Welcome to the Christmas edition of my journal - and the last one for this year.
It’s also a time for me to do my now already traditional yearly reflection practice. As I was doing it, I found that one of my big achievements in 2023 was keeping the routine of writing my Substack throughout the whole year.
Another thing I thought about were the benefits and reasons of keeping up with a routine like writing my own Substack. I got asked a few times recently why do I do it and there are 3 main reasons:
The first one is merely to stay disciplined and accountable. If I say to myself I’ll write biweekly or weekly, I’ll do that. It’s a good training for other responsibilites and projects in life. It’s a non-negotiable thing.
Then there’s the fact that writing a newsletter forces me to read, watch and listen to interesting content. Whether it’s other newsletters, books or movies, I’m on the lookout for what inspires me. Sometimes I watch a movie and I see a connection with tourism and then it’s easy to write about it.
The biggest WHY is to build a community of curious individuals.
The why get’s easier when you have support from your readers. I met with one of my readers at the WTM in London recently and it meant a lot to me when she said that she really enjoys my newsletter. When I hear that it makes me even more accountable because now I know that people are actually expecting and reading my newsletters.
Building a community is also the big vision I have for this publication. To understand how different personal and professional aspects of our lives such as technology, sustainability, art, communities, etc. influence how and why we travel. But not just travel, also how we spend our leisure time.
Although now it’s just me writing and you reading, I want to hear and learn from you as well. To have a debate with other smart people like I had with my reader in London and as I have regularly with my mentor.
The goal for the next year for me is to have more of these types of conversations with such people all over the world and to inspire more people. How I plan to do this? My two ideas are:
Monthly community calls: think of it like a book club, where we would discuss different ideas, research findings, books, movies and how they are shaping the world of travel & leisure.
Podcast: I love this medium and I already recorded 28 episodes of my first podcast TourismFromZero - and stopped it 2 years ago. I’m considering in reviving it in a similar format. To talk with successful travel & leisure professionals from all around the world.
Whether these will be free or paid, I’m still yet to figure it out. I want to make it accessible but at the same time make it highly selective for highly committed people.
Expect to hear from me in 2024, perhaps already with new ways to get involved. Stay tuned!
And to look back a bit, I wanted to showcase which posts were your top choice in 2023. These 5 were the most read:
Now it’s time to take some (active) rest. Taking more time for reflection and inspiration from different mediums. I got two books to read throughout the holidays and I can’t wait to finish them!
CREATIVITY by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - This one was recommended by my mentor. I started reading it recently and it’s super helpful in understanding the creative process, flow and how
SOCIAL CHEMISTRY by Marissa King - It was a birthday present from my coworkers to help me get better at networking and building B2B connections. I love it!
A quote from the book Creativity to make the next year more rewarding:
“For creative persons, acting within the rules of the domain is rewarding in itself. They do it even without the reward.”
A question for us to reflect on: What was the thing in the past year that you enjoyed most and you did it without expecting a reward? How can you do more of this in 2024?
Enjoy the holidays!