Keeping the Glow
Posted on August 1, 2012
My manager suggested I write a third blog entry in a series that began with “disconnecting during vacation” and continued with “planning (or not planning) your future” . His suggested topic: “How to keep that glow when you return from vacation?”
First, let’s start with the premise, that you have a special glow when you return from vacation. Why? Why not have that glow all the time? You are relaxed, but why can’t you be relaxed all the time? You have a tan, but you can get a tan as easily where you live as on vacation, and usually without going to a tanning salon. But let’s face it, it’s not about your glowing skin, it’s about your Body-Mind-Spirit glow. When the pressures of the job recede, your natural self is able to come out more easily. Wouldn’t it be great if you could maintain that natural, more relaxed self all the time. The question is, how to do that?
Here at HNE we practice what is called Engagement. Every year we take the Gallup Engagement Survey, and we work hard to make sure that every employee is engaged in their work. It’s part of our “personal and accountable” philosophy. But being engaged in your work doesn’t mean you have to feel pressured and stressed all the time.
Try these tips:
- Keep some pictures from the vacation around, and look at them every once in a while to remind yourself of the feeling you had when you were away.Here’s one from a hike in Tennessee Valley in Marin County, California, on my recent vacation:
That’s San Francisco in the left background, peeking through a gap in the hills.
- Go to that place, in your mind. Right now I can imagine standing on the ridge above the Pacific Ocean in Tennessee Valley, watching the fog roll in.
- Do something that feels like vacation every once in a while, even if just for a few hours or minutes. Take a hike, go out for a special meal. If at work, take a health break and walk around.
Let me know how it goes. Can you keep that glow?