Your vacation is around the corner and you are anticipating time filled with play, filling up, and chilling out. You leave your troubles behind- no work, no worries, no business calls (???)  A change of scenery and recharge is around the corner.   You plan, pack, buy new clothes, get your toiletries and  are finally ready to get in the car, or get on the plane to your well planned destination.

There is nothing in your way, except…  Yourself!

YOU are the only thing that you must take with you. This is a problem because there is no escaping the way you deal with life.  A coach once told me- how you do anything is how you do everything. You do vacation the way you do life.  Here are a few examples:

• If you are perfectionist- you will want your vacation to go perfectly.
• If you are a complainer- you will complain about the weather, traffic, delays, food, etc.
• If you are a doer- you will be a busy bee with little down time- after all, you don’t want to miss a thing.
• If you are in a planner- you will miss out on spontaneity.

You might be one or all of these.

The Sichel Vacation

My husband and I recently took a vacation to Maine and Nova Scotia. We planned and booked our flights, our B&B’s, rented a car, and off we went.  My husband has trained me that vacation begins once the door to our home closes (such a wise man.) The trip to airport, the drive to hotel is all part of the vacation.  I have chosen to take that philosophy as well and it works beautifully.

My personality is one of a bit of a combination from the above vacation approaches, and I constantly strive to do it differently.  Here are a few examples:

1.  The weather was not good for most of the trip.  I had to constantly remind myself to let go of how I thought the weather would be and remind myself that the weather is not personal.  Actually, the weather did not get in our way of what we wanted to do and my holding back on complaining (for the most part J) allowed us to have much more fun.

2.  My “doing” personality was forced slowed down- we visited many beautiful sleepy towns.

3.  I must add on an extra perk- The Food!  Seafood… Memorable, delicious, and for the most part healthy. I think I took more pictures of the food than anything else!

4.  Trip home- this could have really have put a damper on the last part of our vacation.  We were delayed over 6 hours and did not take off from a small airport until 11:30 pm.  I could have gotten frustrated, but instead I got out my Fit Bit and got someone’s child to join me and we walked over 3000 steps. His mom,brother, and my husband eventually joined us.  I met some great people and joked and laughed. Delta, brought in pizzas and could not have been nicer.

So what does this have to do with calm living?  Since you cannot leave yourself home from your vacation, you can give yourself permission to shift one small habit. You will catch yourself in old behavior, which will give you a choice to make a shift. Maybe a simple breath is all that is needed when you catch yourself.

Take a moment and notice how you show up to life. Find one area from my list (if you are the perfectionist, please only pick one)  See what small shift you can make. Let me know how it goes.

Bon voyage!