Redefining Vacation: Disconnect to Reconnect

The last time I took a vacation and disconnected from the hustle of both work and life was probably when cellphones did not exist. In my adult years, I concocted the definition of a successful vacation to entail less meetings, less emails, a bit more sleep, and a pinch of adventure and discovery. (Oh, and lots, lots, LOTS of pictures!) After recently returning from vacation with my family, I realized that for the past twenty plus years I had ill-defined vacation. 

On this particular trip, I observed from a far the former “me”s on vacation. The one who took a phone call while their child looked on, longing for their parent to look up, jump into the pool, and play a game of Marco Polo. The family that held back from adventuring into rural towns because one of the parents needed to be on calls mid-day. Or, when trying to enjoy a meal, the table adjacent is yapping away about work and what they had to accomplish when they got back. All these individuals were versions of “me” in my past vacations.

This vacation, I decided to embrace one of the three metrics of success that I have been actively fostering and nurturing over the past couple of years: well-being. For my vacation, embracing one’s well-being meant disconnecting from society with the exception of:

1.     Enjoying the physical (not virtual) moment and it’s associated surroundings;

2.     Taking select pictures (moments worth capturing) with my iPhone;

3.     Posting one picture a day on Instagram. Need to work on that for my next trip to 100% disconnect from life;

4.     Listening to music, as I find music is one of the greatest forms of therapy;

5.     Responding to two minor work items that could not wait, which took less than 15 minutes in total to address. 

The end-result? Liberation. 

I found that I re-acquainted myself with myself. I often state that experiences force you to continuously evolve and grow. Over the past five years, I have been unfortunately part of some of life’s most altering experiences. The experiences have forced me to evolve for the better. As an example, my father's death has forced me to appreciate the notion of living in the present, valuing every minute, and being brave enough to live a life of vulnerability. In addition, I discovered my inner spirit of wonderment as we traveled both off the mainland and to quaint, non-tourist villages. My mindset on this trip resulted in being actively engaged with my old-soul, eight-year-old daughter, and being fully present in the moment. Fully present this time meant doing activities that I would normally say “NO” to, because either mom was too busy or simply didn’t want to engage because I found myself either working or selfishly only wanting to interact with adults. As we closed out on our adventure and reflected on our trip, my daughter rated this vacation the best ever. (Note: she is only eight!) In fact, she was already telling the hostess that we are coming back next summer.

My daughter has had the fortunate opportunity to travel to more interesting and cultured parts of the world, but in her eyes, none of our past travels compared to this vacation. Was this the best vacation in my daughter’s eyes because I learned to disconnect?

Perhaps. 

And perhaps, we should all embrace the value of disconnecting in order to reconnect with our loved ones, our surroundings, and ourselves. We need to applaud and positively (keyword: positively) recognize those that have chosen to completely disconnect. And, I challenge you to disconnect on the next vacation because we serve as role models to our children and others. I met several executives on vacation and I shared with them my new motto – they stared in disbelief and to that I responded, “When you die will you remember that phone call on vacation or that sunset trip with your children?” Life is about choices. I look forward to recognizing those that have chosen to disconnect only to reconnect with life. 

Finally, I would like to thank my AWESOME team that enabled me to disconnect. I am fully aware that I am gifted with a talented team.

Re-entry time...