Vacation is hard for me.
This sounds like an incredibly ungrateful, and privileged attitude, but let me try and explain.
For starters, I know I am lucky to get to travel and vacation as much as I do.
Compared to the alternative (staying put and working), it wins 9 out of 10 times.
That 10% of the the time that it doesn’t win however, are those moments I feel like I’ve over-done it.
“How can you say you vacation too much?!”
I think we’re all familiar with the age-old adage of “everything in moderation”, so why does it apply here?
Well, there’s money of course…
Vacation ain’t cheap, even if you justify it with the money you may save from things like travel hacking.
You’re still spending money, and points can’t cover everything.
Another big one for me is time away from work.
I know that most people don’t give a shit about missing work for play, but as an entrepreneur, it eats at me.
When I take myself away from my business, things fall behind.
In the past, this was probably more true than it is today, but it’s still a reality I live with.
I’ve been building a team over the last few years to address this, but there are still so many things that I have my hands in that don’t progress when I’m on vacation.
And it worries me.
Why can’t I just take a vacation and relax?
Why can’t I feel like I deserve a break, and give myself permission to detach for a week or two?
I wish I knew the answer, but I realize it probably won’t come to me overnight.
What I do know is that vacation loves to kill the good habits I’ve formed.
Waking up at 6am?
Forget about it.
Playing guitar?
Too much of a hassle to carry my travel guitar around.
And then there’s writing. Honestly, there’s no excuse.
But the reality is that my habits die on vacation, and I still haven’t figured out a way to combat this.
Do I just accept that routines are meant to be disrupted when traveling?
Honestly, I’m OK with this, so long as I’m able to get back on the horse when I return.
What I’d love to know though is how you, my dear internet stranger, preserve your good habits and routines when on vacation.
Or do you just say “fuck it”?
Drop a comment below to let me know. I could use all the help I can get.