The glamour of travel wears off in a hurry

To the uninitiated, business travel might seem glamorous, but a busy travel schedule can quickly move from merely tiresome to downright stressful.

What can you do if you find yourself loathing the demands of your current job and dreading each trip?

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Rick Griffin, a business coach and trainer with Eaglespire Coaching, advises clients to first take a look at the reason for each trip and determine if travel is really necessary. "There are so many technology options available today with teleconferencing, videoconferencing and Web-enabled conferencing," he said. "Sometimes the need to travel can be leveraged differently if we stop and think through the purpose behind the trip."

Technology in the way of conference calls and the Internet has made all the difference for Lori Silverman of Partners For Progress, a management consulting firm. She logged 200,000 miles a year for a decade. Now, she travels about 30,000 miles a year. "My clients love it because the expenses for their business are reduced, and I find I can get the exact same results," she said.

While technology can reduce the need for some travel, face-to-face meetings are sometimes necessary. Griffin coaches clients to set boundaries for themselves about the amount of travel they'll do. "I personally have a boundary where I try to travel no more than two or three times per month," he said. "Once I have my commitments made for two travels in a month, I'll block my calendar and eliminate any options for me to travel those other weeks."

Certain jobs by nature require a lot of travel, and, in those cases, cutting back isn't possible. "Then we have to look at choices," said Griffin. "Either they have to embrace the travel, or they have to look at other options for themselves."

A busy travel schedule caused Kevin Baird, current president of MyWeather LLC and former vice president of sales for Achieve3000, to investigate other options. He found the constant travel wearing. "It's very difficult to have any kind of healthy lifestyle," he said. "You have to look hard to find healthy choices for food at an airport. And traveling is emotionally grueling because everything that defines you as a person is gone ? your home, familiar surroundings, friends, family, even your own car."

Maintaining a positive mental attitude helps keep things in perspective. Susan Colby, vice president of the Avedon Colby Group, visits a client each week, leaving Madison Sunday afternoon and returning late Wednesday. "At the end of the week, you come home and look at the house and at the kids and know it's been all worthwhile," she said.