I went on a vacation this past week, just got back in town the other night.

One thing that struck me was a few comments I had on how productive I was for being on vacation. I wasn’t trying to because at this point, I simply have a routine and abide by it regardless.

Nevertheless, the exchanges did get me thinking a bit though and I feel there’s some value in sharing some thoughts on productivity.

Backstory

I stayed in Grayton Beach, FL over the past week. It’s maybe a few miles from where I used to live before we sold our home. My mother still lives in the area, however. But, my brother whose in the military always wants to take leave during spring break, so I decided to join him.

After all, with tension bubbling in Ukraine and a looming deployment – I figured this may be the last time I can get together with my family at once. So, get together is exactly what I did.

Over the course of the stay, I ended up going to the gym twice a day, took several meetings, got a lot of work done and made time to go to the beach and hang with old friends. My brother ended up giving me a strange look a few days in and just said; “It’s amazing how productive we’ve been on this trip“.

I came into town with the mindset to enjoy myself a bit, but not forego my routine and responsibilities. The mindset was very much “let me knock out this meeting, then let’s hit the gym“. Call that weird if you want, but I was doing this all subconsciously.

To me, this is very much a peak mindset to have. It’s not one grossly encumbered by letting loose for a full week. It’s more of a “hey, I have my life and shit I gotta do”.

So many people don’t grasp that.

Don’t be a workaholic

I’m going to assume many are immediately making the assumption “he must not have enjoyed vacation and just spent it being productive“.

Check my IG feed, I had a blast and still got stuff done.

Looking from the outside in, this is due to a lot of the self work I’ve done over the better part of a year. This work has brought about changes in how I structure my day (routine), choose how to spend my time and a plethora of other things.

This has all been a gradual build-up of making daily changes, breaking those small goals I set for myself and replacing them with new ones. When you do it enough and take precedence on the things that are important to you (your purpose) – you lose the dread/angst of “working”.

It’s become your lifestyle. I feel like that’s really the message worth hammering out.

Naturally, we all want to have a great lifestyle that leaves us fulfilled. If we were to examine our lifestyles and day-day habits, I’m sure a good number of us would be disappointed. Change isn’t easy, we have to dig deep and make the conscious effort to align towards where we want to be.

Which is precisely why most fall short and repeat older patterns. Or, they take the excessive route and think they must become hyper productive and ignore everything else.

This workaholic mentality drifts a person towards several outcomes.

  • Alone with a nice house and nobody to share it with.
  • Clingy and quick to latch onto anyone who shows them the time of day.
  • Generally very unhappy.

It’s all about semblance and balance. One has to find the right mixture that works for them through repeat trial and error. Figure out what you want to change, what that will require of you and start making those small strides.