How to keep your holiday mojo

Time away, or even just off, is important. Even when we love our routine, our homes, or our work, it’s good for the soul to change it up, get away and, hopefully, rest.  

 

Whilst away, on those glorious stretched out days, with time spent differently, our creative juices flow and thoughts turn to how we’d ideally be living. Perhaps we feel motivated and excited enough to think about starting that new way of being when we’re home – that hobby or a practice, new job,, eating or exercise regime. Or that all important commitment to self development.

 

Only when home, and back to routine, the energy for change, well, changes.

 

All the things you didn’t have to think or do on holiday – the very things preventing you from feeling enlightened and creative in your plans, are back again and waiting to be done, gone to or completed.

 

All the motivation for starting new activities or spending your time differently feels different in the cold(er) light of (average) day.

 

Your holiday mojo has gone, despite all your best intentions.

 

It got lost in the melee of normality and in the reality of day-to-day management.

 

Why? And how can you get it back?

1. You didn’t make time to nurture it

Despite those best intentions, your first day back was spent washing, and tidying, and unpacking or looking at that unpacking and feeling a bit gross for having eaten and drunk too much whilst away and shouting at others for not helping with the unpacking and making the house more untidy by just BEING in it.

 

Your holiday vibe is sliding itself away down the drive along with the centered and calm soul you arrived home with.

 

Because you didn’t specifically make time to keep it with you. You didn’t look at nurturing the feeling and essence of what it was you had whilst on your break and therefore weren’t clear about how it was going to manifest in normal, smack-bang busy life.

 

When you have the feeling, set time aside for when you’re home to actively plan how it’s going to take hold in your life – this might mean blocking off time in your calendar as soon as you can access it again but it needs it’s own space to get you planning then bringing it into your reality at home.

2. You’ve tried to change too much

So you’ve put some time aside to think a bit more about the change you’re going to make, you’ve written your list and here you go – CHANGE!

 

Only the list is huge, and each main theme on the list has it’s own branch from which you can write multiple lists and tasks within them and some are overlapping so you could start a third of the way down the list and it still might have an important action in it that you can’t start until a whole other list from another theme has been completed.

 

That is definitely not the way it was supposed to be.

 

You’re trying to change too much.

 

Take a step back and stop a second.

 

It’s inspirational (for you, and sometimes for others to see!) and exciting to make changes but trying to take too many at the same time is madness. It’s setting you up for failure and it’s more likely to result in you not achieving the top one main thing that you’d love more than anything to have happen. Why? Because it’s overwhelming and diluting your energy for change.

 

Look the fact is, you don’t actually have to choose between any of the changes you want to make anyway – all you have to do is work out which one you want to do FIRST. Go on instinct – which one? Pick it, throw the other lists away, and stick with that one. Want to change your diet more than anything? Great, stay there and work on it. Want to start going to the gym 4 nights a week? Perfect, start that before anything else.

 

Get OK, or even good, at the first thing you want. Only then do I recommend you bring in any of the other changes you want, because we’ve got limited time and frankly limited energy for thinking about new things. Goes against the grain of ‘being the best you’? Maybe, but it’s fact and proven – don’t change too much all at once.

Oh and don’t get me wrong, ‘changing diet’ or ‘reading more’ isn’t actually that small when the significance of the change will be huge to you.

3. You can’t SEE it

I’m not actually referring to visualisation here although that’s a very useful technique for imagining what you want to achieve.

 

I’m referring to literally not seeing it – maybe you’ve added it to your to-do list but where’s that – on your phone or in your diary? That’s a whole two or so steps to get to it.

 

Or you’ve told someone about it – great, but then where’s it gone?

 

You really want to be getting it as in-your-face as you possible.

 

Write it (and the various actions it requires) on post-its and stick it on the best wall you’re going to see a lot.

 

Got a whiteboard? Write it on that and place the board somewhere you’ll see.

 

Most likely to catch your eye in the loo? Stick up your notes or post-its there!

 

However or wherever it ends up, make it visible without you having to go to the effort to find it.

 

If you really want to change this, you’ll find a way to make it happen by constantly being reminded of it.

4. You’re not invested in the outcome of the change (yet)

You might really want to, oh I don’t know, blog weekly, when you’re back from holiday, but without understanding the outcome of this and just blogging for the sake of it, why would you be investing time and energy into it?

 

The same for anything else – Want to read more books? Why, what will happen?

 

Want to change your diet to feel stronger and fitter? Great – why. And again – why to that why?

 

Want to eat less sugar? OK, what’s the reason and what will happen as a result?

 

Going to the Nth degree of the reason for you doing something will get you to look at the ultimate reason for you wanting change, and thus your absolute motivation. Only then can you decide how invested you are in that motivation for change and how much effort you put into making it happen. That’s important because the more invested we are, the more time and effort we’re prepared to put into it, and good, lasting change DOES take time and effort to keep it going.

So – are you just back from holiday and looking for that mojo? What will you do now to keep it and grow it with you?

 

Want to keep your holiday mojo for life? Perhaps the gentle life course is how you’ll do it.