Three Rivers, 28 September 2022 — Stretching your horizons and getting new eyes. 

Story

It happened these past two weeks. A visit to California is helping me to rediscover the benefits of travel. Throughout history, sages and authors have underlined these benefits. In ancient times in China, Lao Tzu, a philosopher, wrote that a good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving. He stimulated us to regard life itself as travel, where the journey is more important than the destination. In the past decades, this sentiment has been echoed by countless coaches, me among them.

Another insight from ancient China says that we learn more from traveling than from “reading a thousand scrolls.” If you like to be an armchair traveler, this should shake you to stand up and get moving. Meanwhile, over in Africa almost two millennia ago, Augustine of Hippo, a theologian and philosopher, compared travel with writing the book of your life. He was quite blunt about it, saying that if you don’t travel, you will stay on page one of your life book. Travel, however, gets you to move to new pages in your book and fill them with your unique experiences.

Another piece of African wisdom talks about the process of traveling, saying that if you want to travel quickly, you’d better go alone. If, on the other hand,  you want to go far, then go together. Moving to the US, we hear powerful advice coming from Mark Twain, an author. He commented in no uncertain terms on the necessity of travel, writing how travel is “fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness,” and pointing out that broad, wholesome, and charitable views cannot be acquired by “vegetating in one little corner of the earth.” Travel, in other words, is essential for growing up and expanding your worldview. 

Challenge

So what is challenging about setting out to travel? As implied by the wisdom traditions quoted above, it is about transcending our unconscious narrow-mindedness and overcoming our internal resistance to move out of our comfort zone. We only learn about this when we make travel happen. Only then do we experience how it will influence our mind. You can’t really predict how travel will impact on you, until you do it.

For those of you who would limit the scope of our exploration to physical travel to new places, I can say wholeheartedly that, from my experience, such travel really helps. However, it’s not the only kind of travel that helps us grow to our human potential and overcome our narrow-mindedness. Here is where Marcel Proust, a European novelist and critic, comes to our help. The real voyage of discovery, Proust contended, “consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

The truth of Proust’s insight has made it possible for many of us to keep learning and growing with new eyes while being cooped up at home during the lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic when travel was off limits. So how do you get new eyes? This, in my experience, is part and parcel of developing yourself as a leader, by taking on challenging assignments and connecting with people on a deeper level. 

Question

My question for you this week is about reviewing where you have traveled in the past year, both physically and by getting new eyes as Proust suggested. What did you learn from your travels? Contrary to common wisdom, we don’t learn from experience, but by reflecting on experience. So, even if you travel frequently, you might not learn as much as you can until you make reflection a part of your daily and weekly practices.

As I traveled across California, including Yosemite Valley shown in the photo, I spent time every day reflecting on what I saw and learned, how that challenged my mindset, and what the new insights I gained made possible for me. In this way, I was able to combine the benefits of physical travel — stretching my horizons — with getting new eyes. In the process, I gained many insights that I can use in the weeks and months to come.

Back to the sages quoted earlier, who contended that we should consider life as a journey without a destination. Whether your next travel is physical or by getting new eyes, what matters most is, always, what steps you will be taking next. For leaders, this is about figuring out your next transition and getting started with it, as the new chapter in your book of life. If you would like to explore this with a leadership coach, let me know by setting up a free strategy call. I look forward to hearing from you.