I learned it the hard way, really, by dragging bulky bags through crowded bus terminals, onto packed trains, and up stairs at a five-hundred year-old hotel. I will never forget slugging two huge suitcases through Narita station in Tokyo, stopping at a trash can and throwing a way a bunch of stuff to lighten my load.

My wife and children have bought into this dogma unbelievably well, packing for a month in Italy and needing only one suitcase amongst the five of them! Running shoes and a miscount of pull-ups (we've got enough with us to make a raft and float back home across the Atlantic) took us up to a total of two. 

Traveling light is not only a necessity for anyone wanting to do some serious traipsing around the globe, but it serves as a valid metaphor for life, as well. Let's face it, there are those who just cut a large swath through their life, traveling heavy and weighing things down. While there are others who seem to flit from episode to episode without exacting a heavy toll on those around them.

Leadership is a lot like taking a trip. Leaders often go into unfamiliar territory, influencing others to follow them there. Leaders must provision themselves and their people for the journey. Leaders must be ready for and respond properly to the obstacles and challenges that inevitably come. The best leaders are the most agile, the most able to adjust and course-correct, the most rock-solid on commitment to a vision but the most flexible on the route. Leaders build trust and develop networks, alliances, and deep relationships. And of course, the best leaders have character and integrity.

All of these can be seen as features of traveling light through life. Though leaders may carry heavy and often unfair burdens, they do so with grace and fidelity to a worthy cause, which means that they have to carry little else. Here are some areas to consider when seeking to increase your leadership ability by traveling light:

1. Relationships – heavy is the burden of broken and un-repaired relationships. Light is the load of tight friendships, deep bonds, and heart-felt trust.

2. Commitments – heavy is the burden of too many commitments or casual ones made without thought or conviction. Light is the load of commitments to God-given principles and worthy goals. While some of the heaviest loads of all are those made up of shards and splinters from commitments we've broken in life.

3. Focus – heavy is the load for the leader who is unable to focus and prioritize accordingly. Light is the load of a leader who understands that almost anything can be accomplished if enough focus of energy, desire, concentration, talent, effort, perseverance, time, and toil is applied. You can accomplish almost anything you truly commit to, but you can't accomplish everything. You must choose, and then attack with everything you've got.

4. Honor – heavy is the load of the person who cannot be trusted, breaks promises, fails to keep confidences, and cannot be relied upon. Such a person will find life getting tougher and tougher as the accumulation of those who know them for what they are grows. Worse than the accumulated opinion of those let down is the searing pain of a burned conscience within. Perhaps the heaviest load to carry is one of guilt and regret.

5. Principles – heavy is the life that doesn't stand for anything except selfishness, self-aggrandizement, and personal glory. Light is the life given over to the glory of God, service to others, and the fight for good.

The best of leaders are like the best of travelers; they travel light. Like the good traveler who takes nothing but pictures and leaves nothing but tracks, the best leaders take nothing but responsibility and leave nothing but love and example. Become the best leader you can be: travel light.