“For any man of good will, there is work to be done here, effective, virtuous, satisfying work which can give rich meaning to one’s own life and to others” ~ Abraham Maslow
What do you want? It is amazing how difficult the answer to this simple question can often be. Perhaps it really isn’t such a simple question, and it’s even a little bit dangerous. Most of the decisions we make daily revolve around our desires, yet it can be hard to decide what we really want to have, what we want to do, and what we want to be.
The question of desire is not insignificant to building your travel practice. We engage in what we do, regardless of our profession, because of our desires. We want to be a travel professional, we want to travel and help others to travel, we want to provide material and psychological stability for ourselves and our families.
Getting a bit of clarity on our desires can help us achieve them.
Part of the challenge of gaining clarity is the matter of our core values. As Abraham Maslow saw it, we tend to think first of our most basic needs of food, shelter, and financial stability. Understandable. However, we are often best served by clarifying our way of being, understanding what is most important to our integrity. If we give priority to what and how we desire to be, it is often easier to build a creative vision of how we can best achieve our material desires.
Your clients intuit your values. They can see what is most important to you in the way you reach out to them, in the manner of your marketing and customer service. Our values reveal themselves time again in our business practices. Your travel practice is a hall of mirrors reflecting back to you and to others in your vicinity what you choose to make important. Attempting to achieve your desires in the context of your value system lends authenticity to the effort.
When what you want is informed solely by the desire to have, it can appear indulgent and self-serving. When embedded in positive core values, your desires can mirror the needs and desires of your clients.
What is most important to your client is their travel, the peace of mind knowing they are in good hands. The more client-centric your travel practice, the more your client sees themselves at the heart of your practice. There is no better image for them to see reflected back.
When you know what you want, it is far easier to achieve your most earnest desires. Nothing facilitates the process more than assisting others to get what they most want.
