Time and Travel

January is always a hectic work month. This year it was hectic for a different reason.

I visited six countries, on eight flights, two ferries, several trains, three vans, and two tuk tuks, ?in temperatures ranging from –11C to about 39C.

I took more time than usual to visit family and friends overseas getting to London, Copenhagen, and parts of Sweden, came back to Australia to work for a week, and then took my 80-year-old mum on an incredible trip to Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

Having that time with my mum was special, one of those ‘making memories’ occasions that not everyone gets. I lost my dad at 12 and know what lost time feels like, so travelling the world with mum as adults was particularly special.

I don’t want to post-intellectualise what was a magical time-out with naff musings about how it reflects on work or my leadership or being my authentic self. But, I thought I’d share a few noteworthy observations.

You see, mum has some mobility constraints and so we travelled with a snazzy foldable electric mobility scooter (we named him Mr Noreen) who became our loyal, trusted, enabling, and intrepid companion. He made walks and rough terrain and steep inclines suddenly possible. He made long days in the hot sun and impromptu wanders down random ancient streets doable.

But he also made the simple act of air travel infinitely more complicated and taxing. I know the privilege we had to travel with a sophisticated aid like Mr Noreen, and to be able to travel at all. I feel incredibly lucky to have had that time and those experiences.

So a few observations from this magical month.

1.???? Travelling with any kind of mobility constraints is incredibly challenging – opening my eyes to accessibility constraints, lift locations, wheelchair support services, pedestrian unfriendly roadways, poorly maintained footpaths, sleek stair design without handrails, and teeny tiny (and sometimes malfunctioning) lifts has made me check my own biases and lack of awareness but also made me that much more passionate about the importance of designing places, spaces, and modes of transport that enable and empower people of all abilities to get out and explore with confidence.

2.???? Really listening to other people’s stories and experiences is pure joy – we attended the Galle Literary Festival and sat through incredible talks by Sri Lankan, South Asian, and other international authors and thinkers and it set us off on long chats about all sorts of things – exploring religion, atheism, politics, conflict and civil war, homelessness, natural disasters and climate change, the afterlife, purpose and community, concepts of authorship, identity, travel, and creativity. And, I learnt parts of my mum’s travel tales from 1965 that I hadn’t known, which made me appreciate what an adventure that genuinely was.

3.???? The relentless pursuit of kindness and patience is absolutely a virtue – it's really bloody hard too! It took hours of phone calls and emails and research to get all the approvals for the scooter and then careful and drawn-out negotiations at each step to ensure we were able to safely ship it from country to country. Staying calm and being patient and kind wasn’t my default initially, but it became so and as a result we had exemplary support and service throughout. While it’s too cynical to say that being lovely to people is a good strategy for getting a better outcome, starting from a place of empathy and kindness certainly goes a long way.

4.???? Working with good people for good people?means even more when you’re not?there – taking that much time away from a business you’ve built and having the confidence that you have brilliant people continuing to do brilliant work in your absence, and a set of clients who have been nothing but supportive and wonderful about this frolic made it so much easier to be in the moment and genuinely embrace the experience. A big hat tip to the team who did have big and intense projects all through the break and who handled it all with their usual grace and awesomeness.

So, in short, and if I had to parlay my month away from my day job into a little life affirming sentence, it’d be this: ?be caring, be curious, be kind, and surround yourself with great people.

Happy travels and adventures in 2024 folks.