Still other friends go camping and say they come back exhilarated. (I personally believe camping was invented by the devil. If God made us smart enough to build hotels and houses, after all, isn’t it unfaithful to revert to the bush? But I digress…)
All three options above, frankly, are unattractive to me. If I followed their prescription, I’d come back bored (all-inclusive), exhausted (the uber site seeing trip), angry (the camping trip) and not restored at all.
Over the years I’ve learned that certain things restore me and certain things don’t.
The same is true for you. What works for your best friend may not work for you.
So now, on holidays, I personally look for the following things, knowing that if I have them, I come back feeling great.
A place where I can be with my wife and or wife and kids (our kids are young adults now, so they’re not always with us).
A place where no one knows me or my family or (alternatively) where we’re with just a handful of our extended family or best friends.
An opportunity for a few hours every day all alone, by myself with few to no interruptions (increasingly, I’m an introvert).
A vacation with no set agenda (don’t need to be anywhere or do anything at any given time).
A place where we don’t need to cook, but can make a few things ourselves if we want to.
The flexibility to do spontaneous day trips if we feel like it, or not.
Wifi or decent Internet access.
I realize this might sound like purgatory to some of you or a nightmare scenario for others.
I’m not telling you this is how you need to spend your vacation. I am telling you this is how I best spend mine if I actually want to be restored.
My wife, Toni, has a list that would look a little different. She’d have more adventure and socialization than I would. And she has no desire for Internet access at all unless we’re researching a day trip.
So we have worked really hard over the years to make sure each of us gets the environment we both need to come back restored. Ditto with our kids.
Often I’ll start the day with the question, “What do you need today to make this a great day for you?” Toni usually asks me the same thing.
With a full day ahead of us, we can usually figure out a way to make sure we both get replenished.
Please hear me. Your day will look different.
The question you need to answer is, what do I need to do to come back restored?
Then do it.
Stop living some else’s vacation and start living yours.
2. Do the Things That Energize You.
Do you have any idea what energizes you and what drains you?
As I’ve matured as a leader, I pay more and more attention to this every year.
The reality is, certain activities and even environments restore me; others drain me.
Ditto for you.
One of the best things you can do for yourself as a leader (and human being) is to figure out what restores you and figure out what drains you. Then spend as much time as you can on what restores you, and as little time on what drains you.
This is great work advice (at least as far as you can control what you do with your time), but it is essential vacation advice.
Let’s face it. Certain people energize you. You leave feeling great and think, how did two hours slip by so fast?
Other people drain you. You leave a 30-minute meeting feeling depleted and like the 30 minutes actually lasted a month.
That’s not good or bad. It’s just true.
