Are you taking your vacation seriously?
Do you view it as a necessary part of your ongoing evolution?
If so, do you live your words, taking vacations seriously?
Disrupt Yourself
Perhaps one should think of vacation as the opposite of vocation.
It should be a time to vacate as much of your work and life and possible.
If you’re an early riser…. perhaps you’ll sleep in.
If you’re a late riser…. get up early.
If you’re a homebody….get yourself out there.
If you’re never alone….seek out the quiet.
And so on.
Put on a Traveller’s Cloak
A tourist maintains her identity. She transports herself to another place. She sees the sights. She wears the clothes of home. She keeps her distance. She takes photographs and sends missives back as part of her preexisting web of relationships.
By contrast, a traveller immerses herself in her temporary surroundings. She strive to take them on her own terms. Rather than focusing on what she can take out materially, she focuses on how she can advance her spiritual evolution. She may also adopt a stance that enables others to interact with her in ways she’s unaccustomed to. The traveller’s cloak can be liberating.
She can attain perspective. Having seen new things in new ways, she can return to her own world, refreshed. She may see familiar things in new ways.
Ideally, she will have an energizing impulse to make enduring changes going forward.
What About You?
Will you take seriously the need to vacate your life and work?
For 21st century leaders, this is particularly acute. The melding of life and work, the 24-7 demands of our wired world can be difficult to disentangle ourselves from.
Fortunately, one need not take a long, expensive trip. A stay-cation can also do the trick. A good book or other art may provide an avenue to move for a time into distinct realms of consciousness.
The key is to disrupt your life and work–and not be lured back to familiar patterns. Sometimes, the apparent willingness to break one’s vacation can be less a matter of generosity or dedication to others’ demands, than a reluctant refuge in the apparent stability of one’s habits, one’s place in others’ expectations.
As for me, taking vacations, taking breaks, are areas I need to work on.
With that in mind, I’ll be largely offline for the coming week, returning after Labor Day.
With best wishes to you for a memorable end of summer.
jms
Just One Thing | Take a Disruptive Vacation
