What’s Your Vacation “Why?”
Jul 20, 2025
You’ve made your reservations. You’ve paid your deposits. Now it’s time to go on vacation.
Have you planned to have a great time?
Or do you just hope it will happen, and work avoids intruding on your experience?
Want to renew and restore on vacation?
You must do more than hope.
You must act more strategically than that.
You must understand your “Why” of vacation.
To help you renew and restore on vacation, here are three ways to get in touch with your vacation “why”:
Demonstrate
You discovered last week how to put into practice “3 Strategies to Avoid Vacation Anxiety” which are:
- Describe the status of your projects and share it with your coworker and/or supervisor before you leave.
- Define “emergency” for your coworkers and/or supervisor to avoid interruptions, and;
- Delineate re-entry so you remove any anxiety about what you face on your return.
You say to those around you as you implement these 3 tactics, “I will enjoy my vacation more this year. I will vacate physically and mentally. I will return re-created.”
Also, this level of professional interaction says to your team members, “That person honors our work relationship and is committed to our mutual success.”
Demonstrate your high value for a Work Positive culture that respects and honors teammates.
Vacate
Most of us enjoy getting out of town. We leave home to put work behind us. Literally.
This physical separation is essential to re-create ourselves for the same reasons we do retreats off-site. Our brain is more creative in unfamiliar surroundings.
Do you mentally vacate, also?
Avoid renting space in your head to work. Invite your mind to follow your body’s lead. Vacate from thoughts of work, as well.
Oftentimes it takes a day or so to detox from the torrid pace of work activities. Say to yourself, “They’ve got it handled” or “Okay, that’s what I usually do at 4PM on Tuesday. What can I do right now where I am with my family and friends?”
The lure of the familiar is strong, even when physically separated from work. Pay attention to what’s important—the people and places where you are in the moment—and mentally vacate from work, also.
Re-create
Do something different to re-create those spaces within you that get worn down.
Activities like sleep late, drink coffee in your pajamas until 10AM, read a non-work-related book on the beach, go dancing until 1AM, tickle fight with your kids, go for a long walk with your spouse, swim in a mountain stream, and…insert your fun here.
Sure you may love your work and so it’s not really work. However, all of us have the desire to re-create, to renew, revitalize and restore our creativity and energy.
Implement your re-creation strategy while on vacation.
Enjoy your vacation more as you demonstrate, vacate, and re-create your personal Work Positive culture!
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