How to live like you're on vacation everyday
⛱️ OOO 💻
Vacations — What are they? How many do you need? How long should they be? What constitutes as one? How TF do you take one as a solo-preneur/founder/freelancer? All of these are questions I didn't give much thought or attention to until recently.
Sure, I love a vacay as much as the next woman, maybe even more? Who's to judge. What I couldn't tell you a few years ago is what types of vacation I needed to take to prevent burnout. I thought my 1x/year international trip and a smattering of long weekends throughout the rest of the year was lovely. Let's be clear, that worked for awhile, but then it didn't. I'm not blaming my burnout on my style of vacations, but I do take my away time from work pretty seriously these days.
Last week I was on vacation. My best friend from college came to town to celebrate my birthday and I took 5 days off from seeing clients. Something pretty cool happened as I woke up each morning on this vacation. I wanted to work. It wasn't that I felt I needed to, but rather genuinely wanted to work on a few projects. So I did. I woke up a few hours before my friend, did my work and then my daily vacation followed. It was glorious.
I have a belief that life should feel like vacation. I don't mean it should be all piña coladas in blue rimmed plastic glasses with an umbrella poking out while taking cute photos at the edge of an infinity pool. More like: I wake up every day and feel at ease, excited, surrounded by beauty, and full of laughs.
Over the last couple of years, I've been crafting my life to feel like vacation. The work I do, the people I surround myself with, the environment I'm in — all of this is in service to a feeling. That became extremely clear this last week, as my "vacation" didn't feel much different than a normal day in the life of Carissa.
This isn't to say your life needs to look like mine to be fulfilled. Everyone's vacation mindset is different and we all value different feelings from our every day life. I do believe crafting a life that highlights your values rather than shadows them is the work we should all be doing.
p.s. the above photo is me on day 2 of vacation, and day 3 of my new car. Her name is Billie and she's a big part of my vacation mindset.
