As the summer winds down, I’ve talked to several people who
express that they feel disconnected from their goals, desirous of “getting back
into the swing of things.” Some people
feel overwhelmed, not sure where to start.
A little anxious even. Any of
this apply to you?
Here are three things to keep in mind as you leave the
vacation mind-set and re-enter your pursuit of your goals.
1) Vacation is good
for you. You read that right. Vacation is not just good for you, it’s great
for you. Steven Covey in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
talks about “Sharpening the Saw.” By that
he means taking time away from your work and your goals to do things that make
your tools sharper. This can be a
vacation or a day off. Ideally, you need
to take both! You’ll find that your time
working will be much more effective if you take regular breaks—at least one day
off every week and a vacation every once in a while.
2) It doesn’t matter
how you feel. What? Yep.
When you come back to something, be it exercise or work, you won’t feel
at the top of your game. And it doesn’t
matter. I just went running for the first
time in 2 months. Did it feel good? Nope.
It felt terrible. “I’m the worst
runner on the planet” kept going through my head. No lie.
What matters is that I laced up my shoes and put one foot in
front of the other. One of the mantras
of the P90X guru Tony Horton is “just press play.” Meaning, put on the exercise DVD and move
your body, even if you don’t feel like it.
You won’t feel like you’re back into the swing of things
until you are back into the swing of things.
The key is to let that be okay.
Stop making yourself wrong because you took a break, and you’ll enjoy
the process of easing back into the saddle so much more.
3) Set a schedule and
keep to it. As you are easing back into work, the key is
to set a schedule and keep to it. Make
keeping to the schedule the victory. Don’t
say that you’ll spend “all day” on your goal and then beat yourself up when you
don’t stare at the computer for eight hours straight. Set a realistic amount of time to work on
your goal, say, two hours each day, and then keep to it.
You’ll feel great that you did your two hours on the first
day back. It will get easier after that. Your clarity and stamina will improve. And guess what… you’re back in the swing of
things in no time.