Create A Life So You Don't Need A Vacation
A quote from Seth Godin reads: “Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” Smart guy.
When I came across a meme with the Title quote above, sometime on Sabbatical in the cold winter of 2016, it was good timing. I was in need of a sabbatical, and even in need of a vacation from my sabbatical since all I needed was my relentless exhausted work brain to slow down and a focused, active program of work-related study wasn’t enough to heal my mind and make space for refreshment. It wasn’t that I dislike my job - I loved it (when it was healthy) and it wasn’t that I hadn’t had a vacation in a while. In fact, I have ample vacation and good support to take it, but other things were too easily complicated and seriously stressful, and we as a team had not done a healthy job of managing and supporting each other in the work. Plus other parts of life like teenagers and bills and family and gaps that show up, because they don’t take a vacation. And here I was an intelligent, capable, caring person, completely maxed out and at my wit’s end. But if I don’t solve that, no one solves it for me. The above quote landed in my lap with a thud. I haven’t put it down.
Create A Life So You Don't Need A Vacation
Skeptics are scoffing right now, so what’s the trick?
It’s mindset and it’s practice. It’s choosing it every day, in moments when you’re stressed, or as you make your daily to-do list. Or digging around for it at the bottom of your proverbial pile when it got lost in the shuffle.
And I didn’t say you don’t GET a vacation, but I meant you didn’t crash-land exhausted into a week off that took more energy to plan than it will give you; or more stressed because of the work that will be piled up waiting for you.
I mean you don’t NEED a vacation because the rest you need comes in moments every day, or in weekends that provide respite, and in meaningful time with important people where you took the chance to be very and mindfully present. It means the busy times get your full attention AND you make it up with a break after, able to celebrate your persistence and accomplishment. The tough times with family get your whole heart for all the right reasons and you keep your heart and head above water. And your body gets movement and good food and sleep… at least enough in easy times to surf through the frantic times.
Skeptics beware - even scoffing means you’re spending valuable energy being negative, instead of saying, right now, in this moment “what would I be doing on vacation?” Putting your feet up and sighing? Looking out a window at something beautiful? Spending time with someone?
Don’t wait another second scoffing… send a loving text to the person on your mind. Walk around the block or down the hall or just reheat the cold coffee (egads! make a new one!) and put your feet up for a few rejuvenating, grounding, rebalancing minutes. Make it a vacation that you choose to embrace.
And practice makes perfect. Print out the quote, put it where you need it, maybe with a favourite vacation memory paper-clipped to it. Choose to be a person who cares about yourself. The example you set matters to those who need it. The energy you regain is a gift to your family, your career, your team, your whole outlook.
Coaching makes the practice easy. Put on your sunglasses, take off your shoes and ask me about it!
Peace!