There is a song by the group Soul II Soul called back to life. The opening refrain is 'back to life, back to reality, back to the here and now'
After summer vacation, this sums up what most of us experience. Back to life... back to reality.. the here and now.
Our life, our reality and our here and now we come back to is waiting for us. And it expects that we show up ready to win.
If you think about it, everything is back to something right now. Back to school shopping, back to work, back to the gym and so on...
So how can we come back to life, to our reality and get into a good rhythm successfully and settle in smoothly?
1 - Plan to come back before you leave
Often we leave for vacation in a rush. Counting down the time and not really preparing ourselves for the fact that we will have to come back, and that life will be waiting for us. Work will be waiting for us. We energetically wrap up projects with little thought to what needs to be done when we get back.
A key to being efficient and productive is preparing for the next day the day or night before. By preparing for the next week before it starts. But when it comes to vacation we can easily fail to plan for coming back. How often have you sat down at work or home after getting back from holiday and felt overwhelmed as you gazed at the list of tasks or pile of work waiting for you?
Imagine if you had already organized a plan for them before you left. Itemized the tasks, scheduled them and prepared a plan to do them. How much easier would transitioning back be!
So next time you go on a vacation, create a game plan for your return and you will get back into the swing of things more smoothly and more successfully.
2- Come back with time to rest and prepare
Often we want to maximize our time away and take as much of it as we can. This is completely understandable. But think about it, when you come back the day or night before you have to go to work, you have not given yourself that much time to transition back into the normal routine of life.
I am a big fan of coming back from vacation with at least one day to rest and prepare myself for work.
We just came back from our holiday and it was great. But as relaxing as vacation is, it is also tiring. We actually live in a cozy German town, and our vacation was in Istanbul, which is a city of some 20 million people. While we love that city, and all the energy it has, it is tiring. Most people leave the city to vacation in a place like we live. We did the opposite.
I am so glad that I had a few days to settle in. I was more tired than I realized.
Giving yourself the space to rest up and prepare yourself helps you settle in with a clearer mind and stronger body.
3- Leave the vacation mindset on vacation
Vacation is great, as long as it stays on vacation. We often urge people to leave work at work and not bring it on vacation. Well, the same is true for vacation. Having a few days in between to rest helps me to have a contextual detox and process all that happened. This helps me to see where some things from my vacation might be creeping into my mindset and rhythyms that need to be addressed. For instance, we stayed up late basically every night. This is something that cannot continue if we want to have a good rhythm at home.
This requires that I am aware of the vacation lifestyle, and intentionally shift back into the life at home lifestyle. This means we are not eating out most nights anymore. We are not sitting outside late and talking most nights anymore. And, yes... we can't sleep in anymore... :-(
I love going out and being in the city. And back home some nights I can do that, but not at the pace I do on vacation.
It is important to be mindful of the change in our approach to the day that needs to take place and intentionally shift our daily and weekly routines and patterns.
4 - Keep a healthy pace
Speaking of pace, set a good sustainable pace right away. It is easy to feel overwhelmed and just start eliminating tasks and getting busy with the stuff we need to do. Totally understandable. But to settle in smoothly, we need to come back and mindfully set a pace that is healthy and sustainable.
This will take some discipline because there is so much to do, but if we come back with that approach, we can work back into rhythm in a more healthy way and keep ourselves from the chaos of busyness.
5- Think big and get excited
Lastly, our mindset needs to be positive, optimistic and energetic. For that we need to think big and be excited.
Rather than looking at the reality of life and getting depressed because we are not at the beach anymore, eating and relaxing, look at life with a positive outlook.
Approach settling in with a sense of optimism. Think big, dream big and make the best of your life. Don't get stressed out about school shopping and programs, but rather think big and get excited. This mindset will give you a sense of energy and excitement as you get back into the swing of things, and in turn make them easier to do.
There they are, 5 simple keys to come back from vacation and being to win immediately!
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