The significance of taking real, disconnected vacations
Today, I want to step away from the usual topics and delve into something deeply personal and universally important
The Afterglow of a True Break
As I write this, basking in the afterglow of an incredible 16-day vacation, I can’t help but wonder why I don’t take more mini-breaks to keep this feeling alive. After a vacation, I feel, think, and act differently. The best way I can describe it is that I am calm and focused.
Rethinking Vacation Goals
In the past, I used vacations to acquire new skills, start or finish projects, or read work-related books. I always saw vacations as an opportunity to gain something for work that I couldn’t fit into my daily routine. Before this vacation, I found myself thinking, “What am I going to learn now?” This led me to reflect on all the skills I had gained during previous vacations and how they had impacted my work life. Unfortunately, I realized that the impact was minimal. Focusing on a project in isolation is like a company developing a product without consulting its customers—it can spiral into something with little real-world impact. It’s not that I learned nothing or applied nothing, but the return on investment was low.
Embracing True Disconnection
This time, I decided to shut down as much as I could—no laptops, extremely limited internet, and a focus on finding a flow state with whatever I chose to do. Like many professionals, fathers, and people in general, I am always thinking—about work, deadlines, the future, savings, world events, and so on. While all these thoughts are valid, I now realize that I was thinking too much. My mind had become a cluttered and noisy place, constantly multitasking and needing immediate answers for everything, prompting me to pull out my phone for any random thought I “needed” an answer for.
Rediscovering the Moment
For the first time in a long while, during this vacation, I was able to sit down and simply enjoy the moment. I could be silent with myself, giving my mind a much-needed break. Reflecting on these moments, I wondered, “How did I forget how this felt?” The human mind is fascinating; we cannot remember pain. Like a mother who remembers that giving birth hurt but doesn’t re-feel the pain of the experience, if we could re-feel pain, not many of us would be here. But this also applies to positive experiences. I remember times when my life was calmer, but I cannot re-feel the sensation of a calm mind. It seems that either you stumble upon this feeling, as I have, or you experience a critical failure that snaps you back to it.
The Lasting Glow
I am curious about how long this glow will last. Can I top it up? Am I losing time to learn something new? But until then, all I can say is: disconnect from your work and the daily race we all run. Take the time to sit by a river and just watch the water flow.