Travel Consultant to……..Life
As a travel agent/consultant working in a travel agency, you advise potential travelers about different destinations, the local customs, the hotels, the traffic, the cuisine, how did get around, etc.
You are trying to make the traveler’s trip as pleasant as possible.
Imagine that you are working as that consultant in a travel agency and you have a potential traveler who comes to your agency and wants to know about a destination.
He/she is not visiting Canada or USA or Great Britain, or mainland Europe. Or the Caribbean Islands.
No!!
He or she is about to visit a place called……….Life.
What do you advise?……What do you say to make the traveller’s journey more pleasant? ….More rewarding?……..Less stressful?
Here are a few things that I have come up with:
There are so many factors that contribute to your success – hard work for sure. But luck, good timing, chance play a part. But that still will not guarantee your success.
But if you are to have ANY chance at success, there are two characteristics that you would be wise to cultivate – persistence and determination.
The following quotation sums it up and is credited to many people including Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s and President Calvin Coolidge:
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
And it’s been suggested by many in order to taste the fruits of success, you must experience failures.
Thomas J. Watson wrote: “Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t as all. You can be discouraged by failure – or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember, that’s where you will find success. “
And there is no shame in failing. The only shame is not getting up and trying again.
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In your pursuit of your goals, there will be people who will try to hold you back, box you in, try to make you something that you are not. But that’s more an insecurity on their part.
People will tell you to aim for “realistic” goals. Are you not selling yourselves short? Where is the challenge?
Great men aim high; they dream of lofty goals. Les Brown said: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars.”
And Albert Einstein said: “Brilliant minds face violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
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Life is often unfair. Quoting one of his teachers, Rabbi Harold Kushner says: “Just because you’re a vegetarian, doesn’t mean the bull won’t attack.”
As for being offended: worry more who you have offended. You point your index finger, accusing someone of a fault; three fingers are pointing back at you.
And in the Bible, it says (Matt.7: 3-4): ”And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend: “Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye, when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?”
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You are constantly meeting new people, some difficult. And by your very nature, you are skeptical, even fearful of new people.
But you and everyone else share many common bonds. One is you all have experienced suffering. Nobody gets away free from heartaches. You and everyone else have their crosses to bear.
In dealing with people, Audre Maurois (1885 – 1967) wrote: “above all things, never be afraid. The enemy who forces you to retreat is himself afraid of you at that very moment.”
And Henry Ward Beecher adds: “you never know until you try to reach them how accessible men are but you must approach each man by the right door.”
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Some Final Tips (These Can’t Hurt):
In the heat of anger and frustration, be careful what you say especially behind people’s backs. It’s been said “not to burn the bridge that you may have to cross later.”
No matter what path you follow, life will be challenging, even difficult. Therefore, follow the path where your heart is.
Live by the Golden Rule: “Treat others as you like to be treated.” But it means nothing unless put into practice.
Everyone wants to be recipients of the Golden Rule. How many are willing to practise it?
Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, you hurt people………by your silence, by doing nothing. You allow peoples’ pains to continue.
There is only one question that matters, according to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: “who are you serving?”
And according to the inscription on the tombstone of baseball great Jackie Robinson: “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”
Finally, learn to love. According to Dr. Leo Buscaglia: “Man has no choice but to love. For when he does not, he finds his alternatives lie in loneliness, destruction and despair.”
