Escaping from Work – How to Get Away and Enjoy a Holiday!

Hey, I’m Paul Krismer. I’m your happiness expert, and I am so excited because I’m just about to go on vacation and actually try to tools down and not think about work for a period of almost two full weeks. So lucky me. But you know there’s a challenge, and I have had it throughout my entire adult working life, whether it was even when I had regular jobs, not just when I’ve been an entrepreneur running my own business, that I couldn’t really easily fully escape work. Sometimes I’d find it would take a whole week just to wind down enough and stop thinking about work, and of course, by the time the week’s over, then you start thinking about returning to work. So there’s a real challenge, and our society doesn’t really help us a whole lot cope with the fact that vacation should be completely away from work. So this video is going to be all about how to not be at work in a real way. So stay tuned.

As a coach, public speaker, and best-selling author, I teach topics just like this one all around the world. So stay tuned, and I’ll give you practical tools that you can use to make both yourself and those around you both happier and more successful. Yeah, so there’s this funny reality that a lot of our identity is tied up in our work. It used to be especially true for men, but I expect most career women these days, it’s the same thing. I am my work, and right now, I call myself a happiness expert. And how do I take myself out of that role of being a teacher and trainer and consultant and just be me, the part of me that isn’t 100% identified with work? It’s not easy, but I was just reading this great article that a friend sent to me, and I’ll have David include a link in the description. And the article had these kind of practical ways that we can think about behaving in a way so that work is totally shut off. And the idea that I like, especially the most, not always practical but still when we can do it, why not, is be away from the internet, wherever you go. Some mountain, some silent retreat, someplace. I happen to be going houseboating pretty soon, and I know that out on the lake, there’s a lot of places with no internet coverage, and it’ll be impossible for me to get notifications and text messages and emails. Perfect, I can’t think about work when work is completely unavailable to get to me. So there’s one practical suggestion. Of course, if you can’t be someplace where there is an internet, it’s always an option to turn it off. So there’s a way to think about it too. And also, I wanted to talk about this idea of having a to-do list to do nothing. That’s not the usual kind of to-do list we have. We have the to-do list says I’ve got to do this and this is someone needs to be part, and I got to invoice that, and blah, blah, blah, blah, and we have a million things to do for work. Well, what about a million things to do to avoid work? A list of movies that you want to watch, activities. I’m going to go swimming every day, for example. But this to-do list of the things that I will do instead of work, that may be challenging because our default habit is to go, “Oh, I’ve got a free moment. I should do something productive.” Well, this is the be productive at being not a worker, being productive at being a restful being. And then I also know that there are certain iOS and Android apps that we completely are glued to because they’re the ways we do our work, whether it’s Slack or MS Teams or all kinds of things that you may be on your phones that are the components that force you to work and bring work to your attention. And both iOS and Android have ways that you can turn off these notifications and just not hear from your work apps, including as simple as the ones that call focus or going into your settings and to notifications and turn off certain apps. It’s a good way to not be made aware of the callings of work. And that goes to my fourth tip, coach your colleagues. Do not contact me while I’m away. I don’t want to hear from you. I don’t want emails, I don’t want text, I don’t want new things coming through to me. And by all means, don’t phone me. I know we can’t all do that, but to the extent that we can instruct our colleagues to do that, not only are you helping yourself, you’re role modeling to them as well that holidays should be holidays, and then you encourage them to do the same. And when they’re going away on their holidays, say, “I will not call you for anything. The house would have to be burning down before I reach out to you. Your holidays are for you to be you and not to be a worker.” Hey, if you like this kind of content, click the like button, share it with your friends and family. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you again next week. Bye for now.