Plan Your Vacations Now
Alice wrote a blog recently called When Passion is the Problem. It has stuck with me for several reasons. One is schoolwork is never-ending. There’s always more that can be done, but Alice gave great suggestions for things you can do daily to disconnect from your work. The second reason is I read another blog somewhere last week that touched on the same idea. I wish I could give the writer credit, but his name escapes me. I just remember he is a NC high school teacher, and he had a great idea for disconnecting from work by taking vacations during the school year…yes, that’s vacations with an “s.”
This teacher, Mr. Dad, related how he was busy making lesson plans when his young son asked him to join him in the pool. Mr. Dad declined as he hadn’t finished his lesson plans, but the more he worked the more he realized what a precious opportunity he was missing with his son. He could join him later (maybe), but the moment that his son wanted to create a specific memory with his dad would be lost. Mr. Dad put his work away and joined his son much to the delight of both.
We’ve all been in this situation before with family and friends, and honestly sometimes it’s just unavoidable. So what can we do to carve out time with people we love? Mr. Dad and his wife came up with an excellent idea. They began to take mini vacations on the weekends.
What does this mean? It means go somewhere, and don’t take your work with you. It means take a day or overnight trip to the mountains or the beach. It means visit family and friends out of town. It means do something fun with those you love. Mini vacations clear your head and give you a new energy and perspective when you get back home. Fun, short treks, especially, reduce stress and build stronger relationships with those people around you.
Mr. Dad suggests you sit down and make a list of 50 things you can do on the weekends that will create time with loved ones and force you to leave your work at home. You certainly won’t take 50 trips within the year, but the list will give you options and can be spread over several years. Think about things you and your family/friends enjoy doing together. If you like to hike, put that on the list. (Not on my list, BTW). If you have the money and enjoy shopping, add this. (Not on my list either, if you’re interested). If you want to go to a movie and play in the park, put that down. There are so many activities out there just waiting to make your list.
After your list is complete, begin to schedule some of your jaunts. This is imperative as we all know that if we leave it until the last minute, we’ll talk ourselves out of it by saying we have just too much to do. Yes, we do have too much to do. We’ll always have too much to do, but we won’t always have the opportunities to make memories with people we care about.
Now go plan those mini vacations you’re going to start taking! Let me know how it works for you. Do you have any suggestions for things to do? Let us hear from you!!
