Learn how use your action-oriented nature to plan your next vacation or trip so you don’t end up feeling like you need to take a vacation from your vacation.

Vacation is really no different than any other time in your life

Vacations are meant to be refreshing so that you return to life with a renewed energy. But what about when they are so exhausting it takes you as long as you were gone to recover?  It doesn’t have to be the latter.  I want you to be able to return from a vacation or trip without feeling like you need to take a vacation from your vacation.

Productivity and your energetic rhythms have 4 phases and if you miss even one of those, you’ll be on the track to burnout or being stuck in a feeling of chaos and unable to move forward.

We recently returned from a vacation or trip in which we didn’t honor all 4 phases–we primarily lived in the action taking phases, much like most of the world does these days.

 We didn’t take time to intentionally reflect and celebrate or rest and set intentions. We started to in the beginning, but then let the desire to “do” take over.  We threw caution to the wind and tried to fit as much into the trip as we possibly could.  I’m sure you’ve been there before as well.  It was a ton of fun, but packed so much in without taking downtime, that it took longer than I would have liked to actually recover from the vacation.

4 Phases of Energetic Rhythms

1. Rest/Intention-set
2. Plan/Begin to take action
3. Take action/Be Present in the action taking
4. Wrap up/Celebrate/Reflect

Skipping Phases Keeps You Stuck

 One of my fallback tendencies is to not complete projects…or to take forever to do so.  I recognize this as a protection mechanism, and all it really does is keeps me stuck, creating unnecessary anxiousness and irritability.

A better way to approach vacations

And ideally you can look at your trip as whole in this way by moving through each of these 4 phases with the entirety of the trip, but also, you can look at each day or adventure in a way that honors these 4 elements as well.  

 Something to consider the net time you are planning your getaway.  And it only takes the smallest moment of intention to honor the phases that most often get left out.  It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture to recognize and celebrate the end of the day–as simple as sharing or talking about the best part of the day then celebrating that with a “cheers

When you avoid honoring these 4 elements

You’ll be left feeling:  foggy/unfocused, anxious, unproductive, and needing extra time to recover.

One of my favorite rules of thumb from the book Effortless by Greg McKeown is “Only do in 1 day what you can recover from by the next day” and the same goes for a week…”Only do in 1 week what you can recover from by the end of the week.”

Why this matters to you…

You were created or designed to be cyclical.  And when you live in alignment with your rhythms and work with them instead of against them, you complete a cycle for everything you do and you move out of distraction, chaos and burnout and into focus, balance and optimal productivity…or play!

You can begin tracking your own personal rhythms with the Daily Rhythms Tracker so you don’t have to overthink life and know exactly when to work and when to rest not only on vacation, but in your daily life as well. 

Resources:

Join the Energetic Rhythms for Intentional Living community here.

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More Episodes like this one:
#39: What is Cyclical Living

#40:  Energetic Rhythms and You

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