7 Life Lessons from My Family Europe Trip

My wife, five kids and I recently spent three weeks in Europe. I made a commitment on the flight there to write about my experiences. Besides capturing memories, I wasn’t sure what I was going to get out of it, but I quickly realized that I was documenting something that I had learned each day.

As I reviewed these journal entries, I compiled the seven most impactful life lessons from the trip, and I wanted to share in case they add value for your life too.

1 - No matter what it is, it’s not nearly as hard as we build it up in our minds to be.

While in London, I had to drive on the left side of the road while seated on the right side of the car, which was a new experience for me. The car we rented was also manual, and I hadn’t driven stick shift in many years.

The night before I got very little sleep because I was nervous about driving in this new way. I felt overwhelmed by the unknowns of the road systems and traffic.

I got behind the wheel and felt apprehensive for the first 30 minutes of the drive. I finally told myself, “It’s no big deal. It won’t be as bad as you think it will be.” And that made all the difference.

Whether it’s driving in a foreign country or giving a presentation or tackling a specific challenge, I learned that it’s never as hard as we build it up in our minds to be.

2 - Smile and be friendly.

We try to give our kids a real-world experience, so we were traveling via subway in Paris. I’d never been to the city before, and I was a little stressed about getting my family to where we wanted to go.

I was trying to buy tickets at a kiosk, which wasn’t working. Frazzled and frustrated, I went up to the attendant and told her exactly what I needed. She looked at me and said, “Hello, good morning!” Her kind and friendly demeanor reminded me to stop, smile and start again in a much more calm and positive manner.

No matter the situation, it is much more effective to smile and be friendly to those we interact with.

3 - Clarity breaks are therapeutic.

I’ve talked a lot about clarity breaks to my close circle. In the last five years, I’ve probably missed having a clarity break only a handful of weeks.

About a week and a half into the trip, I felt the need to reset and refocus, so I held a clarity break while riding on a train. With classical music playing, I started writing and reflecting, and the experience was so therapeutic.

The lesson I took away from this experience is that clarity breaks are imperative to my overall emotional and mental health.

4 - Appreciate the simple things.

I sometimes have a hard time being present and living in the moment, instead always focusing on the next big thing. I have an example from my trip that taught me to appreciate the simple things.

While in Edinburgh, my daughter really wanted to get her hair cut, so my wife took her and my other girls to a salon, leaving me and my two sons (ages 16 and 5) to kill time. We found an open grass area and had a blast playing tag.

I thought to myself, “Can it really be this simple?” We didn’t have an elaborate game or technology, just the three of us playing tag, laughing and tackling each other in the grass. It was a simple yet beautiful moment and a good reminder to not overcomplicate things.

5 - Be patient.

In my twenty years of journaling, I have probably written about my impatient tendencies probably thousands of times. As a business owner and entrepreneur, I have a tendency to want others to run at my pace.

One night I thought, “Why am I expecting my kids to push at the pace that I can or want to push?” What is possible for me is not physically possible for them.

As a parent or business leader, it’s important to encourage others and hold them accountable, but it’s also important to be patient with others’ abilities. Not everyone can run at the same pace.

6 - Be grateful.

I’ve written about gratitude and the concept of going BIG in the past. BIG stands for Begin in Gratitude. When you develop a habit of starting each day in gratitude, then you switch your focus to Being in Gratitude in every aspect of your life.

While traveling through Europe, we would outline the list of things we wanted to do each day, and often we would only make it to a few. It was easy to fall into “gap” thinking and being bummed about the sites we didn’t make it to, but instead I tried to be grateful for all the experiences I was able to have with my family each day.

7 - Strive for flow.

Over the years, I’ve read a lot about the concept of flow. The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown is an incredible book about the rowing team from the University of Washington that won the gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics. In rowing, they call it “swing” when all rowers are in complete sync. Swing also involves loyalty and brotherhood between team members.

My family attended a violin quartet performance at Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. It was incredible to watch these four musicians get into a complete element of flow. They communicated with their eyes and faces instead of with words and performed at an exceptional level. This experience made me think about how teams and families (not just individuals) can strive for and achieve flow.

Overall, we had a great trip, full of new experiences and life lessons. For more details about the trip, please check out my video recap.