Travel and Personal Growth: Author and Filmmaker Mike Day On Why & How Traveling Can Help Us Become Better Human Beings
An interview with Maria Angelova
Never forget to respect the people, respect the wildlife, and respect the place.
Thankfully, the world is open for travel once again. Traveling can broaden our horizons and make space for people to become more open-minded. How can travel give us the opportunity for personal growth? What are some ways that travel can help us become better human beings? As a part of our series about “How Traveling Can Help Us Become Better Human Beings”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike Day.
Mike Day has spent his career inspiring others to learn about and connect with their world through his work in museums. As part of that work, he served as the executive producer of more than a dozen documentary films made in the world’s largest film format–IMAX®. That led him to some of the world’s most interesting places, including the world’s tallest sand dunes in Namibia, Jane Goodall’s research site in Africa, and tuna auctions in Tokyo — his worldwide adventure travels captured in his book, The World Has a Big Backyard, to be released September 21, 2023.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
I was born and raised in Chicago, where I was mesmerized as a child by its great cultural institutions including the Museum of Science & Industry, the Adler Planetarium, and the Field Museum of Natural History. Today I live in Minnesota, where I have thirteen nieces and nephews. One of things I have always enjoy doing is taking them on a flight from Minneapolis for a long weekend in Chicago. I see in them some of the same joy and enlightenment I grew up with in that amazing city. For a child, the city can be a captivating big, beautiful, wonderland.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.
My mother gave me excellent guidance, but always in a subtle way. While I attended a Catholic grade school, where we only went on one field trip–to the public library, she took me on multiple occasions to Chicago’s well known, and esoteric, cultural institutions. She moved our family to ensure her children were going to one of the best public high schools in the south suburbs of Chicago. When I told her I thought I was interested in a career path in museums, she steered me to get a Business Degree in college first, wisely saying it would give me a formal education foundation to pursue numerous career paths.
Maybe more importantly, my mother shaped my values. I remember when I was still in my 20s having come back from Colombia where I went to see a total eclipse of the sun. I flew with a group into Bogotá and took a bus over the Andes and stayed in a town on the llanos of Colombia. School was out and the town invited us to stay there. We slept on the concrete floors of the classrooms. Upon my return I was with a group of family and friends, telling them about my trip. I explained that the town we stayed in only had electricity for three hours each evening. Someone remarked, “How primitive.” My mother calmly remarked, “It’s not that they are primitive. It is that we are so excessive.”
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?
After college, and a couple of years of work in public programming for a Park District in Illinois, I was awarded a New York State Arts Council grant to serve as an intern on a work-study program at the Rochester Museum & Science Center in New York. Museum staff members dedicated time and attention to my personal and professional growth. They were instrumental in helping me find a position after my internship. I remember my advisor, Dr. Bill Gutsch, telling me I should evaluate the opportunities I had in terms of how they might serve as a stepping stone to bigger and better positions ahead. It was wise advice to think beyond just the next job but to opportunities beyond.
It has been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?
I write about this situation in my book, The World Has a Big Backyard. While scouting for a film project in Namibia, my team and I hired a commanding German guide with a thick accent, who carried a Luger. (From 1884, Namibia was a German colony.) We told our guide we wanted to scout at first light deep within the Namib-Naukluft National Park with the tallest sand dunes in the world. This in consideration of returning with a crew to film in the light of dawn. So, at the end of our first day, we parked our vehicle within the park and hiked out to our camp. Our guide told us we could retrieve our vehicle early the next morning for our scouting at first light. This meant we would be in the park when we were not supposed to be there as it would not yet be open. Our guide said we would stop at the park headquarters on our way driving out after scouting and pay our daily admission fee. He warned us that we would get in trouble for trespassing in the park before it opened.
As the situation at the park headquarters developed, a park employee and our German guide became antagonistic toward each other. I interrupted and told the park employee: “You guys need to buy a bus and charge people a high price to drive them into the park to climb the tallest sand dune in the world to watch the sunrise.” Our guide stood up and pulled me to the back of the room. He said, “Shut up, unless you want to get us arrested.”
That day I learned an invaluable travel and life lesson: be respectful of the places you visit. Being in the park headquarters in the Namib Desert, I was at the mercy of the park employee’s good graces, hopeful he would overlook my trespasses. It was time to respect the place and its people, to listen, and to learn, not pitch a new business plan for their national park.
Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?
In my book I share several quotes from well-known travelers. These include Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island, who once wrote, “I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.” And Anthony Bourdain who said, “Travel is about the gorgeous feeling of teetering in the unknown.”
The one that continues to resonate with me, and that has permanently and positively changed the way I approach an encounter with someone new, is from Rick Steves. At the age of 23 he took a 3,500-mile, two-month long trip from Istanbul to Kathmandu. In the Afterword of his book about that journey he wrote, “We are all children of God–by traveling we get to know the family.”
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
Young people hear of my travels and want to know how they can get on a pathway to adventure. I want to be able to share ideas for affordable new and distant experiences. I am researching a list of resources that might fulfill this appetite. It includes opportunities like Workaway, an online platform of hosts from multiple countries that provide room and board in exchange for work, to Earthwatch Teen Expeditions, to Red Cross disaster deployment–two weeks of volunteer time that can take someone to a place they have never been, while being in the service of others.
OK, thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. In this interview series we’d like to discuss travel and personal growth. Let’s dive deeper into these together. Based on your research or personal experience, why do you think travel can lead to personal growth? Can you share a story?
I like to talk to young people that I see in interesting careers and ask what led to the direction they have taken. It is not unusual that their backstory involves a travel experience. For example, how did Dani Lacy, a girl growing up in Ohio–more than 500 miles from an ocean–become a marine biologist?
I met Dani in Florida when she led a nature walk along the Gulf of Mexico. She told me that when she was thirteen years old, she went on a family vacation from her home in Ohio to the Bahamas. She took a scuba diving lesson along with her dad and never looked back. She went on to major in Biology at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. Then she earned a master’s degree specializing in Tropical Marine Ecosystem Management and Marine Conservation.
Another example is Gina Moseley, who I worked with on a film project. As a young teenager growing up in England, she went on a family camping trip. Gina’s mother signed them up for a day in Goatchurch Cavern in the limestone hills south of Bristol, an accessible cavern that provides a cave experience where one can get muddy but doesn’t need special equipment. Gina remembered how much fun she had doing a “superman squeeze” (with one arm above her head and one below) to get through a narrow passageway.
Today, Dr. Gina Moseley, a professor at the University of Innsbruck and a Rolex Award Laureate, is a paleoclimatologist. She leads teams into caves around the world to collect geologic specimens, which provide a record that maps the climate history of the planet over the last half million years.
As Anthony Bourdain said, “The journey changes you: it should change you.”
A recent survey from Psychology Today showed that over 80% of participants found that travel helped them with problem solving or decision making. Why do you think this is true for so many people?
There is no better enrichment experience than travel that pushes us outside of our comfort zones to witness the unfamiliar, explore the unknown, question our assumptions, confront our anxieties, and force us to be flexible, and think on our feet. By sticking with the familiar we might feel bigger, but we are left smaller because we have limited our opportunities to grow. A travel environment can provide new experiences strong in social, physical, cognitive, and sensory interaction.
Do you think travel enhances our mindfulness, optimism, or sense of gratitude? How? Can you explain with an example or story?
I had gone to Montgomery, Alabama, to tour the campus of Alabama State University with my niece. What we discovered upon our arrival, both on the campus and around Montgomery, were a lot of buildings with historical markers in front of them. Montgomery has a lot of history, especially with respect to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.
On the day of our campus tour, I made a wrong turn and had us going in the opposite direction of where I intended. Instead of driving down South Jackson Street to the campus of Alabama State University, I drove up the street. We spotted a house on South Jackson Street that bore a historical marker. We pulled over, parked, and got out of the car. There, my niece and I stood side-by-side to read the sign. We were alone, the only people out in this well-manicured, quiet neighborhood on this sunny, summer morning. The historical sign told us this was the Dexter Parsonage House. Built in 1912, it was the house for the pastor of the Dexter Baptist Church. In 1954, a new pastor came to live here at the age of twenty-five. We stood silent, a moment of mindfulness as we read the pastor’s name. His name was Martin Luther King, Jr.
It was like other moments I have had in my travels, such as when I visited the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, or the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. I encourage travelers to seek out the places that have us witness the authentic pieces of our human experience. Such authenticity can provide powerful moments of mindfulness–steps in a journey toward enlightenment.
Surely not everyone who travels automatically becomes an exemplar of human decency. What are a few reasons why some people completely miss out on the growth opportunities that travel can offer?
We too often stick with the familiar with our travel and take the easy trip. We go to an amusement park instead of exploring the unknown, questioning our assumptions, and confronting our anxieties.
Thank you for that. Now our main question: What are your “5 Habits You Should Develop In Order To Make Travel Into An Opportunity For Personal Growth?
1. My spouse has given our family the best mantra for the inevitable challenging and frustrating moments of travel–we pause, take a deep breath, and say, “As long as we get there safely.”
2. Don’t fear a wrong turn. The best travel experiences are often the unplanned ones.
3. Never forget to respect the people, respect the wildlife, and respect the place.
4. Practice mindfulness, which has Buddhist roots and is a practice of bringing your mind to a place where it can rest and settle. Mindfulness asks us to suspend immediate judgment and not overly react to the moment.
5. “Why go to an amusement park instead of exploring the unknown?” The question is symbolic of the idea of going to any number of worldwide places for authentic experiences that will ignite the senses, spark wonder, stretch your understanding of self, and make you muse. The definition of muse is “to think deeply.” When you put an “a” in front of a word and it negates its meaning. Thus, amusement means “not to think deeply.” Don’t travel to amuse. Travel to muse.
From your experience, does travel have a negative impact on personal growth too? Is there a downside to travel?
We sometimes don’t put down our phone as we try and take a photo or video thinking we need another Instagram post or a highly viewed TikTok or Snapchat. Social media has encouraged too many people to show off doing risky, silly stunts. Travel shouldn’t be done as a high velocity trophy hunt, or a performance, as it will limit opportunity to grow.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? he or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them.
Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, has established a well-funded foundation in his name. He is now building a nuclear power plant of a new design as a “breakthrough solution” to our climate challenges. He writes about those challenges and solutions in his book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.” I would like to meet him and learn more about his faith in nuclear energy and his suggestion that climate change can not be solved by lifestyle decisions.
Bill Gates lives in Seattle, and if he invites me over to break bread, I will come to his home and travel there from Minnesota in an environmentally conscious way–I’ll take the train from Saint Paul to Seattle.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
website: www.mikedaytravels.com
Twitter: @MikeDayTravels
Thank you for these really excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent on this. We wish you continued success.
About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.
Travel and Personal Growth: Author and Filmmaker Mike Day On Why & How Traveling Can Help Us Become… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.