As we are at the beginning of the year, it’s a good time to think about your travel plans and how you can enhance your travel experiences. Below are some ways you can add little extras to make your experiences more memorable. Whether your travels are for business or pleasure you can do something each of your trips that will give you a connecting thread and something to look back on at the end of the year.

Clowning with the Japanese delegate in Sappora, 12/17

Create an electronic album and on each trip, meet someone new, take a photo of or with them at the destination that captures the moment and or the place, and caption the photo with their name and a short intro. At the end of the year, open your album into a photo or slideshow and see what story unfolds.

Buy something from the destination that is based on an ongoing theme and see what collection presents itself.

My view at the Nutcracker with my #girlsquad 2017

Focus on one item to take a photo of and see the beauty, comedy or tragedy as you create a slideshow or photo collage. It could be faces, doors, windows, flowers, skylines, sunsets or sunrises, funny things that happened, or whatever tickles your fancy.

This last idea, I got from a friend, Lisa Dietlin, founder of Institute of Philanthropy, who every year begins a happiness or gratitude jar. Starting with an empty jar at the beginning of the year, put a note, receipt or copy of something that made you happy or you were grateful for during your travels and or planning your travels. You can include currency, a piece of a playbill or menu, a boarding pass or luggage tag, the list is endless. At the end of the year open your jar for the last time and revisit your year in travel.

Sometimes, especially in travel, when things can be stressful in the planning and even dealing with hiccups along the way, we could use some reminding of how fortunate we are to be able to travel and the joy and gratitude it brings us. Don’t you just love that! Peace and love, Ja’Vonne