustainable and life-giving not draining.

I’ve learned the hard way how to leverage the road to transform my work, my health, and my home life while on business travel.

I’m thankful I did not completely lose my health and my family driving so hard for so long on the road and was allowed to not only recover but also help other road warriors along the way.

Disclaimer: This content is directly taken from the book, Elite Road Warrior: Six Energy Habits to Master the Business Travel Life. Used by permission.