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Bryan Buckley

Five Reasons Why You’re Not an Elite Road Warrior Yet But How to Become One

Nothing like offending the reader right out of the gate by telling you You’re NOT an elite road warrior yet.

It reminds me of my favorite highly educational and cerebral movie (ha ha), Dumb and Dumber where Jim Carrey is talking to the love of his life and asking her what were his chances with her.

Mary Swanson : I’d say more like one out of a million.

Lloyd Christmas : [long pause while he processes what he’s heard] So you’re telling me there’s a chance.

So, I’m definitely telling you there’s a chance and I want you to have the optimism and commitment of Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and Dumber.

I love the word ELITE.

You hear it in the sports world.

You hear it in the business world.

But until now, we’ve not heard it associated in business travel and with the Road Warrior.

My Definition of an Elite Road Warrior

Does what it takes, no matter what, to be at your best in your work / health / home life while on business travel.

So, with that lofty aspiration, there are …

Top Five Reasons Why You’re NOT an Elite Road Warrior Yet…

(with the emphasis on the word YET)

1. We hate to miss out on anything

It’s easy on the road to get pulled in / sucked in / pressured in / easily persuaded into about everything

  • Food – appetizers / fattening food / desserts
  • Drinks – soda / energy drinks / alcohol
  • Events
  • After Parties

It’s FOMO – fear of missing out and that’s exactly the issue. The problem though is we simply prefer instant gratification. The benefit of the here and now and we can easily justify it.

2. We’re just too busy and too tired

As a result of hating to miss out on anything, we become incredibly busy and always on the go. When that happens, we’re just too tired.

Too busy and too tired to do the habits that will ultimately allow us to become an elite road warrior.

3. We’re too set in our ways

If you’ve been on the road for any length of time, you have YOUR WAY of doing things on the road.

We just do our deal. I call it our Road Thing. We do whatever the day on the road tells us to do.

Change is hard in general, and then when you combine the road being hard, it’s just easy to get set in your way of doing things.

But if “your ways” are not producing great results and leading you to becoming who you want to be, then it’s a problem.

4. We don’t have a plan

We may have a plan for our trip:

  • our travel schedule
  • our meetings
  • dinners or events

But we don’t have a plan for the habits that are going to move the needle on moving from the Exhausted Road Warrior or the Existing Road Warrior to the Elite Road Warrior.

Our lack of plan becomes our plan and how’s THAT working out for you?

5. We didn’t know it was possible

Too often we just do our Road Thing because it’s the only thing we know.

When we’re unaware of a “better way” we just do what we’re comfortable with and used to. It’s easy and natural.

But when you hear of a better way, does that peak your interest? If so, you don’t have to be stuck just existing or exhausted on the road.

Whether you realize it or not, you have a certain energy level that you’ve developed on the road.

Is your status as good as you think it is or even hope it to be?

If you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance you want to improve your road life.

Maybe you’re one or more of the following:

  • In the worst shape of your life right now
  • Stressed and overwhelmed
  • Always tired or even exhausted when you come back home
  • Disconnected with those back home far more than you want to be

You don’t have to stay the way you are on the road. You can change. You can stop limiting the road and what it can’t do for you and begin to leverage the road for what it can do for you.

So, How do you become an ERW (Elite Road Warrior)?

1. Committing to the three focus areas of an ERW:

Let’s circle back to my Definition of an Elite Road Warrior: Does what it takes, no matter what, to be at their best in their work / health / home life while on business travel.

Too many business travelers are average at best in just one or two of those areas. It may be Work and that’s it. Or Work and kinda your health or work and your home life is okay but you’re not connected at a deep level if you even know what is possible.

I came to a point where I just “had enough.”

  • Tired of how I look in the hotel mirror
  • Tired of not performing at a level I knew I could do on the road
  • Tired of no energy
  • Tired of feeling distant from my family

I needed to change and the commitment was to the three focus areas of an Elite Road Warrior:

  • Work
  • Health
  • Home Life

2. Developing the 6 Energy Habits 

This is how you become an ERW – by integrating the six energy habits into your Road Life.

Here are the six. Three are Physical Energy Habits and Three are Mental Energy Habits:

The Physical Energy Habits:

1.Move

2. Fuel

3. Rest

The Mental Energy Habits:

4. Perform

5. Develop

6. Connect

The way they integrate with the Three Focus Areas:
Work – Perform / Develop
Health – Move / Fuel / Rest
Home Life – Connect

And these 6 Energy Habits are the basis for my upcoming book called Elite Road Warrior – Transform Your Work, Health, and Home Life on Business Travel.

You may feel like you’re close or possibly a LONG way away right now from being an ERW.

Either way, my book, podcast, and this blog are all designed to move you to implement 6 Energy Habits within the three key focus areas of Work / Health / Home Life.

We can do this together.

One Formula That You Must Implement on the Road

MOVEMENT. This energy habit is vital to the road warrior.

The road, by default, naturally does the moving for you. You’re moving in a plane. You’re moving in a car.

But then it conveniently puts you in a conference room chair, restaurant or bar seat, ending with an comfortable hotel bed screaming your name!

But this is exactly what has put most business travelers in the situation they’re in by not being anywhere close to being in shape due to the lack of movement within their average day on the road.

I’m here to challenge the average in order to move us to elite on the road and the first energy habit has to do with how you view movement on the road.

We MUST leverage the power found in the four energy movements. Most business travelers simply move as little as possible. I have a formula you must implement on the road. This one formula helped move me from 40 pounds overweight and a docile road creature to getting my girlish figure back and full of energy.

One Formula You Must Implement On the Road

It’s called ⬆M4X – Increasing your Movement in Four Ways.

⬆ = Increase
M = Movement
4X = In Four Ways

Our challenge is to increase our movement in four very specific and intentional ways on the road.

Two movements we do because it’s part of our day but we need to do them more.

The other two we often avoid at all costs and can offer a myriad of excuses of why we don’t or can’t do them.

The Move Energy Habit has four parts:

1. Stand more (think up on your feet not down on your butt)

2. Walk more (think forward not still)

3. Run more (think cardio and getting your heart rate up)

4. Lift more (think strength training with weights, bands, or body weight)

Some of you simply move like a sloth. You’re not in a hurry and as a result your body desperately needs more movement and definitely at a quicker pace.

I’m usually following behind you and trying to get around you. I’m always stuck in your aisle on the plane.

But most fall in the range of improving the first two (stand more / walk more) and creating practical and sustainable routines for the last two (run more / lift more).

Let me address the four push-backs I hear the most often of why most Road Warriors do NOT move more:

1. TIME – I know because I used this excuse for a long time. It’s easy to say we don’t have the time and some days, this may be true. But if we’re honest with ourselves, there’s time in the day to get in even a quick workout and I’ll show you how.

2. TIRED – The road naturally takes away our energy and as a result, who has the energy to workout after a long day? I’ll pushback that any type of the four movements of ⬆M4X will actually INCREASE your energy!

3. GEAR – I don’t have the space to bring the gear needed to workout like gym shoes, workout clothes, etc. This is a very thin excuse because it doesn’t take much space at all to get in a workout on the road. I’ll even give you some shoes and clothes ideas! (I know, I keep giving and giving…)

4. NO PLAN – This is understandable especially if you don’t use dumbbells or the machines in the fitness center. But I’ll provide you with what to do in a fitness center along with your hotel room, even to the point of a virtual personal trainer. I got you, man.

“The ⬆M4X Formula first and foremost starts with awareness. Are you aware just how often you’re doing or not doing the four parts of the formula?

1. Stand More (think up on your feet not down on your butt)

According to Tom Rath’s research in Eat Move Sleep, on average we now spend more time sitting (9.3 hours) than sleeping on a given day.

Here’s the challenge – take a stand against sitting. There are ways all around you : Stand at the airport / on a plane / in a meeting / create a stand up desk.

2. Walk More (think forward not still)

How often have you done one or more of the following?

  • Drove around the parking lot to park closer to save time
  • Taken the escalator or elevator to go up one floor
  • Had someone pick you up at the front door instead of walking to the car
  • Driven a short distance so you could go and workout
  • Chose the sitting bike in the hotel fitness center so you could sit and not have to walk on the treadmill

Let me challenge you

  • Take the stairs not the elevator (they’re NEVER busy and you don’t have to wait)
  • walk the escalator
  • get a higher hotel room

3. Run More (think cardio and getting your heart rate up)

Run More is one of the hardest and most challenging of the four ⬆M4X. But it needs to happen. Most Road Warriors neglect this for every possible reason:

  • I don’t have the time
  • I didn’t bring workout clothes
  • I have an old sport injury
  •  I might sweat
  • My man boobs will bounce unevenly (ok maybe this is a stretch)

Run More (Think Cardio) looks for creative ways to elevate your heart rate.

Remember Heart Rate Up Energy Level Up.

4. Lift More (think strength training with weights, bands, or body weight)

There are two options for Strength Training for working out on the road:

1. Body Weight

2. Free Weights

And there are usually two options for Locations for working out on the road:

1. Fitness Center / Local Gym

2. Your Hotel Room

GO and begin to get Your Move on the next time you’re on business travel!

 

This is the one formula that you must implement on the road. Remember: Something, Anything is Better than Nothing.

Four Words That Will Change Your Nutritional Regrets on the Road

Today we’re discussing the 2nd Energy Habit – FUEL

When I survey business travelers to ask them what their biggest challenge as a road warrior is, 9 out of 10 will answer: eating healthy on the road. I have the handful of stories of some incredible food I’ve eaten and wine I’ve drank during my many years on the road and the 40 extra pounds to prove it!

There are many reasons why eating healthy on the road was their biggest challenge, such as no self-control, lack of control over your own meals, FOMO (fear of missing out), peer pressure, etc. All understandable but in the end, we’re left with the weight, the guilt, and the lack of energy.

Here’s a Question For You…
Have you ever wondered if food really affects your energy? How often have you missed breakfast and start dragging in the mid to late morning or because you’re hungry and your stomach is growling. Or how often have you made a poor lunch choice and it’s haunting you (and others) mid to late afternoon on the road? You become THAT guy or girl.

You’re either tired, bloated, or struggle digesting whatever you ate that seemed like a good idea at the time. This proves how much our food can directly affect our energy.
Early on, sadly, my criteria for food most of my road life was as follows:

  • I want it quick
  • I want it easy
  • I want it large
  • I want it tasty

When I first started out, I had the budget of a small child who hated food, which meant I had to get very creative on the use of my daily food allotment. I made so many bad choices early on and also created many bad habits that took years to unlearn.

Here’s a stat: 75% of adults are overweight and 36% are considered obese.
Think about that.

And this statistic doesn’t address the Road Warrior who eats many of those meals on the road with many more tempting and fattening foods literally at their fingertips.

Now, there’s overweight statistically then there’s overweight for you. And here’s the problem:

We don’t see the correlation between nutrition and energy.

If we don’t watch what we eat and continue down this path, we’re always going to feel:

  • Embarrassed about how we look
  • Insecure
  • Shame
  • Lazy
  • Out of control
  • Lack self-discipline
  • Little to no energy

Is that the life you want? And if we’re REALLY honest with ourselves, will my health affect the quality and length of my life?

And THAT is the real issue: Not having energy as a result of not eating properly to do my VERY BEST every single day.

Is that your story? Do you feel unhealthy? Overweight?

I can relate.

I used to eat whatever I wanted and whenever I wanted and often times, the later the better. Can’t go to bed hungry, right? I never looked at the label to read the calories, fat, or sugar – and definitely not the ingredients.

Looking back, I’m a little horrified at what I consumed a majority of my life.

I justified my eating because I worked out and once I started traveling, I couldn’t hide the weight anymore. I felt horrible, far from my best, and detested how I looked in the hotel mirror.

For me, this was not acceptable and I hated how I felt and looked. But I chose to change the way I ate on the road which became a catalyst to change my eating behaviors at home as well.

I feel in control again and in really good shape for my age. I prefer to curl the 40 lb. dumbbell not carry it in my gut.

Food is a personal issue especially on the road. It’s easy to feel justified by what we eat on the road. I hear consistently from women that too often food becomes emotional on the road and reactive due to the stress. Understandable, but there’s still a cost.

Men often turn to alcohol and we know where that could lead.

Energy Habit Two is FUEL. It’s challenging how we look at food when we travel.

Here’s The Problem

I was eating on the road because I was hungry or because it was time to eat and it was just there in front of me. I did NOT look at food in the way that is critical for a Road Warrior:

I had to change my mindset to the following…

FOOD is FUEL.

It’s the fuel your body needs to have the energy you need on the road to be an Elite Road Warrior

FUEL is ENERGY.

Food is Fuel and Fuel is Energy.

And when you begin to think this way, Energy Habit Two will start to make a difference in your Road Life

There are four words that will become your fuel mantra. These four words simply and literally changed my food choices.

Four Words That Will Change Your Nutritional Regrets on the Road
Make The Healthiest Choice

What if you said those specific four words absolutely every time you were about to eat? How much different would the results be AFTER you chose the healthier option?

These four words, Make the Healthiest Choice became my personal mantra. I got serious and I mean serious with these four words.

I put it on my mirror so I would see the phrases and the overweight person staring back at me in the mirror every stinking time. (That guy was consistent!)

I even put it on my door so I would see it walking out of the room. I put a sticky note on my fridge in my hotel room if one was available to me.

I repeated those four words staring at a menu especially when my natural reaction at a restaurant is the tastiest choice or the largest choice.

And here’s a challenging question for you to think about: What could begin to change in your nutrition if you followed these four words, Make the Healthiest Choice? This could be a game changer for you.

My wife and I ask this question of our kids now: What would be the healthiest choice? When we go out to eat and they choose from the kid’s menu: What would be the healthiest choice? When they get a snack: What would be the healthiest choice? We want them to recognize this now at an early age. So, if a 7-year-old can do it, I know you can too!

Here’s the point: We want to feel healthy so we can accomplish and enjoy what we want out of our work and life. Your nutrition can and should be a source of energy for you to do your best work.

In this 2nd energy habit of FUEL, you’ll learn three actions that will change how you view nutrition on the road.

1.Continually Hydrate

Wait, hydration is not food! But just as a high performing car needs gas (food to the body), it also needs oil to run smoothly. And that’s exactly why we need to hydrate.

2. Clean & Green

This is where our four key words: Make the Healthiest Choice begin changing our decisions on the road. Don’t worry, you’re not going to starve yourself or have to eat only things you hate. This is a process.

At first, it will be Make the Healthier Choice. But it simply gets down to Eating Clean and Eating Green.

3. Carry a Controlled Substance

Two things I don’t care for: being hungry and limited options when I am hungry. This is why it’s critical you learn how to leverage the power of snacks or your own meal to subsidize in a way that continually fuels you and doesn’t put you in a spot to Make the Quickest Choice, or the Easiest Choice, or even the Largest Choice.

Once you learn how to carry a controlled substance and make it part of your road routine, you’ll be able to have complete control of your fuel on the road.

Warning…

This is a process.

It takes determination and dedication to have these four words become natural before you eat each meal or even snack. Chances are there will be times you will choose a different key word in the four words (easiest / quickest / largest / tastiest). But the key is what you do the next meal.

I’ve found that not continuing the pattern and making the 2nd mistake is absolutely critical to getting back on the nutritional wagon. You need to stop the bleeding immediately. Engrave “Make the Healthiest Choice” in your mind. Remember, only YOU control your nutrition, so take responsibility now. Implement these four words with your very next meal on the road. Then at the next meal. Then the next…

You’ve got this!

The Secret Shame of High Performing Road Warriors

Let’s focus on the 3rd and last of the Physical Energy Habits: REST.

The Secret Shame of High Performing Road Warriors

I recently read a story regarding an eighty-four-day mission aboard the Skylab space station in the mid 1970s. About half-way through the mission, Colonel William Pogue requested a day of rest from mission control for his overworked and exhausted space crew.
Now, this seems like a no-brainer request and one that should’ve been done may days earlier.
What happened? NASA refused his request. They told them NO!
Now, I’m sure it was one heck of a view, but when you’re exhausted and want – need to rest, that’s the only thing that matters. No shock but the crew went on strike in space, a first of its kind. Disobeying orders, the crew took a space sabbath.
In response, ground control was forced to change their policy. High-Performing road warriors can produce, there is no doubt about it. The amount of productivity and results that come out of a high performer is impressive. Crank it out and getter done.
Most road warriors simply don’t see the toll that not resting is doing to them physically, mentally, and emotionally over the long haul on the road. Or at least not yet.
According to a recent Gallup poll, 40 percent of all American adults are sleep-deprived, clocking significantly less than the recommended minimum seven hours of sleep per night.
According to Terry Cralle and Dr. David Brown, over 70% don’t get a full night of rest to perform at a high level.
My assumption, since this used to be me, is many high performers sleep far less than seven hours of “quality sleep” on a consistent basis and simply don’t stop to rest. It’s a necessary evil.
The reality is, many high-performing road warriors’ secret shame is… They don’t know how to rest.
This is my confession. I’m Bryan Paul Buckley. I’m a high-performing road warrior, and I don’t know how to rest.
It’s also the confession of many others. Maybe even you right now.
We’re in this together if we’re honest (and just too tired to talk about it). We’re good at pretending that everything is good. And who will question us with the results we’re putting up?!
I feel like a high-performance car that continues to put in cheap gas, avoids maintenance, and wants a repair as quick and as cheap as possible. Just get me back on the road, man!
Can you relate?
The reality is, many of us are interested in how to work better but few of us know how to rest better.
The focus here is on REST or the lack thereof.
Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, in his book appropriately titled Rest, states,
We view rest as a physical necessity or inconvenience. We see work and rest as binaries. When we think of rest as work’s opposite, we take it less seriously and even avoid it. 
Rest is not work’s adversary; rest is work’s partner.
They complement and complete each other. You cannot work well if you don’t rest well. We underestimate how much good serious rest can do for us. And we also underestimate just how much we can do if we take rest seriously.
Go, Alex – you could not be more spot on for the Road Warrior.
As a result, here are four inner thoughts that accompany the secret shame of high-performing road warriors:

  1. We Minimize Rest

High-performing road warriors are highly skilled at minimizing anything that slows them down. We say the following comments:
  • Rest is a waste of time.
  • I don’t really need as much rest as everyone else.
  • I’ll sleep when I’m dead.
Sadly, when we minimize rest, it often results in mentally belittling others who do rest. We judge and when we do, we feel better about ourselves as a result. Been there, done that?
I know there are more people out there doing this than just me. Our time is valuable on the road and our schedules are packed, so it’s easy to minimize our rest. But is it the best for us?

  2. We Avoid Rest at All Costs

High-performing road warriors have a unique gift of always being busy. Every moment is calculated and used to produce results, not to slow down.
As a result, we’re always on the move. We act like we’re allergic to rest. Sadly, we fill our schedule so rest doesn’t even have a chance. Now, I’ve mastered this one. I can fill my time to push rest out of even the realm of possibility.
Who can question me with my results? Our time is valuable on the road and our schedules are packed, so it’s easy to minimize our rest.
But, is it the best for us?
I’ve personally paid the price for it by physically crashing and losing more time with the crash than if I had just rested in the first place.

  3. We Justify Rest as Optional

I can tell myself half-truths all day long about why rest is optional for me.
Here are some of my go-to road statements:
  • I have too much to do to rest (which ironically is my choice and I could choose to slow down and the world would not end).
  • It’s my current season of life on the road but it won’t always be this way (but I’ve made it my way of life, not a season of life).
  • I’m fine with what little rest I get right now (yeah, because I don’t know what being fully rested actually feels like).
The irony is no one seeing our “on stage” sees the mind games we play “backstage or off stage,” nor would they really care.  They may even like us better if we were rested and not so driven all the time. Imagine that.
I love how Michael Hyatt puts it, “The more tired I am, the dumber I get”
And many times I get more dumb as the business trip goes on, and on, and on.

  4. We Fear Rest

The truth is, many high-performing road warriors are afraid of slowing down.
Whoa. Now you just got personal. Here’s some truth syrum on my end…
I’ve come to the point of realizing just how much of my identity has been deeply found in my ability to produce results on the road.
I can’t produce results if I’m resting, right?
But that flawed and even arrogant thinking couldn’t be further from the truth. The truth is, I can rest; I’ve just not wanted to slow down.
I asked at a heart level, why am I not stopping long enough to truly rest? I was first asked of a good friend of mine, Val Brown, then worked through this with a counselor, Dr. Nick Howard.
This must be answered to become an elite road warrior and man did I wrestle with this question:
Why am I not stopping long enough to truly rest?
The work will ALWAYS BE THERE. Just because I finish THAT report, THAT presentation, THAT email, it’s not like it stops. It JUST…KEEPS… COMING.
I took this question of “why am I not stopping long enough to truly rest?” very seriously and this is what I found out…
I was afraid of what I would find if I slowed down. Here is my truth of why I feared rest:
  • Would I be viewed as average or like “Everyone else”?
  • Would I still be needed?
  • Would I be replaced?
  • Would I like what I found when I slowed down and reflected on what was truly important to me?
When we define ourselves by our work, by our dedication and willingness to go the extra mile, then it’s easy to see rest as a negation of those things. If your work is your identity, when you cease to work, you cease to exist.
This was the truth I needed to face. I had to come to grips with why I was so driven and why I feared rest. Learn from me, road warrior.
I didn’t know how to slow down, unplug, relax, and truly receive the deep benefits of rest.
It simply came down to this simple revelation for me:
I know I need to, but I don’t know how to rest. Not knowing how to truly rest is my secret shame and the shame of many high-performing road warriors I’ve met. This is solvable.
But the first step is accepting we don’t know how to rest.
The key word is HOW.
Rest is challenging enough at home with a consistent schedule, but the road is a completely different animal.
It is absolutely vital to your success in becoming an elite road warrior who is performing at the highest level in his work, health, and home life while on business travel.
I hope the rest energy habit wakes you up (literally) so you can become the elite road warrior you have inside of you.
Let’s breakdown the Energy Habit of rest that has three major aspects:
1. Sleep –  Think Better Sleep (quality) then More Sleep (quantity)
Let’s start with improving your sleep before we increase your sleep. You’ll learn strategies, tactics, evening rituals, etc. to maximize your sleep on the road.
2. Breaks – Move the Body, Rest the Mind
Most do the opposite. It’s possible to take a short, strategic break on the road that super-charges your energy
3. Downtime – Time to Be, NOT to Be On
This may seem like an extreme luxury but it’s possible and when you do MAKE time for Downtime, you will see incredible results.
I love this quote from Alan Felding  in his book, An Unhurried Life: “Good work only grows best on the soil of rest.”
So I hope you can rest this week. And learn HOW to rest.

One Change Every Business Traveler Must Make on the 1st Day of Every Trip

I was on a flight out of town one week from Chicago and once I found my favorite seat, which just happens to be the emergency aisle on the right side, I started chatting with the guy in the window seat.

Once we took off I began to eat my homemade scrambled eggs, sautéed spinach and kale, cut up bell peppers and cucumbers with cherry tomatoes. I do this every flight out of town – BYOM – bring your own meal AKA: MTHC (make the healthiest choice)

On the other hand, I was sitting next to Egg McMuffin Man. Have you seen him? He was inhaling an Egg McMuffin, hash browns, and washing it down with a jumbo Diet Coke. Diet, of course. Hey Ed McMuffin, you’re dripping ketchup all over your shirt, man.

Does that make me better? Well… I’ll let you be the judge. And for the record, his real name was Ed so give me some credit for precise facts.

The point is we were both on the 1st day of a business travel trip and we both made a key decision how we’re starting off our trip. Mere moments later he was in a coma like he hadn’t slept in days while his phone was still playing a movie. Mind you, this is the very first day of the trip, the first MORNING of the trip!

I was choosing to read then work. Again, you be the judge.

Unknowingly, he was making decisions that were setting the tone for the rest of his trip. I see this kind of guy ALL of the time when I travel and I’m using GUY generically – girls, you’re out there too and I’ve caught you in the act, but to your credit, not as often. And not to call out Ed here but there’s a reason he’s overweight, possibly marginally effective, and obviously lacks energy. His habits revealed something about himself.

Now, here’s a question for you to consider right out of the gate and quite possibly even an airplane gate:

Would you consider yourself a Creature of Habit? Meaning, you function primarily out of your routine, aka: your habits.

For me, If I start a habit, I’m all good and will continue the habit for all that it brings. Both the good and the bad.

And if I’m out of my habit, which I call OOTRO (Out of the Routine of), that becomes my new habit. NOT doing something. We live by our habits far more than we realize especially on the road for the good and the bad.

The challenge is getting out of the bad habits we’ve found ourselves in especially after years of travel.

I meet more and more road warriors who are on auto-pilot with their “road routine” and often need to be woken up and rewired to make some necessary changes. They’re so far from elite and don’t even realize it.

I was there and can relate.

I recently picked up a book from a familiar author Daniel Pink of Drive and To Sell is Human.

In his latest book, When, he talks about Beginnings – Starting Right, Starting Again, and Starting Together.

He addresses the need for Fresh Starts.

For example the 1st day of the year, or month, or week are what social scientists often call a “temporal landmark.”

Just as we use landmarks to guide us as a visual marker, we leverage these “Stand Out Days” from what Daniel Pink calls, “the ceaseless and forgettable march of other days, and their prominence helps us find our way.”

It’s easy for our road days to just blend in and become this forgettable march of other days. Just another day, another city, another hotel, another unhealthy meal.

Here’s some research to prove the point:

In 2014, three scholars from the Wharton School of the University of Penn published this breakthrough paper in the science of timing that focused on the use of temporal landmarks and how we can leverage them for new beginnings or fresh starts.

These scholars analyzed 8.5 years of Google searches. They found that certain word searches spiked dramatically on key “fresh start days” and triggered a predictable motivation in people.

Daniel Pink noted in his book that there are two types of Temporal Landmarks: Social and Personal.

  1. Social – those everyone shared: Mondays / New Month / New Quarter / Holidays
  2. Personal – unique to the individual: Birthdays / Anniversaries / Job changes

Interestingly, two things happened whether social or personal temporal landmarks were used:

  1. They allowed people to open “new mental accounts” in the same way a business closes the books at the end of one year and opens new books in the next year. It’s a break from past mistakes and imperfections and leaves us confident about “what could be”. Key Marker: New Years Day or Birthday
  2. They also interrupt attention to the everyday minutiae causing people to take a big picture view of their lives and focus on achieving their goals. As the Wharton scholars concluded, “People can strategically create turning points in their personal histories.”

Here is where this relates to the business traveler. The goal is to find what potential days could be your own Temporal Landmarks on the road.

One Change Every Business Traveler Must Make on the 1st Day of Every Trip

Anchor Days

Here’s my definition of an Anchor Day:  Key behaviors done on a specific date to serve as a kickstart for a period of time.

The power is in the word: ANCHOR.

What does an anchor do? Webster defines anchor:A device used to prevent the craft from drifting (due to wind or current)

We’re the Craft in the analogy and the drift is ANYTHING that takes us where we DON’T want to go!

You think about an Anchor. When it drops and takes hold, you aren’t going anywhere or anywhere soon. We’re notorious for drifting especially if we don’t start out strong. Hence the Power of an Anchor Day.

 

Let’s breakdown the key aspects of an Anchor Day…

There are THREE Key Aspects of an Anchor Day to be effective and be powerful:

  1. Set Date – there must be a CLEAR starting date – This is the WHEN
  2. Catalyst Behavior – Key actions you need to do – This is the WHAT
  3. Specific Triggers – reminders or cues / IF this, THEN that = WHERE

All three aspects are critical for an effective Anchor Day that gives you sustainable energy and incredible results.

Anchor Days require Intention and Discipline. They don’t “just happen.”

You must INTEND to do them. And they cause you to exert effort which requires discipline. But the payoffs are absolutely huge.

Back to the book, When, for a moment. Daniel Pink offers the potential of 80 + days in the year when you can make a fresh start:

  • 1st day of the month (12)
  • Mondays (52)
  • 1st day of Spring / Summer / Fall / Winter (4)
  • 1st day of an important religious holiday (1)
  • Your Birthday! (only 1 thankfully)
  • A loved one’s birthday (1)
  • 1st day of school or semester (2)
  • 1st day of a new job (1)
  • The day after graduation (1)
  • 1st day back after vacations (2)
  • Anniversaries (7)

Here are my own personal on-going anchor days on a consistent basis:
1. Mondays
2. New Month
3. New Quarter
4. 1st day of a business trip

Now, let me drill down on one that makes the biggest impact for me on a consistent basis:

Business Travel

Every single road warrior has this one thing, the same thing in common for absolutely every one of us and on every single business trip.

The FIRST DAY of the trip.

  • No matter what we do.
  • No matter where we go.
  • No matter if it’s our 1st month on the road or our 2nd decade.

We all have the first day of a business trip.

As a result, having an Anchor Day is absolutely critical to becoming an Elite Road Warrior (ERW).

We are on the road to PERFORM which is the 4th of the 6th energy habits.

Why? Because how the 1st day goes, the rest of my trip usually goes.

A creature of habit.

If I can establish an “anchor” of certain behaviors on my 1st day, they will be my anchor keeping me grounded for the rest of the trip. On the flip side, I witness business travelers with shallow or no anchors and their 1st day of the business trip is inconsistent and all over the place.

I’ve watched it play out so many times as each day of the business trip continues. Their energy, and as a result, their effectiveness and productivity dramatically decrease. Simply put, They’re “getting by” NOT “getter better”

Let me stop and get personal. Is that the case with you? – Are you getting by or getting better on your trip and specifically on the 1st day of your business trip?

And I’ve learned, once the train leaves the station, or in my case, the plane leaves the runway, I need to work my Anchor Day Plan.

Not going to be THAT guy anymore. Sorry, Ed McMuffin Guy, you’re on your own on this one, man.

So, let’s work through the three aspects of an Anchor Day in my example of a Road Warrior:

Set Date – 1st day of my business travel – this is my WHEN

Catalyst Behaviors – these are pre-determined actions I need to do – This is the WHAT

And here are some examples for me personally:

1. Taking my Breakfast with me – don’t leave to chance (AND if I have a healthy breakfast I’m FAR more likely to have a healthy lunch/dinner)

2. Move – moving at the airport / standing and walking on the flight / stretching

2. Snacks – bringing / buying (stopping somewhere to get fresh snacks) – finding a Whole Foods / Trader Joe’s, etc.

3. Hotel Room – I found this to be a big one for me because it’s my Home Away From Home on a trip.

4. Connect – Check in with those at home – this is done by early morning videos / audio / text messages so my family has received them from me before they even wake up

5. Rest – Early Bed Time – this is SO key the 1st day because most of the time I have an early flight and changing time zones AND if I start out sleep deprived on day one, I rarely if ever make up that sleep and we all know where that leads – affecting our performance, then coming home absolutely blitzed and exhausted, useless to anyone back home and our 1st day back from a business trip.

Now, remember, after the Set Date and Catalyst Behavior, is the 3rd aspect of the Anchor Day which is…

Specific Triggers reminders or cues / IF this, THAN that = WHERE

  •  Water bottle / tupperware / snack bag out the night before
  • Apple Watch alarms – stand / drink water
  • Hotel Key hitting the room door – trigger for the H.O.M.E. acronym to kick in

 

So, I challenge you to think about your very next business trip and what you could do to create an anchor day. Start small and build on it!