Ah, vacation life. That's when we're living our best life.
But wait. Why? Why do we wait until vacation to live life to the fullest? After all, we're only on vacation a few weeks a year.
My family and I just got back from an amazing Hawaiian vacation. Hawaii has been number one on my list of favorite places since my first visit almost 20 years ago. Every time I go to Hawaii I have one MUST on my list: watch the sunrise every morning.
This trip was no different. Every morning I would hop out of bed excited to start the day and go chase the sunrise. The last morning on vacation, as I eagerly awoke the rest of my family to join me, I thought: Why don’t I do this at home?
I am NOT a morning person. Not at all. Like, to the point that my 8-year-old daughter serves as my alarm clock at least once a week. I go through spurts of attempting to wake up early. But it’s always so hard to do. So what makes it different for me in Hawaii? Sure, sunrises over the ocean are spectacular, but I’ve seen sunrises in my hometown ... and those are pretty special too.
So on that last day of vacation, I told myself I was going to start watching the sunrise every day at home too.
And that got me thinking... what other positive vacation habits could I bring home? Why do we save our best living for vacation? Here are five aspects of vacation life I’m going to do every day so that I live my best life every day... and not just a few weeks a year on vacation:
1. Watch the sunrise.
I literally want to start my morning seeing the beauty of the sunrise. Sunrise not your thing? You can still get up early and do something just for you -- go for a walk, read the paper with a cup of coffee, or write in a gratitude journal. Whatever it is, start your day doing something that brings you joy.
2. Make the bed ... everyday.
This one might be one you’re already doing if you’re better at adulting than me! But for me, making the bed falls under the couple times a week category.
When you’re at a hotel, you know that feeling when you walk into the room and the bed has been made .... or that feeling of crawling into the made bed at night...It's amazing. Now sure, at your house you’re the one making the bed, which might take away a little bit of the gratification, but still. Make the bed. It’ll make you happy tonight.
3. Put the robe on.
I own two robes. You know where they are? One is buried in the back of my closet and the other is forgotten on a hook. Both of them go UNTOUCHED every day.
You want to know the one thing I wore EVERY SINGLE DAY on vacation? The hotel robe. I’m not joking. I actually slept in it two of the nights. Just living that robe life and loving it. It got to the point where one of the robes I declared mine and the other one had to be shared between the rest of my family. So I’m digging out those robes at home and wearing them. There's no reason that robe life should be exclusive to hotel rooms.
4. Get in the pictures!
I think I snap close to a thousand pictures of my kids a day (maybe that's a tiny exaggeration). When I look back through those photos, I can count on one hand the photos I’m in a month. But on vacation? I make sure family photos happen EVERY DAY. I think we took more photos with all of us in the five days on vacation than we had all year.
When your kids are grown and are looking at all those pictures of their years growing up, will they want to see a hundred pictures of them posing alone? Well, possibly. But you know what they’ll also really want to see? You.
So get in the picture. On vacation. At home. You’ll be happy you did. And one day your children will be happy you did too.
5. Go out and explore.
Be a tourist in your own town. When on vacation, you make it a priority to visit all the must-see destinations. But at home? The day-to-day grind of responsibilities and appointments and classes and ... well, it means we sometimes don’t take the time to appreciate what makes our own town special.
There are parks, businesses, museums, and so much more, which I’ve been telling myself for far too long I want to visit and haven’t yet. So I'm promising myself here and now to get out and have adventures in my own town.
So there you have it. These are the five ways I’m bringing vacation living home. Will you take the challenge with me? To me, living your best life means living your best life every day ... not just on vacation. I want to look forward to getting up every morning, not just counting down to the next time we get to go away. Well, OK...I'll probably still count down to our next vacation too. But I'm definitely not waiting until then to live my best life!
Renae Gonzalez is the publisher of Macaroni Kid Brentwood, Calif.
