Welcome to Train Week 2025. A series I’m creating in real time as I follow my intuition on a ridiculous adventure from France to Greece.
How train week came to be
Train Week started off as a purely logistical solution. I had a gap of about 10 days between meeting a friend in the south of France and heading to Greece for a birthday extravaganza. I started calling it “gap week,” and then I had this thought: what if I try to get to Greece only by train?
Spoiler: you can’t. Not fully. If you try to travel by land you will end up stuck on buses in the Balkans in August. I’ve already done my fair share of bus rides through the Balkans in August and it is a fresh hell of motion sickness and heat exhaustion.
So instead, chatGPT and I mapped out a route that would take me by train through Italy and then onto a ferry across the Adriatic to Greece.
At first, it was just a quirky little travel idea. People love when I do weird travel stuff. I love doing weird travel stuff.
But then as soon as I boarded that first train… I realized:Oh shit. Train Week is more than just a funny little adventure.
When It Became Something Deeper
And I promise, I wasn’t trying to make it deep. I wasn’t trying to turn it into some profound metaphor for life. But that’s what it became — a living transmission of principles I’m learning in real time.
On the first train ride (from Ventimiglia to Genoa), it started to hit me that Train Week was a way to live out certain themes on a microcosmic scale. It was like I stumbled into a real-world, real-time case study on what it means to follow your intuition, trust yourself, and build a life that reflects your actual values — not just your goals.
What Train Week Is Really About
These are three of the themes that hit me- but who know’s more may come up along the way.
The Journey Is the Destination
We are addicted to arriving. We’re constantly in these little — and big — holding patterns. Waiting for the bill at the restaurant. Waiting to save up for the downpayment. Waiting for summer vacation. Waiting to be “ready.” We hold our breath from milestone to milesone- but we miss out the opportunity to live between the milestones.
Train Week is a detox from that “finish line” mindset. I’m not doing this trip to get somewhere. I mean technically I am- but If I was focusing on arrival, I would just take a plane.
No, train week is about letting the journey be the destination. It’s about swapping the finite game for the infinite one. The finite game is where the goal is to win, complete, or arrive. But in an infinite game, the goal is to keep playing the game.
Train week is a living practice of detaching from finish line thinking.
Trust vs. Control
This brilliant insight came through for me during a client call. I call them my slumdog millionaire moments where everything I’ve lived, taught, and experienced suddenly clicks- in a way that lets me provide the perfect nugget of wisdom.
”Trust and control exist on a spectrum.”
The less you trust, the more you try to control. But the more you control, the smaller your world gets — because control requires guarantees. Predictability. No surprises. And when your nervous system can’t handle the unknown, you start shrinking your life to match the small locus of control that you have.
But trust? Trust allows your life to expand.
Trusting doesn’t mean you are naive. It doesn’t mean you expect everything to always go perfectly. It means you trust yourself to handle the emotional outcome of any situation. The more you trust yourself and trust the universe the bigger your life can be.
Living Your Values On the Way to the Goal
This one is subtle but powerful. Because yes I’m going somewhere. Greece is still the destination. And in business, I have goals. I have visions. I want to do big things.
But I don’t want to hold my breath until I get there.
I want to live my values on the way.
Adventure is one of my values. Which is why I’m traveling in my favorite way. Go so far off the beaten path that people look at you with a confused face and ask you… “What are you doing here”?. That’s when I know I’m living my adventure value.
Freedom is another value. And I’ve built a life where I can take the scenic route — so I am. I’m not deferring the joy. I’m living it now. Because the business I’m building isn’t one that requires me to sacrifice myself along the way. It’s one that asks me to become more of myself, every step of the journey.
What You Can Expect During Train Week
This week is going to be full of updates — the behind-the-scenes, the lessons, the mildly disastrous stories (because day one… was already a wild ride), and the deeper reflections.
You’ll find:
Real-time audio and video diaries here on Substack
Podcast drops for those who prefer to listen
Daily reflections and behind-the-scenes moments on Instagram Stories
It’s a peek into how I’m leading myself and following my intuition in real time.
Intuition is not just a special skill that I have
Through this trip I am showing you what it looks like to live and lead from your intuition.
Because this whole trip, and honestly my entire life and business exists because I stopped looking to other people for guidance, and started sourcing guidance from my intuition.
My intuition is my business strategist- and my life guru. And I want you to experience that as well. Because I believe everyone has the ability to build a connection with their intuition.
During Train Week, I’m launching my brand new mini course- Your Inner Strategist, where I teach you how to use your intuition as your business strategist.
Inside, I walk you through my exact 20-question process to get clear, specific, grounded guidance from your intuition — especially when you’re stuck, foggy, or spiraling. It’s how I navigate launches. How I review offers. How I recalibrate my path.
This is not some “Chelsea has magic intuition and you don’t” thing. You have it too. It’s a skill. A muscle. And this course helps you build it.
UnlockYour Inner Strategist Now
So that’s what Train Week is. A metaphor, a movement, and a little bit of magic — one train at a time.
Stay tuned. Day one is next, and oh… you’re not ready.
