Don’t Talk Yourself Out of It

This post is #13 in a #17 post series about workcations. The learn more about workcations and see the full eBook, check out Workcation. Have the best life now! on Amazon. It's free to borrow, if you have a Kindle device or Amazon Prime. 

Hopefully, by now you feel motivated and encouraged to plan and take a workcation. However, if the thoughts of going hiking after work is suddenly being conflicted with prohibitive thoughts, such as “how am I going to find a babysitter,” or “I just have too much to do,” well let me encourage you to stop those thoughts!

Let’s take a few moments here to look at common objections to a workcation and understand how you can move forward through them. These objections are simply mental speed bumps that you simply need to drive over and not look back. Let these positive rebuttals fuel your tank and help you continue to stay full of hope and accelerate over any hesitation, doubt, or reason to not take a workcation.

Commons Objects to “Workcations”

Objection: “I Don’t Have Time”

Make time! Yes, we are busy. We are ALL really busy. However, constantly telling everyone how busy we are just makes us busier and doesn’t help solve the problem of creating additional time for you. It all starts with making a time budget. Similar to allocating financial resources each month to various categories, such as mortgage, gas, food, and electrical bills, making a time budget will help show how much of your time you are actually spend. You may be surprised how much time you spend watching TV or just being busy by texting, viewing emails, and surfing the Internet. Lumping these activities into a grouped budget will help you maximize your time and find additional time to pursue relaxing activities. For example, you may decide to check & respond to email only twice a day (in the morning at 10AM and early afternoon at 3PM), to help free up time.

The vital essentials: As you make your time budget, think of the following main lifestyle categories. Each of these categories are vital to our life’s existence and are typical to most life schedules.

1.       Work

2.       Commuting

3.       Shopping & Errands

4.       Household Chores

5.       Eating & Meal Preparation

6.       Exercising

Low-level time drainers: Now think about the following additional “time draining” activities. These activities can seem important, but often take away from life essentials and opportunities to pursue a vacation or workcation.

1.       Watching TV

2.       Playing Video Games

3.       Writing and responding to emails

4.       Browsing social media sites

5.       Texting

High-level life enhancing priorities: Now think about important, sacred, and high-level pursuit that you value. How much time are we allocating or budgeting towards these pursuits. Your list make look different below, but here are some ideas to help your dream life continue to soar and reach new heights.

1.       Family

2.       Friends

3.       Religious interests

4.       Resting and relaxing

5.       Pursuing physical, mental, or spiritual goals

Objection: I don’t have enough money.

Save or create additional income. Your solution to this will really depend if you are a gather or a hunter. If you are a gather, you will meticulously save to acquire enough resources to enjoy an activity on your list. If you are a hunter, you will identify new revenue generating opportunities to increase your cash flow. This may include starting a blog that generates advertising revenue, driving as an Uber driver in the nights, or babysitting for friends on the weekend. No matter your personality time – either a hunter or gather – your ability to find pockets of money to help support your life and workcation pursuits depends on the willpower and dedication to make it happen!

It doesn’t have to be expensive. Last time I checked walking was free! Unless, you are walking on a treadmill at a gym. Then you may have to pay a monthly gym fee. Many, activities, such as visiting a local park, swimming at a lake, or walking at the beach are free or very inexpensive. If your workcation list is too expensive and beyond your current budget, it’s okay to scale it back and purse activities that are within your budget and spending threshold comfort levels.

Objection: It’s too much effort

Breaking bad habits requires willpower. Establishing new habits require less. According to the adage, it takes 21 days to establish a habit, but new studies actually find that it takes closer to 66 days. The “21 days to form a habit” seems to have evolved from University of Southern California’s Maxwell Maltz’s book, A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life, which states it “would take about 21 days of practice for an old mental image of ourselves to dissolve and a new one to ‘gel.’” It may take some of us 21 days, however it, may only take some of us 18 days to establish a new habit. On the other end of the spectrum, it make take others 254 days to establish their new habit. The ability to establish a habit really comes down to how your new habit will impact and evolve in your current lifestyle. Ask yourself how much willpower do have to achieve your habit or goal?

Taking a workcations doesn’t have to be a regular habit. Try one first. If you don’t like it or don’t see the benefit, then it’s may not be for you. However, I would encourage you to try a few, before you simply throw in the towel. Additionally, workcations are something that can be integrated into your life at various points to help enhance it. They don’t need to be regular occurrences or if they are, they can be strategically added to your life’s time budget.

Object: It’s not worth it to me.

You simply may need more time. The timing may not be right for you right now. Maybe your priorities and responsibilities are spread too thin. No matter the reason, it make take more time for you to be open to explore one.   

         Understand your needs. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, we have various needs that need to be filled before we pursue higher needs. For example, basic needs, such as air, water, nourishment, sleep, and safety, need to be fulfilled before we pursue and fulfill higher level needs, such as the need to give and receive love, self-respect, and achievement. Ironically, Maslow placed self-actualization needs at top of his pyramid. These needs, such as truth, justice, wisdom, and meaning, are classified as peak experiences and only experienced by a small percentage of the general population. If your desire to continually stay at the level of pursuing lower level needs, that is fine. However, if you pursue a workcation, your eyes may be opened to higher level needs as you fill your heart socially, and you fill mind and soul with self-actualization. 

To learn more about how you can enhance your life, check out Workcation. It's available to borrow for free via an Amazon Kindle.