I was having a conversation today with a woman from my gym. She was leaving for a vacation in a few days and was super excited.

I mean, who isn’t when they are on the eve of a trip — with an escape from work and the daily monotony in sight. All that time to spend with loved ones exploring the world.

Really, there’s nothing I’d rather be doing.

But as we were discussing her upcoming vacation and the trips I have scheduled this year I started to feel…  guilty.

I now travel.

A LOT.

I wanted to start traveling more so I did everything in my power to make it happen. I started this blog. I now accept opportunities with brands that involve travel more. I have alerts set up for future trips so I can get cheap airfare. I signed up for almost every airline frequent flyer program. I have a credit card that has travel rewards. I even give trips as gifts giving me the perfect reason to tag along!

It’s only March and this year I already flew down to Fort Lauderdale and cruised with Mom, flew to Kalamazoo for a business meeting and attended a blogger event outside of Chicago. All of these were work related but my travel gene doesn’t care. I still got to see a new part of the world, eat different foods, see things I’ve never seen and just experience traveling.

In a few weeks the 8-year-old and I embark on our Mother-Son trip to California and then just little over a week later, the Husband and I take our second annual anniversary trip (last year we hit Vermont.)

As I look ahead at the year, I may be attending a conference in Miami on behalf of a brand, the conference I host is in Savannah in June, our yearly beach outing is in July, I’m speaking at another conference in San Jose on my birthday, and this year we are taking a second beach vacation with family friends in August!

As if that wasn’t enough, I just got off the phone with a potential client that would include an event in Arizona in October and I registered for the full marathon in Las Vegas in November.

People tell me all the time that I’m “lucky” and it bothers me. Not that I don’t think I am lucky. I AM. I’ve been blessed in so, SO many ways, but there’s a difference between sitting back and waiting for luck to hand you a plane ticket and taking the time to research, plan, save and make trips happen.

Last year I wrote a post called: Instead of _______ I save for travel. — Click here to read it. All of those things are still true. Case in point, my newest wardrobe addition — the $3 sweatshirt! But it’s not really the money aspect of travel that makes me the guiltiest. Maybe it would if I was traveling extravagantly but I’m not. I’m actually pretty frugal.

No, the aspect of all this travel that produces the most guilt for me is time.

That is where I REALLY am lucky.

As someone who has built a business on doing basically whatever I want (blogging, event planning, promoting, consulting, etc.) I really do have time on my side. I don’t need to put in for vacation or ask for days off work. I don’t need to worry about running out of sick time or having a boss who doesn’t understand my only flight option leaves Friday afternoon.

I am my own boss and I work whenever I can, even while on “vacation.”

Everyone always says you “make time” for the things that are important to you and I guess that’s true, but you really aren’t “making time,” are you? You are prioritizing.

When I really start to analyze my travel guilt it comes down to time. I feel guilty I am able to prioritize travel in a way others cannot.

Have you ever felt travel guilt? What exactly was it that made you feel guilty?