Throughout the summer and into the Autumn all the talk seems to be about holidays. Either the holiday itself, or the stress of getting everything done to be ready for the holiday, or the holiday blues we feel when we get home.
It’s not surprising. After our house and our car, our holiday’s probably the single thing we spend most money on in any given year. And with annual leave being a precious commodity, we want to spend that time away from work and the daily routine being as happy as we can.
And then, when we get home, we wish we could retain a bit of that holiday feeling for longer – introduce it into our lives so we would feel more happy more of the time.
Perhaps we try – then find that local wine just doesn’t taste quite the same out of the heat of the sun.
And by the time we get to our first Monday lunchtime back at work, umpteen loads of washing still waiting to be done at home because the wet weather means we can’t get it hung out to dry, we’re well and truly back in our old routine; stress levels rising faster than the Cornish tide and all those relaxed, smily moments feeling like a distant memory.
What if it didn’t have to be like that? Imagine if we could actually feel some of that holiday relaxed feeling at home…all the time.
Well, the good news is, this is the ideal time of year to learn from you holiday about what really makes a difference to your stress levels, your ability to switch off and relax and your general sense of wellbeing. So you can introduce some of what you learn into everyday life, as a way of managing your stress, improving your work life balance and wellbeing all year round.
Consider this. When we choose how to spend our time and money on our holiday, we generally have a totally free choice. And we tend to make choices that really suit us, that will make us feel happy, because it’s such a big investment of our time and the money we have available to us. So there’s potentially a lot to learn from the choices we make about how we spend our holiday time, by considering where we go, what we do, who we spend that time with and about what really makes us feel happy, content and relaxed…and therefore also about what we need in our lives to be able to feel that way.
One of the ways in which coaching helps you to make changes, is by using searching questions to facilitate you to gain new awareness – often more specific awareness – about a situation, or about what you really want, or about how you really feel.
And with that in mind, here I’m offering you twenty coaching questions to take on holiday with you, or maybe to reflect on during your journey home or over a relaxing cup of coffee the morning after you get back, that may help you work out what you can learn from your holiday about how to improve your ongoing happiness, work life balance, stress levels and personal wellbeing.
You don’t have to answer them all – and even if you aren’t going away this summer, there are lots of questions in here about you and how you choose to spend your holiday time generally that I hope will help.
- Generally, describe the kind of holiday you most enjoy?
- What exactly is it about that kind of holiday that makes it so great for you?
- What are the absolute essentials for you, to have a good holiday? (ie if they weren’t present, your holiday would be truly awful)
- What was the best holiday you ever had? How was it different to other holidays you’ve had?
- What’s the most disappointing holiday you’ve ever had? What exactly was it that was so disappointing?
- How typical was this latest holiday compared with other holidays you’ve had?
- What has made this particular holiday really special? What were the specific moments you most enjoyed?
- What was it about those moments that mad them so enjoyable? What do those moments tell you about what is important to you and to how you feel?
- If there were things that really spoiled this holiday or made it unsuccessful or left you feeling disappointed, what were they? And what does that tell you about what is important to you and to what makes you feel happy and content?
- What are the feelings/emotions you’ve experienced on holiday that you would value feeling more often?
- What could you do more of in your every-day life, that may be similar to things you’ve done on holiday, that could bring you more of these positive feelings?
- And what things are you doing in your everyday life that cause you to feel the opposite of the feelings and emotions you would most like to have?
- What would you like to do less of, that would make room to do more of the things that you’d like to do?
- What things did you feel relieved to be leaving behind while you were away?
- What’s the smallest thing you can do now to make dealing with those things easier?
- What would you have to do to be able to leave them behind permanently?
- And how could you potentially do that? What support would you need? What would have to change?
- Which of those things or ways is definitely impossible?
- Which of the others are you willing to commit to doing?
- If you had two weeks off work, money were no object, and you didn’t have to please anyone else, what would you do with that time?
I’m Jo Lee, the No Stress Success Coach. I help under-pressure professionals and business owners achieve the successful, enjoyable work life they want, without the stress, worry, Imposter Syndrome and burnout they don’t. I help you make changes that mean you control your work rather than it controlling you, so you’re able to switch off, worry less, sleep better, work less and live more.
So you feel balanced, not burned out.
I offer face to face stress management coaching, work life balance coaching and confidence coaching in Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Birmingham and online coaching across the UK. If you’d like to find out more about how coaching works to help you manage stress or what coaching with me might be like, please get in touch for an informal chat or to arrange a free initial consultation.