How To Travel Jet Lag Free And The Power Of Conditioning

Traveling can be tough, especially when your energy state and clarity of mind are vital keys to the success of your intended engagement. I just got back from Taipei, Taiwan. Several people had warned me about the jet lag I would face on the return journey. Well, I was tired for a day but had no jetlag at all. The 16 hour door to door journey on my way to Taiwan a week earlier was also great. We crossed 16 time zones From Seattle to Taipei. When I travel from Seattle to Israel it’s a 23 hour journey across 10 time zones. I have had multiple opportunities to practice my jet lag free travel system and it’s working well.  It helps me to maintain high energy and be in the “zone” for our strategy and leadership summits.

How to travel jet lag free? I will explain my “travel jet lag free” system in a series of posts. It’s based on understanding your body, your mind and your energy system. It’s simple and you can do it too. Before we get to that topic though, I have to get this thought out: airplanes, subways, buses and movie theaters are the few places where we find ourselves sitting almost on top of strangers. If you sat so close to a total stranger anywhere else it would seem improper. What’s my point? It shows how conditioned we are. It is okay to sit elbow-to-elbow, shoulder-to-shoulder with a total stranger on the plane, yet the only other circumstance in which we are so physically close to another person for so many hours is if you share the same bed.  Why are we not horrified by this thought? It is because of our social and economical conditioning. That’s right. Most of what we think of as “looks strange” or feels “perfectly normal” is a byproduct of our economical and social conditioning. In some cultures people stand very close and make physical contact as they engage in conversion. In other cultures this would be considered offensive. But regardless of the culture, when we fly we all find ourselves sitting the same distance from each other on the 737 or the 777. The better option is first class, it makes a huge difference, but even there we still are sitting very close to one another and we take it as a given. This is good, otherwise we could not fly. But what else do we take as a given that is not helpful?

In what other aspects, not productive for you do you allow cultural and economical conditioning to run the program?

© Aviv Shahar