3. Play
We all need to play—regardless of our age. We fuel all the rest of these with this one. As I said already, I run more on vacation. That’s my form of play. But when I run, I’m better equipped for all the other goals. You may not be a runner, but you have things you enjoy doing that aren’t work.
I tweeted from vacation that a friend of mine got a Lego set for Father’s Day. Cool playing to come for that dad! Playing enhances my mental energies, my creativity and my enjoyment of life. Making time to play—with whatever you enjoy doing—is a great goal for vacations.
4. Dream
What’s next for you? What are you looking forward to doing in the future? One of Cheryl’s and my greatest enjoyments on vacation is dreaming about where we see ourselves in a year, five years, 10 years, into retirement. We also dream where we could see our boys and their families.
We dream about careers, personal interests, places we’d love to travel. Dreaming stretches our minds and hearts toward each other and energizes us about our future together. A great vacation goal is to take time to dream.
5. Rejuvenate
Vacation should help you re-engage with your work when you return. That’s the understanding my friend had about vacation. And it is a huge goal. This will be hard to say to some, and some may disagree, but if you leave vacation dreading going back to work, it may be you don’t know how to do vacation or you’re in the wrong job.
It’s work. I get that. We all have Mondays we dread. The day back doesn’t have to be the most fun day at work ever, but a goal of vacation is to help us recover so we can gather more energies to do the work we were designed to do.
Does that describe your vacation?