When Work Follows You On Vacation

As I work on this blog, I am supposed to be on vacation.  As my work days leading up to my vacation came and past more and more rapidly, I found my work days entering the time space continuum where I would blink and it was the end of the day.  All this is my roundabout way of saying I didn’t get all my work done before I clocked out on Thursday evening, hours away from this massive tour of the east coast of the USA my husband and I had planned. With the same seriousness and good intentions of a years resolution, I resolved that I would simply finish my work while I was one vacation. 

What has this done?  Well I am exhausted, while folks are napping between various tourist destinations I am clicking away desperately trying to maintain focus, behind in my due dates, making compromises on the things I wanted to accomplish.  This is all a result of guilt I have built up for myself for leaving on vacation in the first place.  My fatal flaw is that I want to do everything myself, not  asking for assistance, and feeling guilty for taking time off.  I thank many people start to blur the line between your time spent at work and the personal time you have.  For me, work sticks to my fingers like gum, I feel more responsibility to it than to my personal life.

Do you ever notice how many people get in terrible fights on vacation?  Its tragic.Vacations turn into a focus of stress and hard times rather than the rejuvenating effect they are meant to be.  We bring our addictions with us(for me its my work), our hurt feelings, our bitterness, our need to prove we are right, to make everything perfect, to control everything.

While I am here, giving in to my work addiction and my loyalty to my job over my family, I know that as soon as this laptop is closed, I need remove this baggage from me if I am going to enjoy my time.  This is not only important for me, but for the work I love so much.  I need to take this time to recharge my batteries so I can more productive when I get back, allow for new ideas to enter my mind and just be a happier worker.  I brought this baggage with me, but I am throwing it in the ocean.

What I am going to do is make a list of everything I feel like I “should” be doing for work right now. I am going to go through all of them one by one and write down how each task is being handled in my absence.  Once I get that all off my chest, I am going to tear it up and burn the little pieces while affirming to myself that the world is going on without me.  I then am going to burn(safely) all the little pieces and dispose of them far away from me.

If you are on planning a trip this summer, I would suggest doing this before you leave. It may not be work, it could be past fights with your partner, anxiety about not being in control, anything really.  Try visualizing these things and be aware of them.  It can be tiring at first but with practice, you’ll find yourself letting go of these little pangs inside of you.  You can also try to burn a spiritual cleansing candle or even a happy home  or happiness candle before you leave.  You could even dab a little of the happiness oil in the space where you are traveling.  Expel out those bad feelings and and bring in calmness and enjoy your well deserved vacation!  

Special note: if you are like me and overly committed to your work, check out Project: time off for some statistics on how important taking some time away. http://www.projecttimeoff.com/