5 Tips To Stay Focused, Energized & In Control While Traveling for Work  

Every New Year brings excitement and hunger for new opportunities both professionally and personally.  New opportunities could mean that you close that big deal you’ve been working on, you land a new potential client/investor sit-down meeting, or that the perks of the promotion that you scored before the holidays are now kicking in.  It also means you could find yourself preparing for the first — and biggest – offsite professional meeting of your life (or at least of the new year), and although it’s exciting, it can be overwhelming too.

For first-time professional travelers, the experience of being prepared with the appropriate presentation, plan, and key points for discussion is stressful enough without having to ask yourself what items to pack, eat or wear that will get you in top shape for a great first impression with a business connection (in a meeting that could be the game-changer for your career, initial perceptions really do count!).

So if this scenario describes you right now, the 5 stress-busting tips below can help you feel totally in control of your “first impression moment,” as a first-time business traveler:

1. Power Trip
No matter whether you are packing for a trip where you are part of a team, or going solo, representing your business requires that you feel like a rock star. What better way to feel like you can kill it, then to wear an amazing pair of killer heels?

Solution: Pick out your power heels at the beginning of your travel week, as a visual motivator for how you are going to feel when you first shake hands with that game-changing individual in your big meeting. Visual motivation is truly powerful for building confidence, and if you walk into your meeting feeling like a rock star because you’ve been visualizing yourself presenting in your power shoes all week, then chances are you will feel the part and own the dialogue as you deliver a confident message.

2. Cut The Carbs and Go Nutty
Stress is a funny thing.  When our body senses duress, it goes into fight-or-flight mode and our eating habits follow.  The problem is, if you have been carb-loading for weeks leading up to your travel date due to stress, then you will not only feel heavier, but you will feel tired.  You may also be constipated or have more gas than usual, and thus certainly won’t feel at your best to tackle your first big travel experience as a professional. On top of that, what we feed our bodies, we feed our brains — and you need to think as clearly as you can leading up to your first impression.

Solution: For more brain focus, eat more protein like hard-boiled eggs and protein bars or shakes, and kick in the more healthy snacks like almonds and cashews in the weeks before your trip. Just making this small change can not only make you physically healthier, it can have a big impact on your positive energy and brain clarity.

3. Hydrate
Water is magic. It flushes toxins from the 60 trillion cells in our bodies, helps keep our digestive and kidney systems functioning properly, our muscle flexibility up to par, and headaches at bay.  If you are not drinking enough water, your body will actually retain water because it thinks it’s dehydrated, which will leave you bloated, tired and sore with a potential kidney infection.

Solution: In the weeks leading up to your travel, prepare your body to be at its best by replacing at least one coffee/tea/soda/day with a 16 oz. bottle of water (or coconut water) infused with lemon, mint, cucumber or berries for flavor. This small change will help your metabolism and toxin-flushing systems from breaking down or cramping up, and will not only boost your energy, but will help your skin look better too (and who doesn’t want their skin to look great for their first big off site-meeting impression)?

4. Organize Your Purse
Your purse is your personal signature. It reflects who you are and how you think. If you are always rummaging through papers, pens, wrappers, and snacks to find your lip gloss, then you need to overhaul your bag before you hit the plane or car for your trip to talk business. No one is impressed with a messy purse.

Solution: Try these tips to get you organized before you travel:

• • • Put your essential make-up and a small perfume roll-on bottle in a small cosmetic zipper case to find them easily.
    • Get rid of all outdated receipts in your wallet and loose papers in your bag (shred or trash them).
    • Lose the chunky wallet and take a smaller wallet with you, holding the essential cards (license, credit card, passport and hotel rewards card, if you have one).
    • Pack a small toothbrush and toothpaste in a ziplock bag, along with a thin pack of make-up remover and oil-absorbing wipes that you can use to remove any smudged mascara or excess oil from your face before your meeting.
    • Pack a small organic hand sanitizer bottle  to help prevent getting sick.
    • Pack a healthy power snack mix to munch on.
    • Pack a small bottle of wrinkle-remover spray to press out wrinkles in a pinch.
    • Make sure you’ve got your phone charged and loaded with both relaxing and power tunes to amp you up and calm you down before the meeting.  (And by all means remember to turn it off beforehand to avoid any embarrassing/stressful blaring of ringtones in the middle of a presentation.)

These tips can make a big impact on how awesome you feel carrying around the “new you” purse for your big travel day.

5. Give Yourself a High Five
You have worked hard to get ready for the opportunity to expand your product, company message or program idea, and you need to de-stress from the build-up of excitement to re-balance your brain.

Solutions:

• • • Allowing yourself an extra day to acclimate with your travel city can offer you more time to engage in the interesting environment, and offer you some time to de-stress before or after your meetings.
    • Take a short walk through the city to get some fresh air and let your mind wander thru window-shopping.
    • If your hotel has a hot tub or a steam room, take advantage of it before and/or after the presentation is over.
    • If there is a museum, library or art exhibit close by that captures your attention, make it a point to visit it after your presentation, if you have time, to add some memorable culture to your experience (or if you’re the kind of person who benefits from clearing your mind ahead of a meeting thru a change of scenery, then visit it beforehand).
    • Research the most interesting restaurants in the area and make a reservation to eat at one in the evenings.

All of these tips should help you find ways to enjoy the traveling experience and make the prep of travel/work stress a little easier to manage, which in turn will leave you feeling more relaxed for the trip home. Traveling for work for the first time can be nerve-wracking, but it is also exciting!  And being prepared with the 5 techniques above can infuse both confidence into the first impression you project, and order into what might seem like chaos – i.e. navigating a new city — thus helping you create the best professional travel experience you can have.