How do you balance life with travel & experiences?

Hey Decision Maker,

The inaugural edition of Jack Alderton Weekly has landed in your inbox ;)

It’s a bit rough around the edges but I decided to take action and get it sent out to you.

Remember: action precedes clarity, not the other way around.

Now, the focus of this letter will be balancing life with travel and experiences.

For those who aren’t yet too familiar with my self-improvement philosophy, here’s a brief summary:

“Physical fitness and health leads to mental clarity and focus. When the physical and mental are aligned, we can apply ourselves to making money and delivering value to the world. Purposefully aligned, we can cherish and develop new social, familiar and romantic relationships.”

This is my guiding star that covers all areas of life when becoming a Decision Master.

Let’s get right into it:

Fitness | Eating smart while travelling. Should you do it?

Lately, I’ve been travelling a fair bit, using up my leave from work and trying to maximise my time in Asia. Naturally part of the travel experience is food and local delights, which I don’t want to miss out on.

Now in my day-to-day life, I track my calories and diligently follow my diet plan. I feel and perform better when my caffeine intake is optimised and I eat clean foods (animal-based - steaks, eggs, butter, fruit and honey).

So how do we balance these two competing priorities?

Discipline and healthy habits are ingrained in me. I can switch ‘off’ and switch ‘on’ again whenever I want. So, my approach is to liberate myself while travelling and enjoy the experience to the fullest. Tracking & watching what I eat doesn’t gel well with the flow of the trip, so my holidays become a sort of ‘diet break’ where I permit myself to reset.

This isn’t to say make stupid decisions and destroy your progress. You’re probably not at the same stage as me. A few practical recommendations I’ll give you is to keep busy. Walk a lot instead of getting Ubers. Drink water all day and only eat when you can plan a great meal you will truly enjoy.

Actionable step:

Decide to have an all-out cheat day. Eat whatever you want and more. Weird advice right? Notice how shit you feel after. If you’re reading this then you have goals to be better. Sit on the feeling and journal your thoughts. I don’t think you’ll do it again any time soon.

Mindset | No place is perfect. You make your life what it is.

For the last few years (particularly during Covid) I’d daydreamed about moving to another country. I’d watch YouTubers holed up in places like Bangkok or the beaches of Bali.

“Wow, that’s the life” as I sat stuck in my tiny studio apartment in a rainy Sydney winter. 

Now, I have moved to another country (Malaysia) and explored most of the places I wanted to.

If there’s one message I’d have for you it’s that no place is perfect. YOU make your life what it is.

Some cities have great weather and they’re cheap. But they’re not so safe and the culture doesn’t align with yours. Others are modern social hubs but you pay for the privilege.

Seasons change, people move on and money comes and goes. What stays the same is your internal ability to achieve mental clarity, happiness and fulfilment.

There are homeless people out there happier than most of us ‘regular’ people.

There is something to that.

Actionable step: 

Decide to have a conversation with your family or living peers about what you like about your current location. If a tourist came to visit your town or city, what would you recommend they see or experience? If you live by yourself, challenge yourself to go do a tourist activity in your own city.

Money | Is a tool to reduce stress and discomfort.

Materialism without purpose is akin to a slow death. You’re sacrificing your true internal well-being for external validation. 

I’m a victim of this. Anyone born in an English-speaking country is. And I think that’s ok. What we don’t want to do is stay victims. Be conscious of how you spend your money and make sure you get the most out of it.

Use it freely to reduce your stress and discomfort to eliminate distractions and excuses that hold you back from pursuing your real goals. If you have a shitty chair, it’s a great reason to not sit down and do the work.

Spending $500 on a premium desk throne may sound like overkill BUT if it improves your comfort and gets you to do the work it will pay off many times over.

It’s just another way of saying ‘experiences over things’ but intentionally. What things deliver experiences that stand the test of time? Buy those things.

Actionable step:

Decide to allocate yourself $50, or equivalent local currency, and plan how you would spend it to reduce your stress as much as possible. The best examples would be investments that pay off many times over - think, high-quality meal prep containers you can use every week or the purchase of a productivity app that improves your flow by 1% (forever).

Relationships | Make time for your real friends.

We all think that there are so many fake people out there. If we all think about it, how can it be true? Well, you’re probably fake too. I recently had my Instagram disabled for not following ‘community guidelines’. It’s nonsense but I can’t dispute or reach anyone at Meta.

It made me realise I attached so much personal value (ego) to my social media account and online ‘clout’. But why? Only 1 or 2 people reached out to me in the week after it was disabled. No one noticed or cared.

The lesson here is to focus on your real friends. Those who have proven themselves to you in real life, not just online. It’s so easy to be caught up with the online nonsense that you lose sight of what it means to be a social animal. Get out there are spend time with your friends.

If you don’t have many (or any) friends, shoot me a message. I’ll see if I can hook you up with any resources or connections that may help you in the right direction. But keep your head up, you have social value to offer, no matter how introverted or ‘uninteresting’ you think you are.

Actionable step:

Decide to organise an event with your friends. It can be just one, or many. Be the leader and make it happen. If no one shows up? Still, go & enjoy time to yourself. You will attract the right people into your life. Keep going.

I’m sure you’ve had quite a few thoughts by now, as well as excuses or limiting beliefs that popped into your head.

Thoughts without actions are useful but not the most impactful.

My challenge to you: decide to apply all of these steps over the next week.

If that’s not realistic, pick one you can definitely apply and do that.

Let me know how you go,

Jack “supporting you” Alderton

P.S. Shoot me a reply with your feedback. I will work to improve the newsletter each week and the best way to iterate is with feedback.