THE LIFESTYLE ENTREPRENEUR

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Vacationing

I’m finishing up an amazing lake vacation with my four brothers and their families - 8 adults and 9 kids in one house for a week - and we all got along!

Not only did we get along, all reports I’ve heard so far, are that it was one for the books. My sister-in-law, Natalie, even said it was a top 5 vacation.

For this issue as I’m riding shotgun on the leg to Charlottesville where we’re stopping for lunch, I’m going to post some general observations from vacation I think will be helpful.

Wellness Activities

Spending a week with my brothers and their partners, along with all our kids, allowed observation of everyone’s wellness habits and quirks.

Since I believe 100% of us use commercial or home gyms for our fitness, I believe 100% of us altered our fitness habits for the week.

And I saw 100% of us getting some kind of physical activity in every day. Things I observed:

• Walks

• Paddleboarding

• Hill sprints w/ weighted vest

• Yoga

• mini workouts - like squats and pushups

• Light sports - like throwing footballs and frisbees

• Swimming

With a pretty wide range of age and fitness levels, everyone was active. Which leads to more enjoyment of our leisure time.

This is a much better way to spend leisure time that sitting around all day.

Most of us sit around all day at work. And while we’re all tired and want to “rest” on vacation, moving regularly makes it all better.

Work Styles

Our group has a variety of professions, and I got to see how each person handled vacation.

• There was a lawyer who had a few cases come up right before vacation so they had to spend a few chunks of a few days doing deep, uninterrupted work

• There were a few small business owners who did some check-in and administrative stuff every day

• A few who have the kind of work where they’re “on” while they’re at work and don’t have to think about it when the day is done. Those people didn’t have to check in or do any work at all

• I’m a bit of a hybrid, where my primary work is sessions with clients that requires no work on off days, but did a little work each day except the 4th & 5th on content and followup with people

While I think we should all aspire to completely disconnect on a regular basis, the type of work we choose will largely dictate how much we can really disconnect.

We should consider that as we’re building our career plans.

Family bonding activities

The cousins in our family are very close so they get into a playful rhythm quickly. There were also a few activities that brought all of us together even more quickly.

• Standup Paddleboards - We had two, then four of these. They occupied hours of fun time for the kids and adults. For the kids they represented their most freedom producing options, meaning they could take them out without supervision. They had to learn to work together with 2 or 3 kids on a board.

• Boating - We started with 2 adults on the boats we rented, and then graduated to just me and the kids for tubing and wakeboarding. They all had to work together to make sure we were safe and having fun. Boating together was an excellent bonding experience.

• Board games - The game of choice this week was called “Secret Hitler”, a strangely titled game that was excellent for forcing interaction and fun together.

• Ongoing trip games - We started the trip with a fun game that involved the whole house - everyone had to write their name on a paper, an object, and a place, and throw them in a pot. Each person then selected a person, object, and place - if they were able to get that person in their particular place holding their object, they were out. This game entertained the kids and adults for days, and fostered strategy, collaboration, and mischief

The actual activities aren’t particularly important other than being decent ideas for your own trip.

The point is having multiple collaborative activities each day made for better bonding, relationship building, and memories for the kids.

I love vacationing with my extended family and feel extremely lucky we can all do this most years.

I hope you all had a safe and fun holiday, and find great ways to connect with your families over the rest of the summer.

Talk to you next week,

Mike

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