Why ‘switching on’ can help you ‘switch off’ when you’re on holiday

I’m not sure about you, but I find it difficult to switch off from work when I’m on holiday (I’m writing this while in the middle of a 10-day break in Spain!!). Not because I don’t enjoy time with my family, but because what I do is important to me on a number of levels and I want to be successful. But I also know taking a break is important, so on this holiday I’ve decided to do 2 things…

1. Switching off to the day-to-day things I know will get done when I get back – preparing for a presentation, working out how to help a client deal with a challenging situation etc.
2. Switching on to thinking about the skills I need to start working on that will help me take the next step – for me on this holiday it’s the skills I will need to become outstanding at developing new business.

We design our holiday around stuff we can do together but there’s always some time soaking up the sun. I’m committed to use some of this time to think about the following questions…

In terms of what would bring long-term success (for you this could be in a current or future role), where does my skillset fall short at the moment? If I’m not sure, how would I find out?

What would I need to do to improve and how can I integrate this into my current commitments?

So, the key to switching off on holiday? For me it’s being clear about exactly what I want to switch off from and then keeping my brain occupied by ‘switching on’ to the things that will help keep us ahead of the competition that are too easily pushed to the side in a ‘normal’ week.

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