I give my clients a lot of advice about how to behave when they’re traveling on business.

  • Use instagram.
  • Share photos on Twitter and Facebook.
  • Tweet live while attending events.

So now it’s time for me to confess that my advice is really hard to follow. It’s easy to give that advice from the comfort of my office, while working at what feels, from here, like a fast pace.

But travel? For business? It’s a different story altogether.

While at the ASTD conference this week, I met a lot of people, old friends and new. I met Joanna, a team member since January, and several clients in person for the first time ever. I hosted a dinner for a great group of clients and friends (hello: major photo opp.) I stayed in a beautiful hotel room, ate beautiful food, rode in a Bentley, and I came back from the conference with only a handful of photos on my iPhone.  I missed many major photo opps, including the group dinner, and barely sent any live tweets during my time away.

I was not following my own best practices.

Instead, I was enjoying the moments —  the conversations, the restaurants, the food, the collaboration, and camaraderie.

I was in the moments, not capturing them.

And all the while, my own advice was nagging in the back of my head. I heard it, and then shook it off. It didn’t feel like tweeting, Facebooking, or instagram-ing mattered in those moments. I sincerely hope that my clients don’t battle my nagging voice in the back of their heads while they’re enjoying business travel.

If so — you have my permission now — tell that nagging voice to SHUT UP!

There are times that it’s nice to capture the moments — and there are many more times that it far more important to live them.

Tell me something! How do you manage the balancing act of capturing the moments vs. being truly present to them?