Why International Flights Are Good for Mental Health

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In recent months, I’ve been taking more and more trips between Cape Town and San Francisco. Now, this a long flight. It generally consists of two legs, one to the Middle East or Europe then the second to the USA. Total time in the air: around 24 hours.

When it hasn’t been done in a while, long distance travel is exciting, but it quickly becomes a chore. Crossing 12 time zones, sleeping in airports and sitting on planes forever certainly exact a wicked toll on the body. Lately however, I’ve grown to appreciate what all that lonely time in the air does for my mind.

Let me explain. If you’re reading this blog, you are probably a technophile who spends a ridiculous amount of time in front of their laptop and generally enjoys working more than the average person (just like me). In my case, I fell that The problem with this behaviour is that I rarely give myself the chance to unplug- I thrive on being hyper connected all the time- so constant email, task management, Twitter and RSS are what I thrive on. Even if you can live like this without experiencing fatigue or productivity losses, I find that a key element of mental balance can easily be crowded out and forgotten: introspection.

Introspection occurs when we spend long periods alone, and delve into our mind to remember what’s important to us, what kind of people we want to be, and ask ourselves how things are going. It’s a surprisingly elusive state if you have constant access to Wifi or an iPhone with 3G in your hand. I love it. It’s a form of meditation. A session of proper introspection leaves me feeling more centered, relaxed, motivated and in control. It is highly recommended.

Of course, I could do this at home (or in a hotel) once in a while, and I should. But somehow, I always manage to get busy and stay that way. I’ll work on improving. For now though, I’ll keep appreciating the silver linings of these long distance travel clouds. And why doesn’t this apply to domestic travel, you may ask? Because one can usually get onboard Wifi on local flights of course!

—This post written 11,500m somewhere above the Atlantic. Image credit: Shutterstock.

5 Lessons from Billionaires - Based on Real Life Interactions

My good friend Roger Norton recently wrote a thought provoking blog post describing some of the lessons he had learned from billionaires.
During years of working in the super yacht industry, Roger spent a large amount of one on one time with his various bosses (the yacht owners), all of whom were members of the richest club on Earth. I remember hearing a lot of inspiring, interesting, and sometimes downright wacky stories from him on this topic. 

In his post he shares some of the conclusions he made about the mega-wealthy, based on his observations. These include:
1. You can become a billionaire in any area. The professional range and disciplines of Roger’s bosses varied wildly, from financial traders to fishing tycoons.

2. Anyone can be a billionaire. The social circumstances from which the individuals came from mattered far less than their willingness to pursue to their ambitions. 3. It take a certain type of person. A certain mindset or way of thinking was common among them, exemplified by tenacity and critical thinking.

4. Having loads of money doesn’t change you, it just lets you be more you. Money is simply the ultimate enabler.
5. All rich people have enemies. I’m not convinced that this applies to everyone, but Roger did notice a certain paranoia among several of his bosses.

For more detail, I suggest reading Roger’s original post.