“A dream is a wish your heart makes…” -Cinderella
I can admit that for as long as I can remember that I am a HUGE daydreamer. It’s true.
I’m lucky though, it’s not considered to be the worst of my bad habits since I try to keep it to non-crucial times. I can usually focus during conversations, phone calls and writing emails. But catch me while on vacation and your will encounter daydreaming at its worst- something I like to call “vacation brain.”
Let me counter it with this- these breaks that I take have a considerable impact in what I choose to do with my “working” time. If I didn’t allow myself to have these daydreams, then I would never allow my brain to relax deeply enough to truly understand what my potential would be.
One of my most recent examples would be my love of traveling.
I love to travel. I love to explore new places, people, cultures and, of course, food. I do not love, however, the bills that can sometimes accompany travel so I tried to not do it and not travel. I tried to stay home and take a “mini-vacation.”
Believe me, it does not work.
You may be one of those people who can truly relax at home. You can sit still and not look at the walls that need painting, the closets that need rearranging, the kitchen that needs cleaning AND reorganizing.
Maybe you can do that.
I can’t.
I’ve tried.
Every so often I would catch myself in a daydream where I am wandering around on some beach watching a sunset or playing in the ocean. Sometimes I’m in a city much older than New York City, exploring the hidden corners and the vendors on the street selling foods that smell incredible and make my mouth water.
These daydreams and the increasing frequency of them tell me that I not only need to travel to give myself a needed break from working, but that I need to travel to really satisfy something in me that craves it.
For you it may be something entirely different. You could love sports and indulging yourself in tickets to a playoff game. It could be pampering yourself and trying out new spas and treatments.
Whatever your dream may be, you deserve to indulge every so often.
We spend so much time working to get ahead that we can easily forget that our lives are made for living and being with our closest friends and family.
It is easy to spend more time at work than we do at home. The problem with that goes beyond just exhaustion.
The problem becomes more about defining yourself as a worker rather than a father, mother, brother, sister, husband, wife, friend…
We all have dreams that speak to who we are as individuals. Let us indulge these dreams before we indulge our dreams as workers, managers, or business owners.
We can always work more, but we all need to learn to live more.
Find what it is that you need to be truly, genuinely happy. Then find a way to fit it into your lifestyle, family and, most importantly, your budget!
