Ahh. Vacation day. I’ve spent a chunk of the past week in Bradenton, Florida for work and decided to take today as a vacation day with a flight back home tomorrow… but not before going to check out this spot:
If there is one thing I’ve noticed, it’s that Jim Morrison (kind of) had it right when he sang, “There’s only four ways to get unraveled, One is to sleep and the other is travel.”
So I got some good rest last night and I’ve noticed that despite being slammed busy the last few days, I feel a lot more relaxed than I have in several weeks. Why is that? Well, in my case I find that whenever I get a chance to travel, I do tend to unravel. I’ve noticed that if I take a week of vacation and spend it at home (I refuse to use the term “staycation”… that just makes me nuts), I never truly relax. I think just being around the house and being in the same surroundings keeps me in the same state of mind. And that state of mind may very well be too stressed for my own good (since I tend to be wired a little that way).
To that end, I think environment can have a very big impact on your overall mental outlook and it’s something I’ve written about before on this blog (notably here). Your work environment from a physical standpoint, I believe, certainly affects your mind. Or perhaps the space where you engage in your own personal exercise routine. There is a huge difference between training in a gym full of mirror-gazing punks in overly tight tank tops as opposed to being in a private garage gym with heavy metal blaring, a bunch of people pushing each other to do better and not one iota of pretentiousness to be found. You tell me where you think you will get better results.
My advice is to get out of your typical space and see something different… be somewhere different… and in the end? You are going to feel something different. Heck, you might even relax a tad bit. The stay-at-home vacation or the stay-at-home weekend can be fine, but if you are truly in a rut or just feeling like a densely packed ball of stress and anguish… don’t you think you need to do some different? I know I do.
And in keeping with the musical theme that seems to be developing in this post, Mr. Buffet said it so very, very well… changes in latitude, changes in attitude.
Love that song – it’s hard to be in any kind of bad mood when you hear a Jimmy Buffet song. Since I work from home now, there is no such thing as a vacation at home (and I can’t stand the word “staycation” – it’s just silly). I tend to discount how much my surroundings affect me. Now that I’m (almost) officially divorced, I have to really think about taking a vacation and getting some new perspective on my life. I haven’t been on an “alone” trip in a long, long time. It may be time for that soon . . .
Take that trip and revel in it. I think you will be really refreshed.