Kimanzi Constable's Blog, page 60

The Best Way To Procrastinate

Note from me: I will be away all week speaking at The Hawaii Social Media Summit. My friend Dan Black has graciously agreed to moderate my comments.

Chances are you’re reading this post because of the title, so I have to tell you upfront that I might have fooled you. The best way to procrastinate is to NOT procrastinate at all, sorry for the trickery

Three years ago I was all fired up when I determined I wanted more for my life and I was going to chase my dreams. For a two-week period I told everybody who would listen that I was moving forward, I was going to change my life.

After those two-weeks my zeal started to fade and I kept coming up with excuse after excuse why I couldn’t chase my dreams. I procrastinated in a major way, it was two more years of procrastinating before I finally took REAL action.

It just seemed easier for me to have the dream alive in my head but to actually take action just seemed like too much! Every time I told myself I wanted to do something, I told myself I could do it later.

Have you ever procrastinated?

We all have at one point or another, taking action and making changes can seem scary, even impossible. I hope you by now you see from my story that it IS possible.

Losing time you can’t get back

The biggest problem with procrastinating is wasting the valuable time we’ll never get back, time that could be spent changing the world. We hear it so much that it just doesn’t register, life is short, too short to waste any of it!

If you are reading this post and read this blog at all, then I hope you’re part of the team and movement of people who WILL radically change this world for good. We’ll never get there, we won’t make any kind of impact if we put it off until tomorrow.

The key to beating procrastination

You want to know the secret to beat procrastination? Taking small steps.

In our mind we want what we want RIGHT NOW, who wants to wait right? So when we can’t accomplish something right away, we tend to put it off until “later” or “tomorrow” or to be honest, never.

Instead of trying to do a task or accomplish a goal in one day, take just one small step at a time. If you want to lose weight (like me) then join a gym, take a walk, buy new workout shoes, you get the point.

If you want to start a business, do the research, talk to friends about promoting, start saving money. Taking small steps may take longer but will help you avoid getting overwhelmed and procrastinating.

One step at a time, turns into a mile

If you see the value in taking small steps you need to keep taking them. You start out as a step and if you keep moving you look back and realized you’ve made real progress.

You’ll be amazed by what you can accomplish and how many lives you can impact if you keep taking small steps. You will keep moving forward and before you know it your dreams will become a reality.

I want to challenge you this week to take small steps and avoid procrastination. If you are successful, please come back and share your success!

How do you avoid procrastinating in your life?

Cutting Out The Negative

Is there anything negative in your life right now that’s holding you back?

So think about it and be honest with yourself, is there anything negative in your life right now that needs to go? I know from personal experience that this can be hard but necessary for true success!

What’s one negative thing that you could cut out of your life that would help your progress?

P.S. Make sure to check out the new coaching program that I cofounded. This coaching course will help you figure out what your dreams are and give you a game plan to achieve them. Click here for FREE training.

Staying Motivated In Trying Times

This is a guest post by Joseph Lalonde . He is a youth leader and leadership blogger at JMLalonde.com. Joseph shares leadership tools and encourages you to become a better leader. Follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his blog .

Have you ever been driving to work, needing to be there on time only to come upon road construction? It’s happened to me a time or two and I’m sure it’s happened to you.

It sucks. We have to slow down. Watch out for construction crews. And maybe face a roadblock. It happens. That’s life, right?

Well, as we pursue our dreams, we come across roadblocks. The roadblocks will try our resolve and destroy our motivation.

If we let it.

Image by TheDigitel Myrtle Beach

We need to stay motivated in trying times. Just like road construction and roadblocks, the trying times are only temporary.

Some roadblocks may be:

Cash flow problems
Relationship issues
Lack of progressing in your career

When we hit trying times like this, it seems like we can’t go on. Truth is, you might not be able to go on.

But that choice is up to you.

You Make The Choice

Your response to the trying times is up to you. The response you give will shift and guide your attitudes.

How do you respond to hardships? Do you:

Complain?
Beat yourself up?
Give in?

These reactions are the actions that lead to defeat. When you complain, beat yourself up, and give in you’re putting forth a victim mentality.

You’re saying there’s nothing I can do so I’ll do nothing about it.

Instead, take the posture of a champion. Begin:

Speaking positive words: Complaining will get you somewhere. But it’s not where you want to be. Instead, begin speaking positive words about the situation. Look for the positive even in the most trying of times. Even a job loss can be looked at in a positive light. Think of the free time you have to spend with your family, to get into shape, or to write that book you’ve always wanted to write.


Surround yourself with motivated people: The quickest way to get demotivated is to stay around unmotivated people. They’ll bring you down to their level and it’ll be hard to free yourself. Find those that are uplifting and motivated. They’ve got a goal and know they’ve got to obtain it. As they’re racing for their goal, they’ll be more willing to lift you up as well.


Measure the small successes: An easy way to get depressed is to ignore the trees in the forest. In the grand scheme of things, the trees seem a small part of the larger forest. In reality, each tree makes up a part of the forest. Take away the trees and what do you have? Not much. The same is true with our successes. At the time of the success it might not seem like much. It’s just a small victory. Truth is, it’s part of your whole success. Begin writing down the successes in your life and you’ll soon discover you are moving forward!

As we progress on our life changing journeys it’s imperative that we stay motivated in the trying times. With these 3 steps, you’ll be well-equipped to do so.

Question: What techniques do you use to stay motivated? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Identifying Your Dreams

What is your dream?

You may already know what your dreams are and have taken or started to take action, I’m so proud of you.

If you have just started or about to start, I’m happy to let you know about a brand new venture that I’ve cofounded with a good friend, Jeremy Jones.

It’s called the 180x Radical Change Group Coaching Program. This is a 9 week coaching program that will help you clarify your dreams and give you a game plan to make them a reality.

If you need a little help or a shot in the arm, then click here to see what it’s all about. There are 2 FREE training videos that I hope will help!

To give you a little sample about what the program is all about, every Tuesday night in October, we will be hosting a FREE session to the first 20 people who register. Don’t miss your chance to get FREE training and a little more direction. Details about the FREE sessions here.

Have you identified your dreams? What are they?

Are You Ever Fully Present?

Several years ago my wife and I were going through a really rough patch. As a result we would argue all the time, it didn’t take much to start World War 3. During this time I developed a really bad habit that I’m still working on breaking.

When she would start arguing, I would completely tune her out, focusing on something else to the point I didn’t hear what she was saying.

My beautiful family

We got over that troubled time (praise the Lord for his grace) but that bad habit of tuning people out just didn’t want to go away. I would find myself at work or home or church and people would talk to me, ten minutes later I realized I missed the entire conversation.

A couple of weeks ago I had a revelation, I saw things in the light I needed to see them in. At the Brendon Burchard conference several weeks ago, he mentioned something: the idea of being fully present.

He talked about whatever you do, be totally and completely focused on that task, block out all the normal distractions. When it’s family time, then it’s family time. Being fully present means you turn your phone off, you don’t check your emails or social media updates. You give them the your undivided attention, nothing else in the world exists at that moment but them.

When you are working, then you focus on work and tune out the distractions. When you’re working on your dreams, then especially turn off all the distractions, don’t have the TV on in the background. Give that time your full attention for the specific amount of time you set.

If we were fully present with each thing that we did, how much more would we get accomplished? How much more quality would we have in our lives?

I have been testing this theory out since returning from the conference, and I have to say it works. The times with my family have been life-changing, I have been able to accomplish so much writing, reading, working on speeches, interviews and the list goes on.

How could being fully present help your life?

There are so many shiny things that often distract us pretty easily, even though it might seem like you’re only losing a little time, that time adds up quickly.

How can some of the busiest people accomplish so much with their schedules? How busy do you think Seth Godin is? With the craziness his schedule must be, how is it possible that he responded to an email I sent him? He actually answers his on emails even though he probably gets a landslide of them!

The idea of being fully present  in whatever you do is a powerful concept, it’s completely changed how I use my time and what has my attention. It all starts with having the right priorities and then maximizing the time you spend on each of those priorities.

Life is short, we don’t have as much time as we think to accomplish all the amazing things we can and should accomplish. Let’s give ourselves the best chance of accomplishing everything we’re meant to accomplish by being fully present in all that we do.

Have you ever been fully present? Will you?

 

The Power of Belief

Why is it that we don’t believe something is possible until we see someone else do it?

When we were growing up, my brothers and I got into some crazy things. We were experts at driving my parents to the edge with the crazy stunts we pulled.

One day for some crazy reason, myself and my two brothers decided to jump off the roof of the garage, I think it was related to girls, no comment

The distance wasn’t incredibly high but I remember thinking “no way can I make that jump without hurting myself”. I was scared but didn’t want to look like a coward in front of my brothers. I was shocked when my crazy older brother just went for it while we were talking, he landed fine. My younger brother jumped and had no issue’s, as I saw them do it I believed that I could do it, so I jumped.

I landed fine and we all climbed onto the roof for another round, why not? We had nothing else to do anyways. My two brothers went and landed with no problem, then it was my turn. I jumped and wanted to impress everyone so I leaped really far, can you guess what happened? CRACK! I ended up landing wrong and broke my ankle, it’s still embarrassing to this day to tell the story

I now go back to the question I asked at the beginning of this post, I didn’t believe it was possible until I saw my brothers do it and that’s how we are with making changes and chasing our dreams.

When I wrote my first book and was hesitant to release it to the world, the thing that got me over the hump was reading how Amanda Hocking had done it. I thought if she could do it, then so could I.

The truth is I didn’t need Amanda’s story to self-publish, I could have self-published without any inspiration, I just had to stop listening to my doubt and fear.

There are many incredible things that you could accomplish without waiting to read that inspirational story, how? Figure out what those things are, create a plan and take the first steps. Don’t get me wrong, I love to read and listen to inspirational material, I REALLY love it.

There is a wealth of amazing and inspirational material available to us but you don’t need it to finally go after all those things that you have dreamed of.

Take action on your dreams, take action on the things you want to change in your life, then when you run across an amazing story like Amanda’s, use it as more motivation to continue and refine what you’re already doing.

You can do this, it doesn’t matter where you are or what you have, you can live the life of your dreams.

What do you need to take action on this week? What have you taken action on this week?

The Secret Enemy of Change

There has been something I’ve been ashamed and scared to say out loud: I’m over-weight.

More than that, I have never been able to tell anyone how much I actually weigh. I hope by me getting over my pride that this will help someone: I weigh 333 pounds. It makes me cringe to even write that number!

Here the one silvering lining, I lost 6 pounds last week, Yeah!

Two years ago I weighed 332 pounds and I made every excuse in the book why I gained the weight: the stress of a job I hate, the stress of raising a family, depression, my love of food and one thousand other reasons.

It wasn’t until I was the best man at my brothers wedding and I saw myself in the wedding pictures before I realized how far I had fallen. When I saw those pictures, all I could do was cry.

I got fed up enough to do something about it and I started working out for 4 hours a day, and only ate one meal a day. I lost 132 pounds in 6 months.

Here’s the problem: I didn’t really learn the more important lesson than actually losing the weight, I didn’t learn how to truly change. After the weight was gone, I was proud and told myself I could ease up a little bit, and I did.

It started slow at first, eating sweets, and hitting the gym a little less. Then it started spinning out of control, since I didn’t truly learn how to change my eating habits, and change my life, the weight kept getting added on.

One year after I lost the weight I gained it all back plus 7 pounds. I wasn’t worried though because I bought into the secret enemy of change: I’ve done it before and I could do it again.

I would tell myself that I would start hitting the gym again, start dieting again and I could lose the weight no problem. My wife would gentle bring up the issue and friends would try to encourage me but I assured them that tomorrow was going to be the day I started on the journey again.

So here I am, one more year later with the weight still here. The difference is I’m awake, I can see the truth and the truth is just because I did it before doesn’t guarantee I can do it now.

The only way to truly change is to take action and keep taking action. The way to truly change is to admit the truth, to realize that you will fall and that the most important thing to do is pick yourself back up.

Once you’ve made those changes and have achieved your goals, you can’t get too relaxed, when you start reverting back you can’t buy into the lie that you can easily do it again.

I lost 6 pounds last week, I haven’t had any soda or junk food in my system for two weeks now and my body fells amazing. I now know how to truly change my health and when the weight comes off this time, you better believe I’m not relaxing, I’m going to push ahead!

As you get victories in your battle for change, realize the truth and keep your eyes wide open to the dangers of going backwards, learn to do what I didn’t.

As a matter of fact, let’s do this together!

Are you with me? Are you committed to claiming the life you truly deserve?

 

Practical Travel Tips (Part 2)

I have always loved to travel but up until this year I haven’t had the money or opportunity to travel much.

Colorado Rockies from the Sky

Public speaking was something that absolutely terrified me, so when I got that first email asking me to speak, I was torn. I wanted to spread a message in every where that I could but to get up there in front of all those people, really??

After the first time I got up on stage, I realized this was part of my dream, it just felt right. On the flight down to West Virginia I was the happiest person you ever met. Whenever someone would ask why I was travelling, I was over-joyed to tell them I was a “speaker“!

Speaking in L.A.

Now I have racked up over 47,000frequent flyer miles since June and have spoken at eight events, it’s pretty amazing. Along the way I have observed and learned some things the hard way!

On Monday I shared a few things I learned and I’d like to share a few more with you today. If your dreams or your job involve travel, then I hope you can use these two posts.

Hotel Tips

Look for the one that offers more: When I first started out I would take whatever hotel the discount service gave me. I wasn’t building up rewards or getting any extras. Now I stay only at hotels that I can build rewards and get Delta Skymiles through, usually I’ll get double the airline miles as a bonus. Most of the time you’ll find me at the Hilton, they usually have a hotel shuttle to the airport and a free breakfast buffet. That makes a HUGE difference in what you’ll spend cutting those expenses out. It gives you more money to enjoy the city or country that you are in.

The view from the Hilton New York

Don’t add to your bill: This is basic but there are things in the room that if you even pick up you’ll be charged more. The first time I stayed in a hotel for speaking, I was so amazed by everything I was touching and examining things. When I got home and checked my account a few days later, there were some charges. I called and got them removed because I didn’t use them the $7 bag of pretzels and $10 bottled water  It was explained to me that they were motion sensitive, whoops! You can get those charges removed but who wants to deal with the hassle, right?
Rewards equal more: As you stay in the same hotel or hotel chain and build rewards, you’ll enjoy all sorts of upgrades. Don’t forget that hotel chains have many different hotel’s in their network. The more nights in the same one’s that more you not only get the upgrades but you’ll also enjoy things like FREE WiFi, that comes in handy, especially on business.

Food

All that I want to say here is that eating out, especially in another city can be very expensive. The meals add up fast, that’s why I like the hotels that give free breakfast. My advice is to take advantage of the restaurants that work out deals with the hotel, it cuts down a little on what you’ll spend.

BBQ in Arkansas

I try to eat either a big breakfast or lunch, then only eat one other meal. I’d rather spend my money on sightseeing then food, plus I’m on a diet That’s not to say I don’t enjoy some dinning in local places that are unique to the place I’m at. Got to go local!

Enchiladas in New Mexico

Fun and Transportation

I’m usually in a city or country to speak but you know I have to explore! When I was in Sydney, Australia I knew it could possible be a once and a lifetime experience, so I wanted to make the most of it. I went everywhere in the time that I was there and saw all the major sites.

One thing I like about most major city’s all over the world is the access to public transportation. New York city by far has the best public transportation in the world, seriously! $2.25 to ride the subway anywhere, I got from mid-town Manhattan to La Guardia airport for only $4.25 using the subway and the bus, insane!

The subway in New York

Take advantage of getting around major cities for cheap, use that as an opportunity to meet the local people and experience the culture there.

These are a few tips that I’ve observed, I would love to hear tips you have from any travelling you’ve done.

What has been your experience travelling?

 

4 Steps To Achieving What You’ve Been Dreaming About

This is a guest post by Charles Specht. Who is both a writer and a pastor, centering his ministry on the glory of God while pushing the envelope of deliberate Christianity. He blogs and speaks frequently about pursuing a lifestyle of Strategic Minimalism. Charles lives in central California with his wife, Kathy, and their five children, two of whom were adopted from China with “special needs.” You can visit his church blog at CrazyAboutChurch.com or his Christian Writers website at GodlyWriters.com. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. I would love to have you guest post here, email a post to kimanzi@talesofwork.com and I’ll review it!

The London Olympic games came to an end only a few weeks ago. I was mesmerized by Usain Bolt’s speed in the 100-meter dash, posting a new world record of 9.63 seconds. That man can flat-out fly! Yet Aries Merritt and his world record of 12.80 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles also blew me away. What I found most fascinating, however, is that even though it is a longer race by 10 meters, Aries Merritt took nearly 25% longer to finish his race.

What was the main difference between the two races? Why the hurdles, of course!  Those obtrusive obstacles he had to jump over. You see, Aries couldn’t run around them and he wasn’t powerful enough to simply blast through them. He needed to be the best at scaling them.

And that’s what you need to do in your life as well. Acknowledge the obstacles standing in the way of your dreams and then determine how best to conquer them.

You Are Only One Plan Away From Fulfilling Your Dream

Most people are not happy with their current mode of living. They aren’t where they want to be. They aren’t living where they want to live, working in the industry they want to be in, or earning the coin they want to make. But what I have noticed from my own personal experience is that the decisions I make today will inevitably determine where I’ll be in the very near future.

News flash… It is time we stop stalling and begin to think more strategically! It’s time we begin pursuing our dreams as though they aren’t something unattainable but rather—just around the corner!

If you’ve ever studied “war” or the decisions of some of the great generals and commanders of the past, you’ll notice a few key traits. One of these traits is that they spent time assessing their enemy’s strengths and weaknesses, which provided them with the needed intelligence to determine a proper course of action. Another trait is that they identified any known obstacles standing in the way of total victory. A third trait that so many of our great leaders possessed was that they were also experts at formulating a strategic plan.

And that’s what we need to do today as well. In other words, we need to:

Define our GOAL
Identify the OBSTACLES
Develop a STRATEGY
Reap the REWARD

For example, let’s say you want to change something financially in your life. Your plan might look something like this.

FINANCIAL

Goal Defined : I want to pay off my credit card balances, car loan, and lower my monthly fixed expenses so that I’m less stressed about money.
Obstacles Identified : Unplanned, frivolous shopping. Lack of discipline in wise spending.
Strategy Developed :

a)    To create a functional budget and stick with it.

b)    To eat out less often.

c)    To curb my Starbucks addiction.

d)    To eliminate unnecessary shopping.

e)    To pay with cash instead of credit, whenever possible.

f)    To take these savings and pay down the principal amount on my loans, starting with the smallest loan first (immediate victory!).

Reward To Be Reaped : A 27% drop in my total amount of debt over the next 6 months; 39% over the next 12 months.

Or, rather than a Financial goal, maybe yours would be to change careers and start working fulltime in the industry you are most passionate about. Your plan could look something like this.

CAREER CHANGE

Goal Defined : To quite my current job and earn a living as a fulltime writer and motivational speaker.
Obstacles Identified : Cash flow. My spouse’s expectations. Fear of the unknown. Lack of experience. Lack of key contacts in this niche industry.
Strategy Developed :

a)    Start saving money today in order to build-up a cash reserve.

b)    Communicate with my spouse about what I’m thinking, explaining that I will pursue this with wisdom—not irrationally.

c)    Attend six conferences in the niche I want to start speaking in and/or writing about in order to familiarize myself with the expectations.

d)    Start making “key” contacts with people in that industry/niche.

e)    Downsize my current lifestyle by selling things I no longer need and lower my fixed expenses.

f)    Write 300 words each day so that I’ll have completed a 60,000-word manuscript in just 200 days (about 6.5 months).

Reward To Be Reaped : Within 12 months I will have spoken at no less than seven events. I will have completed the final draft of my book, having submitted it to agents and publishers. I will have saved enough money for 2.5 months of future living expenses. People will begin seeing me as an expert in my niche and will come to me with mentoring opportunities and speaking engagements.

It all comes down to a bit of strategic planning. When you put it on paper, as in the examples above, you have a game plan to work from, a strategy to focus on. You can edit the plan as you go along, seeing the progress you’ve made and…one day soon…finally achieve your dream.

You know what? You need to start doing this today!

What is the major change (goal) you want to see in your life over the next 12 months? What strategies (plan) can you begin focusing on today that will help you achieve that dream?

Practical Travel Tips (Part 1)

Note: I accidentally published this post yesterday, whoops! So if you got the email and were wondering what’s going on, I’m sorry!

I know that many who read this blog have dreams that presently or in the future will involve travel. This year I have had the honor to speak in eight different states and Sydney, Australia. Since June of this year I have racked up 47,368 frequent flyers miles, I’ve been doing a little bit of travel

There were things that I wished I knew when I first starting travelling that could have saved me a lot of headaches, so I want to help you avoid what I went through. At this point I only have three trips left: Oahu in Hawaii, Manila in the Philippines, and Nairobi in Kenya (where my family is from, I’ll be there for two weeks

Here are a few tips I learned along the way that I hope will help:

Never book with a discount service

When I first started out I used to book all my trips with Hotwire.com, it was a lot cheaper that way. I emailed Chris Guillebeau asking him for travel tips and the first thing he said was don’t use these services, but I didn’t understand what he meant. He said to book through the airlines and hotel’s directly, when I looked into it, the prices were too high and it wasn’t easy to do. It really didn’t become clear to me until my trip to Australia, I booked through Expedia.com because I got Expedia points as well as the miles. On the way home the flight was overbooked and when I went to check in, the website said I had to do it at the ticket counter, what? When I got to the airport, the agents told me that since I bought a discounted ticket, I was put on a stand by list, what??? I told them I bought the travel insurance and they told me I had to call Expedia. I called Expedia and they told me the travel insurance only covered cancellations and that they couldn’t do anything about me getting a seat on the plane home, I was at the mercy of the airline. I protested telling them I paid for my ticket already but Expedia told me it’s in the fine print that they can’t guarantee a seat if the flight is overbooked. So now what? The Lord was good and I did end up getting a seat, the people at Virgin worked things out (they’re the best) and I was able to get home and not miss work! The point is when you book through the discount services, that’s what you get, discount service. When something goes wrong with the flight and you have to re-book, you could be up a creek. It might not happen every time, but is it really worth the risk? In the last two months I’ve been deplaned four times, so it does happen.
Besides that, you build up benefits with booking through the airlines and hotel’s directly. I am now a silver member with Delta and Hilton, I get priority boarding and upgrades on seat’s and rooms. I’m three miles away from gold with Delta which gets me a lot of first class upgrades and if you have been on a plane in the last five years, you know how much room is in the economy seats  Another thing is the discount services find the cheapest flights, which might not always be the same airline,  you can’t build anything that way. If you plan on traveling for your dreams as a speaker, missionary, coach or whatever, then those miles will come in handy later! I know it’s tempting and may be cheaper now but think about the future and be intentional with your travel.

Virgin Airlines Economy

A few practical tips on the actual flight

Over-head space. The one major problem airlines have is over-head space. Most flights these days are completely booked, I have now been on 48 flights and not one was not  at least three-fourths booked. When you board later in the flight, there’s a very real risk of your bag not making it in the over-head space. At that point they’ll check your bag (for free) but if you have a short layover before you next flight or are in a hurry, you’ll be waiting. Plus there’s the risk of them losing your bag, which happened to me in Reno, that’s the worst! This is where having a status or paying for priority boarding can really help. If you are in no rush, then you should be ok but I had a crazy experience coming back from Australia. I got into Los Angles and had 1 hour and 22 minutes before my flight to Detroit, I had to go through customs and since the International terminal at LAX is separate, I had to go through security again. Praise the Lord I got to the gate for Detroit as they were loading zone 3! I just made it, then that flight ended up being delayed on the tarmac which meant when I got to Detroit, that flight home was already boarding. In the end I made it when they were calling for the final people, but on that flight we were deplaned anyways (tell me about it)! So try to board earlier if you are in are short on time.
Try to sit in the aisle. I used to always pick the window seat for the view, but with the way the plane is designed, there’s less room, your head will be cramped if you’re taller. You can see just as well from the aisle, you can actually see both sides of the plane. When the plane lands, you’ll be able to stand up and get your bag, if you have a short layover, this is absolutely vital! You also get a little extra leg room on the aisle and easy access to get up and use the restroom.
Food and drinks. When they come down the aisles for drink service, instead of getting the one cup, ask for a can. The airline stewards would love to just give you the can instead of having to pour it, it saves them time. Also feel free for ask for another bag of cookies or peanuts. One thing I do now is bring in my own snacks: popcorn, pretzels, granola bars. This will keep you from paying the crazy prices of airport food.
Entertainment. Bring your own headphones, you don’t want to pay $2 for theirs! Or if you’re like me, you’ll use that time to read and write.
Have a “go bag”. Have a little bag that goes underneath your seat for your most important items. You never know what’s going to happen with your bag and if you have a little go bag with the important things (passport, wallet, travel documents, phone chargers) you’re covered no matter what.
Mobile boarding passes. One of the cool things with technology is our phones now have the ability to receive a mobile boarding pass that is scanned at security and to board the flight. It cuts down on all that paper and is quick, when you check in for your flight online, you can choose to have a mobile boarding pass emailed to you or texted to you.

This is part one of a few things I have observed along the journey this year, I hope they really help you as you travel for your dreams. Please come back Friday for part 2!

What travel tips do you have? Any crazy stories from your travels?