“The rainy days a man saves for usually seem to arrive during his vacation”
–Unknown
For most people, work and life is what happens in the interim periods between vacations. They work, usually between 48 and 50 weeks a year, to enjoy two to four weeks of vacations. When one vacation is over, then the planning begins for the next one.
I’m as guilty of this as anyone. We recently went to Breckenridge, Colorado for a week, and it had been the first break we’d taken in 9 months. Granted, some life issues got in the way of our best laid plans, and while we had taken some weekend vacations, we hadn’t taken any sustained time off.
During our trip to Breckenridge, we hiked, biked, ate (too much), and pretty much disconnected from technology the entire time.
It was glorious. All except that 100 foot altitude climb while biking. That left me puffing and sweating. The rest of it was glorious.
On the drive home from the airport after we returned, I commented to my wife that I’d love to live that lifestyle once we reach PIRE.
Her comment back was poignant.
I want to live like that every day, whether or not we’re retired.
It got me thinking about life in general. In the past, I’d swung far to the other end in vacations, bringing work with me (the curse of the entrepreneur) and never completely disconnecting from the outside world. This time, I did. Nothing truly important happened. Life continued on. We spent time with the family. We enjoyed the outdoors. We explored. We met people. We had fun.
Why don’t we do that more often in our day-to-day lives?
I suggest one word to describe the problem.
Inertia
It’s easy enough to get into a rut in life, even when we try to be mindful about falling into the same patterns over and over. We get up, we walk the dog, we shower, we eat, we go to work. We work, we come home, we eat dinner, we sit down in front of the TV, we watch it, and then we go to bed.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Oftentimes, we’re much more active on vacation – ironic given the mindset that many have regarding vacation, of sitting around and doing nothing – than we are at home. Even if we have “staycations,” we tackle home projects or other endeavors that we’ve postponed until we had the time.
Why then, when we enjoy our vacations so much, do we feel the need to change our lives so dramatically when we’re not on vacation?
Great post! My family and I try to treat our weekends this way, planning picnics and biking instead of football, to make sure we aren’t slaves of the routine. We still enjoy a good vacation from time to time though…
When we moved to downtown Fort Worth (hey, Google…I am a Fort Worth Financial Planner in case you didn’t notice!), we felt like our weekends were like being on vacation, as we’ve moved someplace where we would actually want to travel to on vacation.
I have to get the front brake on my bike fixed, though. Grr. Procrastination is the key to tomorrow…
I feel like you can do a combination of both vacations and treating life like a vacation. It is just critical that you live within your means and you can still have fun.
Hey, Donny – thanks for commenting!
I totally agree that you have to create experiences that are within your means. No point in living life like you’re on vacation now only to consign your future self to a life of back-breaking misery to make up for your wild, younger days.
I live on vacation so that is pretty neat. I used to count the days until I would get somewhere warm and sunny and now the need to go somewhere is pretty much gone, except to go visit family and friends. Most holiday destinations are pretty cheap off season and you can rent your place while you are away too.
You’re the only person I know who would consider fighting with the town mayor and hacking down sawgrass as “vacation!” 😉