The person I am on holidays

A bit over a year ago, through a course in Professional Development, I met Lucy. She and I had teamed up to be each other’s “coaches” in the course, so naturally enough, we got to know each other pretty well over the following couple of months.

It turned out that Lucy and I had a great deal in common – our taste in books, film and music, our passion for good food, our profession in marketing and above all, our love of travel.

At the time, we were both caught in a cross-roads in our lives and careers. We talked a lot about our priorities in life and what actions we could take to live our lives more in keeping with these priorities. Somehow through all this, we decided that both of us needed to be more like the person we were on holidays.

Having packed up munchkin for his first day back at daycare after 6 weeks home for summer holidays, and kick-starting what is to be an incredibly busy work year, it’s worth reflecting on this again. It’s also worth seeing how some of this can be applied to my “new” life as a mum. After all, the big travel experiences all occurred before he was born.

The person I am on holidays…

• follows the sun’s cycle (gets up with the sun, goes to bed early)
• gets dirty
• laughs (a lot!)
• eats well, enjoys cooking, indulges in good wine – all with no guilty feelings
• notices the little things
• explores back alleys
• asks for directions
• watches the sunset (OK, I do this one pretty regularly)
• climbs mountain passes and takes photographs when out of breath
• survives with no heating, in a tent, in an alpine winter, at altitude
• can cook pineapple meringue pie over an open cooking fire
• reads, plays cards, keeps a diary, relaxes
• meets new people and listens to their stories
• goes shopping for hand-crafted, locally produced goods (and extra bags to bring them home in)

From this, you can probably correctly deduce that I am an active, adventurous type of person on holidays, rather than the sit-on-the-beach all day, party all night, type. But that’s irrelevant. Can this person fit with my current situation (i.e. work at home mum starting a new business)? That remains to be seen. I admit, camping with an active 3-year-old in an Australian summer is more than I can bear at the moment (for a start, our sleeping bags are graded -15C!) But these holidays I have learnt to play silly games, laugh more and let go of routine. Discipline (mine and his) has slid a bit, but it’s made me rethink what is actually important.

So no matter whether your dream holiday is being indulged in a luxury resort, camping in the bush, seeing the sights or playing with the kids at home, why not think about the person you are on holidays. And try to bring some of that relaxed, easy-going and “real” person back into your “normal” life.