A colleague told me an astonishing statistic yesterday. One of the units of her multinational (sorry, I can't share its name and, no, it's not the one you might think) did a survey of how much time its professionals spend traveling. Including the end-to-end bits, meaning leaving the house, waiting at security, flight time, car rental or its equivalent plus travel to the destination, the average business person in said firm spends EIGHT YEARS OF HIS/HER LIFE ON THE ROAD!
The next statistic I'm looking for: how much of that time did the traveler find meaningful? Some people like traveling for the sheer solitude it brings; others, imagine, actually find the meetings they go to worthwhile.
Which brings the question I ask often: how many of the meetings you've traveled to recently were worth the trip? I'm traveling today - but it's only across town and I KNOW this one will be worthwhile (just in case the attendees are reading).