How to Bring the Vacation Vibe Home

Remember way back in 2019 when you could travel without restriction? When you’d pick some dates and a destination and just take off? Okay, even without a pandemic, it wasn’t quite that easy. There was usually some serious planning involved.

• Airfare shopping,
• Lodging selecting,
• Activity planning,
• Pet care arranging,
• Car renting,
• Wardrobe choosing,
• Time and money budgeting,
• and more.

If you’re anything like me, you made sure to get the best deal, most fitting accommodations, and the coolest experiences while away.

That’s a lot of time spent researching and strategizing for a one- or two-week holiday.

Imagine if you paid the same amount of attention to planning your life…

• You’d likely give serious thought to what your big goals are and work on believing they’re possible.
• Then, every Sunday you’d decide what your priorities are for the upcoming week making sure to include among your routine appointments and responsibilities steps that bring you closer to your BHAG.
• You’d review your list and evaluate if each job truly must be done by you and if not, you’d consider delegating to someone else.
• For those jobs that are definitively yours, you’d estimate how long each would take so you could plan your time accordingly.
• You’d assign these tasks to the days of the week starting with the highest priorities and working your way down.
• You’d highlight the one task that makes the most difference in your life and mark it as your game changer. If you did nothing else that week, you’d make sure to do this job.
• You’d remember to under-promise so you can over-deliver.
• You’d also remember to schedule in breaks.

With a quick scan, that list may look intimidating, but these are quite simple steps that will set you up for a life as intentional and well-suited as your best-planned trip.

Not only will you make consistent progress on the things that really matter, but you’ll also more easily identify the things, thoughts, and people that are no longer worthy of your time right now.

If a quiet retreat in a cabin is your ideal vacation, you wouldn’t book a motel room in Cancun so why continue to spend time around people in your everyday life who are in no way aligned with your values?

Your time away isn’t any more valuable than your time at home. It may feel like it is because you get to experience more rest and play. However, with more time spent designing your life instead of just your vacations, you could incorporate a whole lot more fun and adventure into your daily life.

It starts with auditing your life: how do you currently spend your time versus where you want to spend your time? Are your days spent going through the motions or are you intentionally planning moves that support your BHAG? To get a good idea of the answers, spend some time with that intimidating-looking list above and implement those actions right away.

And as always, if you find yourself dragging your feet, grab your journal and ask why.

“What is stopping me from planning my week?”

Let the words flow to discover any fears, blocking beliefs, or payouts to procrastinating.

Dig in from a place of curiosity and intrigue, not self-deprecation because no long-standing change comes from a punitive place.

When you uncover how your self-sabotage benefits you (because it does otherwise you wouldn’t do it), you can focus your learning and healing at the root cause instead of wasting time on the surface.

Okay, here are your actions for the week — just two steps (kinda)!

Step 1: Look back at how you spent the last three-to-four days. Did your actions support your life goals?

Step 2: Execute each bulleted point in the list above.

I guarantee you will feel completely different by the end of a planned and productive day and week. And you will see that you can, in fact, do it.