Summer is upon us – today (June 21st) is the official first day. Even if I didn’t know what day the summer solstice occurred I would know it’s summer because my daughter is on summer holiday and the temperature outside has broken triple digits several times already this year. Summer is typically the time when people around the country load up the proverbial station wagon and take off on their family vacation. In less than a month, I too will be taking my family vacation to the beach-side locale of Seaside, Florida and I can promise you that I am already looking forward to the break from all things for a week in July to relax and recharge my batteries.
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But this isn’t a post about Seaside, it’s a post about relaxing and recharging your personal batteries – a very important part of my make-up. I know my wife will disagree with me on this but I love to travel. Wait a minute – scratch that. I actually hate to travel … but I like being in other places. Traveling sucks. Getting from point A to point B is terrible experience for me – my body does not respond well to the airplane environment and because the overwhelming sense of nausea I experience, I do not like looking out the window while flying. But once I arrive, I recover very quickly and I am ready to go experience “stuff”.
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I have been very fortunate in my life to have been able to travel for pleasure a great deal and other than the “point A to point B” part of it, I find being in a foreign and unknown environment very relaxing and stimulating at the same time. I love the idea of a beach vacation and as a result have been on many, but the truth is that I find them rather dull. The idea of sitting on a beach and, well, just sitting there is not stimulating enough to be relaxing. For me, and I would imagine this is true for many of you who have managed to read this blog with any regularity, if my mind doesn’t have something to do, it will make trouble for me by focusing on things it shouldn’t – like work issues, the very thing I am trying to forget about. Because I am such a results oriented thinker instead of a process oriented thinker, for me to truly relax and recharge, I need to have something to think about that requires enough brain power to keep me from thinking about other stuff, but not enough to keep me from enjoying my break.
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As it turns out, my daughter is wired a lot like me in that she does better when there are several short activities (or maybe that’s because she’s a child). Our trip to France last summer went great and I was able to haul my entire family from one place to the next – all day long – with no complaints other than the occasional “I’ve got sore feet”. Putting my daughter on my shoulders took care of her and stopping at a Cafe took care of my wife and me. See? Everybody wins.
For some, sitting somewhere peaceful with a good book is the way to go – something that is low effort, serene, and calming. I’m just not wired that way and most people who do what I do for a living are more like me than not. We travel to places to see and do things. Don’t get me wrong, I like to mix in a little swim up bar (okay – a lot of swim up bar) but I need something else to keep me occupied. Visiting new places, meeting new people, experiencing something out of ordinary – out of my ordinary, is my definition of a relaxing vacation that recharges my batteries.
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