My summer holiday is approaching its end, just as abruptly as always. It started late, we have done a nice number of things, and it does feel like a long time since I last was at the office. So pretty well done on that front.
In a recent episode of Reconcilable differences, Merlin and John were discussing what defines success for their holidays. A key part of their discussion was the fact that you personally having a good time can be pretty low on the list of criteria when you are a parent. This aspect has started to enter my world, and rings true to me, but there are defiintely still personal criteria which feel deciding to me. The most important one seems to be this:
Do I, at the end of my summer holiday, feel like I have really wound down?
Do I feel relaxed, energized, like I have had time to rest, catch up, and perhaps do some creative things along the way?
I have never before put it into words this clearly, but I feel that winding down properly has been the main success criteria for most if not all of my holidays as a working adult. And I find it interesting that, despite checking pretty much all the boxes I tend to think of before the start of a holiday, I feel like I have succeeded less this year than on average. Again, I have done all the things I expected at the start, but it seems they did not add up to quite the level of unwinding I expected this time.
I look forward to processing this and trying to figure out how or why. And it is great when people give me new thought technologies that let me even begin to think about it.
Meanwhile, I lean back in a huge couch in a rented house, laptop on lap, water and whiskey close at hand.