How Solo Travel Builds Workplace Skills
I'm writing this as I sit in a hotel room in Dublin, Ireland. I'm a bit jet-lagged, having started my journey more than 24 hours ago and getting only a few hours' sleep since then. I'm traveling solo, which I do from time to time. There's something uniquely refreshing and exciting about traveling by yourself. From my first foray into solo travel when I was 20 (though I took a 16-hour solo flight from California to Sydney, Australia when I was 14 to meet up with family friends), I have a special place in my wanderlust heart for hitting the road (or skies, or tracks) on my own. It occurred to me today that there are many skills that I utilize while traveling that are also extremely valuable in the workplace.
You have to make hard decisions. When traveling alone you often have nobody else to rely on for decision making. From where to eat dinner to how to get from Point A to Point B, there are hundreds of decisions that a solo traveler must make. Making decisions in travel and in work can be easy or tough, can require immense brainpower or can be made with your gut. Overall, they're what drive you forward towards your destination.
You have to communicate with people. If you're traveling solo you can't pawn off those awkward convos onto your outgoing travel partner. Asking for directions, or for how to use a metro machine...you have to do it. Dealing with rude airport gate attendants or trying (desperately) to figure out how to ask to where the nearest restroom is...you have to do it. Interacting with people is usually great, but it requires extra skills if there is a language barrier or if your personalities clash. But when you're traveling, you often have to power through in order to get where you're going. In the workplace are are all navigating interpersonal relationships, be it with close team members or with sales reps of outside vendors. Being able to effectively communicate is key for both travel and work.
You have to plan. While some travelers may completely wing it, most have to plan their travels. Different kinds of trips require different levels of planning and preparation. My trip to Dublin was somewhat of a whim. I found I had some downtime between work projects, found out where I could fly to cheaply, and booked a few hotels. I have an idea of where I want to go, but for the most part I'm letting my curiosity drive me. On the flip side, in September a friend of mine and I traveled to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. While not traveling solo, it was a trip that required an immense amount of planning including how to save up money for the trek, research into the trekking tour we wanted to book, planning our gear, the logistics, and how to train for the climb itself. In our day-to-day lives our jobs are constantly requiring us to plan. And not just planning our days off so we can take our next solo trip, but planning projects months if not years ahead. Being able to look at the end goal and plan for the milestones along the way is an immensely useful skill.
You have to pivot. Sometimes your plans do not come to fruition. On my solo vacation in Europe when I was 20 I planned to travel from Cinque Terra, Italy to Prague, Czech Republic. The itinerary in the EurRail guide laid out a journey with a 10-minute layover in Munich. I knew it was cutting it close, but it was the best option I had. Sure enough my first train was late, resulting in a missed connection. Not only would I now have a 10 hour layover in Munich (this was before smart phones, so I couldn't just look up what there was to do around the train station), but I would also be arriving in the Czech Republic at 11pm. I alerted the train station personnel that I would be getting the later train, found a map of the surrounding area in the train station (I spent my day at a cafe and a teddy bear museum), looked at my hostel contact info to make sure it was handy, and bought M&M's (for the stress—as pivoting plans can and usually is associated with stress). The key to pivoting in work or travel is to keep a clear head, to think about your options, and to help mitigate any aftereffects of the pivot itself.
You have to be accountable. Solo travel is a uniquely empowering experience. It's also a uniquely challenging experience, as all of the consequences of your planning, decision making, pivoting, and communicating affect you, with nobody to blame or talk trough it with (family and friends can be great to talk to on the phone, but it's not the same if they're not there with you). In 2018 I flew to France for a friend's wedding. I planned, I made decisions, and in the end one of my decisions—to not catch one leg of a flight and to opt instead to book a last-minute connection via a closer airport—and to forget to let the airline know—resulted in my flight from London to SFO to be canceled. I found out about this about 9 hours before my flight. While I didn't know that missing my first leg would automatically cancel the second leg of my journey, I could only hold myself accountable. I called the airline (after crying a bit, let's be honest), and they managed to get me on a flight that left a few hours after my original flight. This lesson in accountability has taught me that even when something you do backfires, the best way forward is acknowledgment, accountability, and working to solve any resulting issues.
I want to end this piece by acknowledging that I am extremely privileged to be able to travel now and when I was younger. Yes I worked hard and I had (and still have) to save up for my travels, but as a cis white woman I don't experience the barriers that prevent so many people from having the ability to travel, or even to take time off. I found an organization called Girls Going Global, which aims at "empower girls of color through travel and cultural exchange to become creators and leaders of the world". I've made a donation to help ensure a wider group of people have the same experiences that helped shape who I am—not only as a traveler but also as a colleague, boss, and mentor.
Girls Going Global mission statement:
Girls Going Global (GGG) is a non profit organization seeking to address the disparity of girls of color in international education and today’s field of travel and international affairs. Girls Going Global provides global leadership programming to girls from underrepresented communities.Our mission is to empower girls of color through travel and cultural exchange to become creators and leaders of the world.
Girls examine global issues and participate in service learning projects in our Passport To The World program, equipped with the most important tool to change the world through our Passport Scholarship program, and engage in intercultural exchange and service in our Summer Travel Camp.