It was 2am and I was lying in bed, awake. Staring into the darkness above me, I just couldn’t stop my mind from racing.
So many ideas, so many things to do and implement over the coming days.
So many people to help.
No matter how much I tried – closing my eyes, rotating my body like a rotisserie chicken – I just couldn’t get to sleep. But I knew what I had to do… I knew what it was that was keeping me awake…
Because it wasn’t worry or stress or anything of the sort that was stopping me. In fact, the cause was the simple fact I was lying in my own bed, at my own home, for the first time in a week… because I’d been on holiday!
Now that doesn’t mean that my bed is uncomfortable or I find it hard to sleep under my own roof. Rather, it was something I’d been missing – something that had been missing me – that called to me all night.
If you’ve been following my social media escapades, you might have an idea what it was.
Go on… take a guess and see if you can tell what I did. I’ll give you a couple of moments…
…
…
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I got up, hopped onto my motorbike, and by 2:30am was rockin’ it on the cross trainer at the gym. Why? Read on.
The Ups and Downs of Going on Holiday
Going on holiday is a great thing – an opportunity to unwind and spend time with our families and ourselves. To step away from the grindstone and rest our physical and mental muscles for a bit.
But it also has its negatives. This particular holiday, for example, definitely had an impact on my fitness (lack of exercise due to lounging around) and fatness (eating loads of fatty, tasty foods!).
Being on holiday can also give your motivation and drive a bit of a bashing – your eagerness to work, to serve, to contribute to the world around you and continue to grow and improve day by day becomes dulled. Because when we cut loose and just relax for a while, we like to fall into that suspended state… where worries are far away, cares are few and “the grind” is tucked far out of view.
But it’s good because it lets you step back, look around and wake up to the realities around you. It gives you time and focus to inspect your surroundings, your current state, your relationships – everything that makes up the framework of your personal life. This is time we all need – time to recognise what you’re grateful for and assess everything that’s working and not working for you in life.
When you’re 100% devoted to your work – whether you love it or not – this kind of introspective time is offered very rarely. Holidays are essential for getting in there and showing us that YES, we really do love where we are right now… or even that we don’t love it quite as much as we thought we did. You need to step off occasionally to wake yourself up and reassess – because when you’re closed off at the constantly rotating grindstone, your third eye begins to close as well.
You’re laser-focused on your work, and gradually losing sight of everything else around you that makes up your world.
When you’re on holiday, you’ve time to be alone with your thoughts – alone with your existence, your own insight.
Me? Well, I came back with a great sense of gratitude for where I am right now. I’m so lucky to be here, alive, experiencing all the sensations of life and interacting with the world around me in a variety of ways that other people don’t have the luxury of. And I can sweat.
I can sweat.
And that’s all I wanted to do as soon as I got back home. So much so that I couldn’t sleep… and so at almost 3 in the morning I was in the gym doing exactly that… and feeling more alive than I have in a while.
Don’t feel ashamed of taking the occasional holiday, even if it does give you a bit of a hit to your drive or productivity. That’s simply a sign of resources being diverted elsewhere – and you need to spend that time on yourself if you’re going to find success both professionally and personally.
Unless, of course, you’re going on holiday to get away from the grind – you’re trying to escape the stress and depression associated with your daily work. When you’re running away and feel like you’re being dragged back into a meat grinder by the passage of time… that’s not good, and it’s something you will need to address if your life is going to be all it could – and should – be.
But stepping off for a bit is what will reveal that insight to you. It’s what will give you the much-needed time and mental freedom to recognise that the life you’ve built isn’t working for you. If you return and sincerely struggle to build that drive, that eagerness, back to the same level you had before then there are likely deeper issues within your life that need to be addressed.
Get away from the hustle and bustle. Be introspective. Watch yourself, assess yourself and your work. Often, you need to get away to truly reconnect.
And to keep your third eye open.
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