7 min
Indeed. It’s good to take a break sometimes.
I knew that already,
but I really think the humanoid on my LinkedIn feed need this piece of advice from a 30-years-old tanned person coming back from a break.
Listen to my advice: Take a break.
This is a not exhaustive list of why's you should stop what you are doing right now, read this through and take a break from whatever priority you think comes prior to you.
tl;dv,
Love, endless adventures and island hopping were my daily life for the past 2 weeks.
Yesterday, I landed in CDG Terminal 1 after 24 hours from El Nido > Manila > Jeddah > Paris > Home Sweet Home.
Today was my first day back at work and weirdly enough, I am productive.
📵 No Connection
Useless noise kill silence.Le silence est le cri le plus fort.
Deconnect from everything and forget the world we live in for a second. Map your past dues, your reality today and your aspirations. If you look at any virtual feed out there, the world is going f*** whole anyway, straight to an apocalyptic future. Unevenly, the world is constantly evolving and might improve, but one thing is certain: it won't change much if you leave the world behind for a second. Take a break of the press, your local bubble of habits and Fears of Missing hashtag#Out.
NB. Thankfully enough, I was off, literally off as my phone stopped working day #3 / 15 on Philippines soil. Bureaucratically a nightmare but spiritually enriching.
Experience is the best experience.
Go out there, travel the world's corners, discover other cultures than your four square, and meet other humans that took different paths than yours. Make your own adventures and let them be your memories for the rest of the year. This is what you should value your time left on this earth on, the footprint you want to leave behind to your children, grand-kids or FFFs you crossed path with. hashtag#detox
NB. Reconnect with old-fashioned pen and paper note-taking.
Clear your mind.
Eat, Drink & Swim hashtag#repeat. Plan your trip in advance and work around the dates “cheap” high seasonly choose. Schedule an auto-reply for your notification overload (Slack, emails, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc…) That helps not to be drawn down to your small phone screen, your half virtual one you seek answer from every day.
NB. If you dare trust technology, automate literally everything at work so that no action, dependencies, or bottlenecks are caused due to your departure.
Breath in, breath out.
Focus on the essentials: hashtag#health. It's healthy to take a break… Challenge yourself before you are unable to change who you want to become. Breathe in and breath out, natural wonders and listen to every sensorial experience you may breathe, listen, feel, eat or smell… you know the drill.
NB. Yoga, meditation or dreaming help, it's free.
Money doesn't buy happiness.
It can be cheap to see the world, Ocean's sunrises and sunsets over one of the 2700 Islands Philippines has to offer hashtag#tao. Get out of your comfort zone. You still have to fly 24 hours to see the most interesting things in the world, but flight and life out there can be affordable if you are ok to adapt to situations hashtag#backpacking. Not everyone has the luxury to leave to far away lands. Well, at least, try to escape somewhere.
Sharing is caring.
Do this with someone you hashtag#love, care, and want to share time the most with. Connect with nature, other humans, animals, and culture differences. Make your own opinion of things, bring yours to the table or forge new ones through real-life use cases. Cherish each memory you have stored in the iCloud, no hotspot or Bluetooth needed ;)
Take a step back.
It's good to take a step back on the way back! Retrospective your past, current and future self and actions for the rest of the year you want to focus on. Prioritize these with a fresh 🐠 eye. hashtag#quarterly
NB. Helpfully, end of the quarter objectives helped me take a step back to my work-to-be-done.
Meet humanoids.
Ketchup's (🥫) with a lot of humans around you —hashtag#FFF (Friends, Family, and Fools). Set-up rituals, resolutions, and objectives weekly rather than monthly, quarterly, and yearly. Humans are ignored when drawn down into everyday habits driven by technology. Catch up quality time with love ones before time exceed your expectations hashtag#connect.
Life is never when you want, never when you can buta priori
, always as it should be.
Take time with yourself to transport into a deconstruction phase of your life. Your escape can endure 1 day, 2 weeks or months but your learnings will impact your future choices for the next few years, normally for good reasons. Things happen for a reason, whoever you may believe in.
NB. Be sure to be insured if you are as clumsy as I am ;)
We generate what we do, and we give birth to our masters.
When you are off, get your questions answered, elevate your natural self, bring your ideas to duality and conflict, generate actions from them, relieve the stress, renew the down roads or cause your consequences. Without being very spirituel, reconnect your spirit self with your body.
📱 Connection
Those 2 weeks were some well-deserved time off but,
Back to the reality I live today,
in-between busy cities, summer-to-be-married with the love of my life and still trying to lose some extra weight to fit into my suit.
Today,
Drastic decisions were made to adapt to the next 360 degrees change I might endure, and it's good to do so, from time to time. No need to share my decisions, i'll stick to be a doer and just… do.
One last note before I get back to the reality of the clouds I live in:
Your head is in the cloud.
Don't get confused with your own realities, dreams, and experiences. Draw a thin line to keep your head always in the cloud*.
- Philippines: The cloud above the turquoise water, the white sand beaches and the coconut in my hand.
- Paris: The IT cloud industry I work in, 08-20 every day at Brainboard.co.