The Lazy Genius Podcast - Bonus: Lazy Geniusing Staycations with Courtney Cleveland

Episode Date: June 12, 2020

Surprise! We’re doing fun bonus episodes over the summer where I talk to others about Lazy Geniusing an aspect of our every day lives. Today, I’m talking to Courtney Cleveland of All the Best Days, and we’re Lazy Geniusing staycations and a little bit of day-tripping. This episode will legitimately give you the tools you need to travel like a Lazy Genius. Stuff Mentioned Here’s where you can find Courtney Cleveland: her personal Instagram and All The Best Days Instagram. You can get her packing list here. My book, The Lazy Genius Way, is available for preorder (and there’s a free sample available here right now)! This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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a handful of these over the summer where I actually talk to other humans and we're going to lazy genius something specific. And today we're lazy geniusing staycations and a little bit of day tripping. We're doing that with Courtney Cleveland of all the best days. So here's the thing. We're obviously in a time where we would usually be traveling because it's like the summer or at the very least we're dreaming about whatever trip we're going to take. But now everyone is pretty much stuck where they are, at least for a little while. So if you are wanting to make the most of your staycation and maybe even learn some things about like how you and your family travel, this episode legitimately gives you the tools that you need to travel like a lazy genius. I can't tell you how much fun this

episode was and how energized I feel to like take a trip. So let's just get a into it. Let's get into it. This is me and Courtney Cleveland. Lazy geniusing travel. Okay, can you talk? Happy to be here. Thank you. I'm incredibly grateful. My name is Courtney Cleveland. And I'm on the lazy. Everybody don't worry about it. Okay. All right. Let's do this. This is going to be fun. I'm ready. Let's get you set up for a fantastic. fantastic staycation, Kendra. And that's, okay, so here's the thing. We, I never really traveled as a kid.

We didn't really go on vacations. Yeah. And my husband and his family didn't either. They went to the Grand Canyon one time. And that was kind of it. And so neither of us have traveling like in our blood. You know, it's like if you grow up with a pet, you get a pet when you're an adult. If you go on vacations when you're a kid, you usually go on vacation as you're

an adult. So we're like, oh, wait, should we like go places? Right. Right. I really do that. It's not in the same. I grew up with a dad who's a CPA, and we just did that one week vacation every summer. And I out when I graduated college right out of the gate, I got a job where I was traveling every single weekend.

And so it was just this, I got dumped into building this travel muscle. And it is a muscle. And that is where I just started to notice. Like what an incredible opportunity that I have a flight out every Thursday and every like and home on Sunday to all across the country. 32 weekends out of the year, Kendra. And it was like I had a hotel and I was working and I was going to squeeze everything I could out of that city. And so I just got a lot of practice of figuring out, wow, that really gives me life. That doesn't.

I can do this. Don't do that. So and just learning about like using transportation. I mean, my very first weekend, I flew to Vegas. I didn't know what I was doing. I get to the airport. I call my dad. I go, I don't.

I mean, I don't have any money. Like, I'm like, dad, I can't even get to my job. And he wired me money. And I was like, just like it's this. This isn't built enough. It's not. And see, that's, that makes me feel so good. And I know it's going to make people who are listening feel so good because it's like,

I mean, the first, When I, when Kaz and I went on our honeymoon, we went to California. So we both grew up in North Carolina and we were like, all right, we're going to go to California. We did like San Francisco. And then we did the drive down whatever that highway is, the fancy one by the beach or whatever. Highway one.

Highway one. You would think I would remember the number one. It is the number one. It's fine. So we, but I remember like when we got to the airport, it was the second time I'd, no, third time I'd ever flown. The other two times were with mission trips. And so when you're like a team, you know, you're not paying attention.

You're just going wherever like Adam tells you to go. And so it just, I don't know. When I got into the airport, I'm like, oh, wait, we're responsible to get where we're supposed. What do we? Like, I was so thrown. But because I was like kind of an adult, you think you're supposed to know. And it feels weird to be 35 and be like, so like when they say go to a gate, like, what does that mean? Right.

And really, how soon do I need to be there? It's so confusing. It's so confusing. So anyway, so I just, I love that. You're right that it is a, it is a muscle. And I very much feel like in the first stages of like, I'm going to do a real pushup and I can't push up the first time. Like that's how weak my travel muscle feels. So I'm so glad that you're here to help me and others kind of get there. So where do we, where do we start, Courtney? How do we start lazy genusing? Not just because we can't really, we're not really going anywhere right now. Maybe some people can go certain places. But for the most part, I feel like we can all manage some kind of staycation day trip situation where we are. So how do we, where do we start? The first thing I want you to do

is to spend time finding your travel flow. And where this begins is just looking at your daily life. This is like building your dream day. Like if I got told, Courtney, you get this whole day to yourself. How are you going to spend it? What are you going to squeeze out of it? What does the ideal day look for you? Have you haven't figured out your travel flow? You can have mine. That's what we try to do on all the best days. Every episode, that is my travel flow. But if you don't like coffee, don't go to the coffee shop. If you want breakfast, add breakfast. See, this is why I am so obsessed with what you're doing because it is like the most, if I may, lazy genius way of approaching travel. Because it's like, why would you focus on what you're, you don't care about? Like,

If it doesn't matter to you, don't do it. Like, be lazy about it. But if it does matter to you, we're going to spend time on it rather than just being like, read, what's a travel magazine? Read travel. Is there one called travel? Sure. There probably is one.

If there's not, that's a miss. Travel and leisure. That's a miss. Yeah, it's like, read that and then just follow their plan. But it's like, but I don't like to ride horses. And my kids aren't going to, you know, you just sort of get overwhelmed. Like you said, you get overwhelmed. And so I love that this is specific to what matters to the individual person in finding.

And the phrase travel flow. It's like that feels so like cool and relaxed. Well, I wanted to release us from the word schedule because you could find yourself really flowing at a spot. You don't need to move from that. If that picnic, the kids are playing, the sun is shining. It's a gorgeous day and you've got a view of the river. Don't move to the next thing. think. Sure. Stay there. You know. Yeah. So I just think we need to zoom in on the things that bring us

life. Seek it out because there's a reason it lights you up and you can learn so much in that space. Your next step is I want you to have a DTR with time. I don't know if you ever had to have a DTR with a boy. It means to define the relationship. Define the relationship. The number, the dramatic stories, especially for people who grew up in church culture. It's almost like if you did not have a DTR, it was basically a sin. Like you had to. And if the DTR did not include the phrase marriage, you might as well just break up right there. Like that was the whole.

What's the point? Why are we even to go? If it doesn't end there, Kendra, what are you doing? What are you even doing? Why are you even just spending time with another human? Okay. So we need to have a DTR with time. Mine is a quick relationship.

I don't need a lot of time. I like a quick trip. I don't need, I'm trying to move my kids through an experience. I know that we can't, I can't stand and stare at a painting the way that I would like to if I take them into a museum. But I don't want to avoid going to a museum because I can't be there for a long time. They need to practice being in there. And it will benefit them to just see a few paintings. And so I just think we spend way too much time in one place.

I think we spend way too much time visiting people. We weigh over stay. People don't want us to stay for days. Go for a day. One night. Squeeze it out. It's epic. And then they can't wait to have you back again.

But people don't want you there for four days. So just having a realistic understanding of time. Notice how long your family needs at a restaurant. Notice how, like just your everyday life. Just start noticing how much time you actually spent in a spot. And at what point you were like, we got to cut it out everyone's melting down because you want to leave before the meltdown I mean isn't that kind of the pro tip like you need to leave while everyone that's the thing that's so confusing is you sort of want to leave when everyone is still kind of happy but like just on the verge of discontentment right before if you can find that sweet spot that's like the spot right yes and Kendra I'll be honest I push it every time because you just think everything's fine and you think this time we'll be different. The sun is shining. We're by the river. Let's stay. And then brother push his sister into

that river and everything is done. Yeah. And the car's parked a mile away. So great. Great. Oh, that's so good. But you're right. It's like to understand your relationship with the time, it helps you make more informed decisions when you're there. That's so smart. All right. Our third point, your road to success. What do you need? Road. I like what you did there. I like what you did there. Well, you know, we're all about some puns. What do you need on this trip? And I, listen, I have a packing list that I'll shamelessly plug if you need one. You can download it for free on my website.

But it is my packing philosophy. I have a very specific way that I pack that works for me. It relieves the stress of me trying to remember it all and be overwhelmed by the thought of packing up. And so it's just, and just teaching your kids to, like, be prepared and yourself. for all of the experiences that you might want to say yes to. Are there beach towels in the trunk? I mean, you just want to be ready to run in the creek or go for a hike.

I don't know. What shoes, what options do you need? What, what anticipating all of the questions so that you can keep moving forward and not hate your life on the trip? Numero uno. My hottest tip is I buy the biggest jugs of water. And my trunk always has water. because nothing annoys me more than a thirsty person.

You're not wrong. You're not wrong. It's so like the number of times that we just, what we live in our neighborhood, this is not a vacation, but in our neighborhood, we have like a little lake, like a little neighborhood lake.

And it's a 10 minute walk to the lake. It's not long, but the road back when they're thirsty. And it's like sort of uphill and maybe in the sun. And I'm like, we're never doing this again. We're never doing this again. And then my husband was like, Why don't we bring water bottles? Oh. And now it changes everything because they're like not thirsty

because you're right. There's nothing worse than a thirsty human, especially a small human. A small thirsty human's the worst. Yes. And if you've ever been with a group of moms, I have a lot of very prepared mom friends. And I am bragging about myself, but I have not always been the most prepared, which is why I'm now waving this flag because I look around at these moms who have, like, how do your kids all have rain boots that fit right now for the rainy day? And you have a rain jacket.

And when did you get hiking shoes? And like people just, what are these flip-flops that your children are wearing to the pool? Like I, and so I, like, we're fixing to go to Colorado. And I made a list of every shoe and jacket. it. I was like, Michael, I'm going to have a bin of shoes and jackets so that just what do we need? Is it? Oh, it was 80 degrees at the bottom of the mountain and now it's 40? Here you go. Switch it up. Like I, you're like a quick change artist. Like behind a stage.

Oh, it's so good. It's so good. But you're right. We still are bag of tricks. It's those things about, you're right. It's like that is a road to success is that. And again, it's sort of like that. interesting tension is too that is a negative word and balance is overused and stupid but it's sort of like holding that that that space that venn diagram of like we're prepared but they're also such a thing as being overprepared and you pack your entire house and then it's like too stressful anyway and so it's sort of like what do we what do we really need so that's why i'm really excited about your your packing list and the more that you i suppose like pay attention to what you use and what you don't use right when you go places that kind of helps know what you're going to

I don't know. That's my guess. That's in tip number five. Oh, look at that. Okay, good. I'm sorry. I'm going ahead. Okay, well, let's go. Let's do number four. Number four is the art of the course correct. Kendra, you can always fix and adjust a plan. You can pick out a restaurant that you think was supposed to be fabulous and you get in there and it's not your vibe.

I have sat down, gotten a menu, and a water and looked at the server and said, I'm sorry, I need to leave. I'm just not afraid because it's my trip. It's my moment. And I get really in my head about, I'm just very into aesthetics as well. And so just the whole thing, I'm just not afraid to adjust. And also in the same breath, we could also say you can try again. Like when your first attempt doesn't work or whatever, like go back.

Just be flexible and try to release the idea that this is the only chance I'll ever get to do this. And if that's true, then do it. But you know, like, oh, look, we can probably come back or I don't know. I just think like releasing, that's part of the flow too is seeking out and listening and kind of letting the day guide you. with the plan that you set. We've done that too. We've left a couple restaurants before on like in other cities. Part of it helps because you're like,

they're never going to see me again. Like it's kind of okay. But even if they did for you to just be like, this is better for all of us if we just leave because there's nothing fried on this menu that's going to keep the children from screaming. And I'm sure this is delicious and I want to eat it, but we got a piece.

And they're like, it's fine. And if they're mad, you're right. Courtney, it's your trip. You don't have to adjust your entire trip insanity and take yourself out of the picture of traveling again because you did not want to hurt Sally's feelings. That's not, it's not a worthy exchange. It's just not. It's just not. Yeah. I mean, another thing, just thinking about if you're traveling with kids, you know, walking into a place that you were so excited about and all they have are high tops. Oh, It's the worst. Well, my three people can't. We can't do this. We can't do this. You know. One day, you're negotiating with suppliers. The next, you're installing a shelf in the back room.

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And I wonder if one thing that you just said makes me think, if we go ahead into a trip or a restaurant or whatever, already giving ourselves permission to leave, that already takes out a lot of energy. Like if you just start the whole thing being like, so when we get here, if this didn't work, we're just going to go and it's cool. And then you're not like having to decide in your head if you're going to say out loud to the people you're with like, I'm not sure. is working. Should we go? You can just be like, is this working everybody? No. Let's go somewhere else. Like you could even like name. There have been times where we have been in like a little downtown or something and there is a restaurant that we're on our way to. And we pass something else that everyone's like, oh, that looks fun. And we're like, why don't we just go here then? Let's just stop here. Or we'll say, you know what, if the place we were going to go to that we were excited about when we walk in,

if it doesn't look great, let's come back here. It's a block away. You know, like just to give automatically give yourself permission. Like, You will course correct. You are going to. That's part of the art of it, I think, is that you're like, if you do a whole, I mean, have you ever done a trip where you did every single thing in the way that you thought you would? Not a chance. Not a chance.

So just go ahead and expect it. Yes. And this is just combined. What you just said, passing a restaurant that, like, you didn't know about it. It's listening to the travel flow. It's, you know, like you're making a plan so that you're able to move to the next thing. but you're also just paying attention and being present. That is a huge, that's a huge heart for me behind this trying to inspire people to find

their travel flows, is to pay attention to all of the surroundings and all that it wants to tell you and teach you and pull you in the directions because you can't find everything on Google Maps, you know what I mean? No, you can't. You can't. So my last tip is to stop judging your trips. and we've kind of hit on this all along the way, is that they're not always going to be a win the entire time.

You're going to miss out on something. The weather's going to be bad. Your luggage is going to be lost. There'll be a traffic jam or the flight delays. Take half of your weekends. You know, I think making peace with this before your trip and instead just the whole time, and you've touched on this almost every point,

my family, we are always asking throughout the day, What worked about that? What would we do differently next time? You know, like, how do we, we have just gotten to refine the way that we roll the whole way, all these years, because we've learned, wow, we weigh over pack. Oh, we don't need this mini snacks. Oh, we refill halfway through. Grabbing fries and chicken nuggets from one place and getting an amazing meal to go and finding a park for Michael and I to sit so the kids can play and we can enjoy the food like just all these little adjustments can um and that's just part of the

paying attention and a part of exercising that muscle one of the things that i want to do with these little bonus episodes is sort of demonstrate to people that there are lazy geniuses who don't call themselves lazy geniuses yet all over the place like living in using lazy genius principles that are found in the book in the lazy genius way that are creating systems and scenarios that like give them life it's not like okay we're going to create this schedule and then we're going to you know be a robot and walk through it that's why i love what you're doing because you have mentioned obviously we're naming what matters i mean that's a huge one in this mindset is like if you don't name what you care about what matters to you and your people your travel flow doesn't make sense like that's the

whole point, I'm assuming, which I can't wait for you to help me find mine. But like, that's the whole thing is naming what matters. Even putting together the flow is like a concept of putting things in the right order. You know, like if you're thinking about everybody's energy, they have morning energy or evening energy. We need to do food before we do this. We need to take a nap before we walk two miles to this thing. We need like you're sort of putting those pieces in an order that makes sense so that the whole flow works. And then the other thing, that came to mind with this whole like stop judging your trips is what a beautiful chance for us to this is another principle to be kind to ourselves like we are this is supposed to be fun how well you travel

has no bearing on your value as a human it just doesn't it doesn't mean that you're like a better a better person a better mother a better wife a better whoever you are like it doesn't it doesn't affect that. You're just a person going on a trip with other people or by yourself. You can take the morality off of it and just be kind to yourself when it doesn't go the way that you want it to. And that's why I just love when you talk about traveling because it truly is like the most lazy genius way of approaching it because it's like we're focusing on what matters to us and we're going to do that well. We're going to care about it. We're going to create a travel flow. We're going to have our bags on our lists and we're going to know what we do. And then everything else,

like we're not going to worry about it because it doesn't matter. It's like such a gift. I love it. And one more thing I wanted to say is that one thing that has really impacted me is I've heard that what connects families the most is overcoming a challenge together. And I, the vacations that I remember the most, the inside jokes that my family have is when, trips went wrong. You know, I think about like, I was driving through the middle of the night in Colorado when I was growing up and my family, we were trying to find the very last hotel room in this town and we were racing another car.

And we won and there was holes in the sheets and it was disgusting. And it was just like, it's just such a fun memory for us. And so just that is where the memories are made. And so just let your trips be whatever they are. That's so good. I have no doubt that everyone listening is like they're going to, they're going to take out their earbuds. They're going to go. They're going to call a girlfriend or go find their husband or whatever it is.

They're going to be like, we're taking a trip. I'm so excited. What's our travel flow? Everyone's sit down. Like we have to start writing stuff down because it really is because this, what I love about this too is that you have. Oh my gosh, it's another, it's another principle, and I didn't even realize this. Like, you have used one of my favorite lazy genius principles, which is you decide once. You are choosing what it is one time.

Like, and you can move within it, but you have, you've named what matters. You've sort of created your limits around it. You're starting small by not having a list of every single thing. You're being kind of yourself by not putting so much pressure on the trip to be perfect. because like you just said, perfect trips don't, they're not very memorable because our understanding of perfection is so limited until we even get. It's just not a thing. It's just not a thing. But you're sort of creating like this really loose flow. It's a, it is a flow of like, this is what we do. When we travel, this is what we do. And then everybody knows. Everybody knows.

And it's just, it feels like easier to get in the car or easier to get on the train or whatever you're getting on. So I'm just like, I'm so stoked. I'm so stoked to take my own trip and I'm so stoked for other people to get energized to do there. So, okay, tell, because this is not, you know, you talk about this stuff. Like this is, this is part of, this is part of what you do. So tell everybody where they can find you to learn more about all the best days. Um, thanks, Kendra. Thank you for having me. And I just, I'm just so excited that you're excited. Um, I am at Court Clark Cleve on Instagram and all the best days on Instagram and have a podcast and I'm just looking to find the best day in every city.

Just feel real passionate about a quick trip. So I just want to be a resource for you to swing by and hopefully be inspired to hit those things too. This has been a delight. You're a delight. Thanks for doing this. It was so fun. It's so fun. I'm going to go figure out my travel flow now.

And I just had my best day. Thank you for listening to my conversation with Courtney from all the best days. Oh, that was just so fun. And after having a conversation with her, I realize that wherever my family goes, whether we stay in the town we live in, we go to a town that's within an hour or when we can start to travel a little bit more and we can do, you know, a 48-hour trip somewhere. the things that give our whole family life are eating pizza, eating dessert, going to some sort of museum that doesn't have art hanging in the walls, kind of like a children's museum or a science museum, something that is a little bit geared toward kids, but, you know, a little bit more stimulating. And then I want to go to a bookstore.

That's just the way it rolls. So we're going to practice our travel flow in our own city this summer. we're going to practice it in the city next to ours and just kind of see how it goes. And then once we can start traveling a little bit more, we're going to practice it in those towns and we're going to become, we're going to work that travel muscle and it's going to be so awesome. If you want to connect with Courtney, I've got all of her stuff listed in the show notes, and you can listen to her podcast all the best days. If you want to connect with me, I'm on Instagram at the lazy genius.

You can find me and my podcast and blog and all kinds of resources at the lazy genius And the coolest place to hang out on that website right now is the lazy genius collective.com slash book because I don't know if you know, but I got a book coming out. The lazy genius way is available on August the 11th. And I'm so excited for you to read it. I'm so excited for you to experience these principles, some of which I talked about in this episode, and learn how to apply them to your own life. So you can lazy, genius, anything.

I'm really, really excited. for you to read this book. You can get more information at the lazy genius collective.com slash book. All right. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra and I'll see you next week. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life because when you're living a B or B plus life, If you don't change it, you think it's good enough. Is it?

I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A-plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.