#success #planning — As the title suggests, preparation and planning are keys to success for anything worthwhile that you do. I certainly have faith in this as I’ve been busy with the planning for my upcoming trip to Cuba in a few days.
This is my final weekend of preparation before I depart for my trip and there is so much involved. One would think that it’s just a simply matter of packing up the bathing suit and then hopping on a plane to the sunny beaches. Maybe that might be true for some people for their vacations but not for my trips.
This trip in particular, will be a combination of business, adventure travel and edutourism. First of all, I have to prepare as a keynote speaker for an international conference in Havana where I will be doing two separate talks. This will require bringing all my technical gear that I usually bring to talks like my laptop computer and other related equipment plus some of my books for the audience.
Then I have had to research and secure travel arrangements for a remote location in Cuba for my few days of scuba diving. Sure I could have taken the easy route and just either stay at a Havana hotel or at a tourist beach resort for the rest of my trip but that’s no adventure. I’m choosing to go to the best location for diving which is a five hour trip through the country. But I’m assuming the experience will be much more memorable and therefore worth all the additional prep work required.
Packing all my scuba gear is always a monster of a job since there’s so much stuff to take down. I will be struggling this weekend to see where I can really lighten up my luggage load so far between my scuba gear and my conference materials.
I also had to secure all pet sitter arrangements so that my two dogs will be well taken care of here at home while I’m away. This has not been that easy since there are relatively few services where pet sitters stay overnight.
Finally, I had to secure my internet businesses so that everything at least runs smoothly while I’m out of the country because unlike other places, Cuba will have limited internet connections so I don’t expect to be able to maintain my websites, videos and newsletters while I’m down there. I might not even be able to access email.
On top of all this, I’m bringing down my camcorder equipment too because I can’t resist the great opportunities for awesome video footage for future episodes of my Clint Cora Motivational WebTV show. How often does one get to shoot scenes in Havana? So all of this crazy preparation and planning hopefully will result in a very successful trip where I will have much to share upon my return.
photo credit: alexljackson
