I love airports.
I understand that you may read that statement and think I’ve lost my mind, but let me explain.
Airports represent the movement between destinations for varying reasons.
People are traveling for work, vacations, to see loved ones, to see old friends, to explore new destinations, for weddings, for funerals, to find themselves, and everything in between.
Airports are the meeting ground for billions of emotions.
People travel while they are happy, sad, discontent, excited, falling in love, falling out of love, lost, confused, ecstatic, and more.
As a result, the airport has unmatched energy.
That energy is the starting point for life to take place on many levels, and I guess for me, I find that energy to drive creativity. It gives me inspiration to write, to think deeper on many levels, and to want to achieve.
If this sounds weird to you, you can stop reading.
Free Daily Newsletter
Enjoying this? Get one in your inbox every morning.
Real talk on careers, leadership, and playing offense. No fluff.
The airport reminds me that life is constantly moving, whether you participate in it or not. Every gate is a different story unfolding in real time. Someone is boarding a plane to start a new job while somebody else is flying home after losing a parent. A couple is probably headed to their honeymoon, while another person is quietly sitting at a charging station, wondering if they should leave the relationship they’re currently in.
You can feel all of it in the air if you pay attention long enough. The airport is one of the few places left where humanity feels completely exposed without people even realizing it.
I think that’s why I write so much when I’m traveling. My brain wakes up differently there. The noise, the conversations, the rolling suitcases, the constant movement, the announcements overhead, the little moments of uncertainty mixed with possibility, all of it creates this strange emotional soundtrack that makes me think bigger. Airports remind me there is a massive world outside of whatever problem I was obsessing over the week before. They make me want to create. They make me want to take risks. They make me want to move.
Ironically, some of my clearest thinking happens in places designed for transition.
Somewhere between delayed flights, overpriced food, and staring out at planes taking off, my mind starts connecting dots differently. Ideas show up there for me. Perspective shows up there for me. I have written articles sitting at airport bars, in crowded terminals, on planes at 6am, and while waiting at gates where everyone shares a different story.
There is also something freeing about being temporarily anonymous in a place where everybody is headed somewhere.
The interesting part is that your creative space may look nothing like mine. Maybe your best thinking happens sitting in a garage listening to music. Maybe it happens on long walks, in bookstores, at the gym, fishing on a lake, driving at night, or sitting at a coffee shop watching people move through their day. The location itself almost doesn’t matter. What matters is finding the environment that wakes something up inside of you mentally, emotionally, and creatively.
Most people never intentionally search for that creative space, which is a mistake.
If you can find the environment that gives you energy instead of draining it, you owe it to yourself to spend more time there. The world has a way of beating routine into people until every day feels identical, but creativity usually lives outside of autopilot. Sometimes all it takes is a different room, a different view, or a different atmosphere to remind yourself that you’re still growing, still evolving, and still capable of thinking bigger than you were yesterday.
So go find your creative space, and sit with your emotions and thoughts for a while. You’ll be shocked to learn what you walk away with.