I joined the 1K Club this year. The 1K Club are people who have flown 100,000 miles in a year.
This year I have been to Tokyo 8 times, plus Paris, Turks and Caicos, New Orleans, and Dublin, Ireland. That is a total of 126,720 flight miles.
This is the point where I should note that I don’t really enjoy flying. Planes are more crowded and noisier than they’ve ever been. Groucho Marx once said “I don’t want to be a member of any organization that would have me as one of its members”. That’s how I feel about being part of the 1K Club.
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As a result of doing all of this flying, I have learned how to sleep anyplace. If I can block out all of the light and sound, I can go to sleep. So I invested in a really good pair of noise-cancelling headphones, and a really good eyemask. When I put both of those on, I block out everything, and I can go to sleep.
I also have earplugs, and an app on my phone that makes “white noise”. In really noisy situations, I can put the earplugs in, then the headphones go on top, and I play white noise, and I can’t hear a thing, no matter how loud it is outside.
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One of the things I’ve learned this year is how much noise there is, and how much I enjoy reducing it.
I’m not talking about the noise you hear. I’m talking about the noise of distractions. Distractions are those interruptions that are not important.
When I fly, I have the opportunity to really focus on what is in front of me. I can take a life situation, or a problem, or a work project, and focus on it for 2-3 hours without interruption. I have been more productive this year than I’ve ever been before.
I’ve written 80 essays this year. I completed every work deliverable.
And I also have the opportunity to think, and be creative when I fly. I focus on what’s really important.
What’s really important is my family, my friends, my health and my spirit.
So while I didn’t love all of the flying that I did, I am really focused on what’s important.
It’s not the noise.
Hal