Traveling Professionals – The Good, Bad, And Downright Ugly

It's so true the grass always looks greener on the other side. Many people take a particular job for the money and other people prefer the "free" perks associated with it.

If you choose to work as a flight attendant the best perk is probably that you get to fly for free or at least really cheap. But there's a tradeoff. You can expect to get average or maybe less than average pay and have to be gone two or three days a week.  Or worse you might have to stay home but be on call and have to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.  Maybe you will have to walk out on one of your kids performances to be gone for 3 days.

Cruise line employees work for very little pay, but they do get free lodging and travel. However, they are working so many hours there's very little time to explore regardless. You do have the ability to do very well in the tip department but seriously, how far is that really going to take you towards retirement? And when it comes to benefits...forget it.

Bottom line is it's very stressful to travel for any occupation. It may be refreshing for the first few weeks to be living out of a suitcase but that wears thin fast. Psychologists agree humans need to feel grounded, a place to come home to and belong to. CNN mental health specialists remind us that social belonging is a fundamental human need; and part of that is having a home.

Traveling constantly can cause stress, because it may feel like you don't have a home, if you are constantly on the road. What you think and believe is your reality; not necessarily what is.

Whether you are a truck driver, traveling salesman, pilot, or flight attendant, you're always looking for ways to free time up by reducing the tasks on your plate when you get home. This helps to eliminate work overload, stress, remove minor daily headaches that snowball into major issues, and give you the opportunity to focus on what you're good at.

Time is Money

When you are on the road all the time it's very difficult to take care of usual daily tasks, just because you aren't actually home that often to get them done. And when you are home you're probably exhausted; trying to recover and find your ground before you leave again.

With what little time you do have at home you don't want to waste it doing things you don't enjoy doing. And you certainly don't want to waste precious time getting stressed out over things you can't get done or just aren't very good at doing.

Options to Relieve Stress

*You can get friends and family to help you out but that will only last so long. Eventually they're going to get tired of mowing the grass, watering your plants, cleaning your house, and dropping off forgotten bill payments.

*There's always the option of hiring a couple local kids to get chores done for you and run errands, but you've got to ask yourself, really how dependable are they?

*You can try and do it all yourself; work, travel, clean, cook, do your taxes, keep track of your bills, make appointments, book your hotels and flights, and so forth. But that's hardly removing any stress and making room for more free time doing thing you want to do, not what you have to do.

Your best bet is to hire professional people or businesses to help clear your hectic schedule and give you the peace of mind knowing you have one less thing to worry about. You can hire a cleaning company to keep your house neat and tidy. A trusted lawn services company can make sure your landscaping always looks one step better than your neighbors. A virtual assistant will handle all your bookings and planning; a huge stress even for the seasoned traveler. And you can search out a reputable bill payment service that guarantees all your bills will be paid on time every time.

Anything you can to do free up time to do more of the things you love is a fabulous thing.