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Table of Contents
How to Build a Life You Don’t Need a Vacation From
Ever feel like you need a vacation from your life?
Do you get that feeling a LOT?
What if, instead of dreaming about taking a vacation to escape your [stressful] [exhausting] [unfulfilled] [fill-in-the-blank adjective] life. . . you started thinking about vacations as a way to enhance the life you already love?
Here’s something I realized after years and years of running my copywriting business . . .
You absolutely CAN design a life that aligns with the things that matter most to you.
And when you do, you won’t feel like you need a vacation from your life.
Oh, you’ll still want to take vacations, but it will be a totally different feeling. 🙂
For one thing, you’ll enjoy your vacations a gazillion times more. Because you won’t be dreading the return to your “real life” once your vacation ends. Vacations will simply become one lovely piece of the rich and gratifying life you’ve created for yourself.
I built a life I don’t need a vacation from, and you can too!
I’ve put a lot of thought and effort into carving out a life for myself that makes me happy. It’s taken a lot of experimenting (read: I’ve made a LOT of mistakes and had plenty of setbacks), and it’ll always be an ongoing process, but I’m feeling good about my progress.
4 Steps to Build a Life You Don’t Need a Vacation From
(Yup! I’m going with a travel/vacation theme for my tips.)
Step 1: Create your flight map
Be very intentional from the get-go. Think about what it means to you to have a life you don’t need a vacation from.
For many people, freedom is a big factor. Freedom to do things you enjoy. Freedom from stress. Freedom to decide your own work schedule.
And then there’s money.
We all know that money, in and of itself, doesn’t make life great. But it can certainly make life easier—and a whole lot less stressful. On the flip side, if you’re making sh*t ton of money, but can’t stop working long enough to enjoy it, that’s no good either.
Take time to really figure out things like how many hours you want to work, how much flexibility you want in your schedule, and how much money you want to make. And then (and this is critical), think about WHY you want those things.
If you’re thinking about starting an online business check out my step-by-step advice for becoming your own boss.
And if the business you want to start is a blog business, check out Create and Go’s Launch Your Blog Biz course. It’s the course I took that allowed me to get the Grab Your Happy blog up and running.
If you’re not interested in starting your own business, ask yourself these three questions:
- What do I need to prioritize in my life to be happy?
- What’s off kilter in my life now that makes me feel like I need to escape from it?
- What do I need to change to create a life I enjoy in the day-to-day?
Be honest with yourself. Write down your answers. And then make a plan for what you need to do to get there.
It may turn out that you just need to make some minor, or even seemingly superficial, adjustments. Or you might realize that to create the life you desire, you need to take bigger, braver, bolder actions.
The point is, you need to think about what it is YOU want, and then take whatever action is needed to get there.
Step 2: Enjoy the journey
This is such a cliche statement, it hurts me a little to write it. But it goes with my 4-step travel theme, and it summarizes this step quite well.
If you’re enjoying your life day-to-day (aka “enjoying the journey’) then you won’t feel the need to get away from it. You won’t need a vacation from your life because taking vacations will just be a part of your life (if, of course, that’s something you want).
So, how do you go about “enjoying the journey”?
This goes back to Step 1 above.
Once you understand what it means to you to have a life you don’t need to escape from—and you start prioritizing the things that matter most to you, you’ll find your life much more enjoyable.
And if that feeling of “needing” a vacation starts to come back (which it probably will at some point), that’s your signal to do a little course correction. Here’s an example from my own life:
When I first started getting consistent work as a copywriter, I found it hard to say no to new clients or new projects. I was so focused on building up my business, I had trouble shutting off work. It didn’t take long for me to realize I was on a fast-track to serious burnout.
So, I made a course correction. I realized the problem was that I needed to create more limited work hours for myself—and then stick to them.
The challenge, however, was that another big goal of mine at that point was to continue increasing my income.
In other words, I wanted to work less and earn more.
I know, I know… doesn’t everyone want that?! But it was VERY important to me, so I took action.
I decided to shift my business model to work a four-day week—and increase my rates. That meant shedding existing clients that couldn’t (or wouldn’t) pay my higher rates, and only taking on new clients that placed a higher value on my services. It felt like a risky move, but it turned out far better than I could have ever expected.
Now, I’m only working with clients that place a high value on my services. I’m working a schedule that I love. And most surprisingly, even though I cut down on my hours of work each week, I get just as much (or more) work done. Turns out, as my burnout and stress levels decrease, my productivity and creativity levels increase.
Step 3: Don’t freak out when you hit some turbulence
When you’re making big shifts in your life, there are going to be ups and downs. When unexpected challenges arise, don’t give up.
People often say, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”
My advice? Don’t sweat the big stuff.
When a big, fat challenge comes your way, figure out how to deal with it. Be a problem-solver and think of every challenge as a chance to grow.
If you give up at the first sign of turbulence, you’ll never get where you want to be.
Step 4: Discover hidden treasures
If you want to build a life you don’t need a vacation from, embrace a growth mindset. Be willing to explore new opportunities when they arise. When you do, new paths will open. You’ll discover interests and passions you may never have known about otherwise.
When you seek out opportunities to grow and evolve, you can avoid getting trapped in a Groundhog-Day-type-life you feel you need to escape from.
