Many of us are returning to work today or tomorrow after some vacation time. We’re probably also facing a horrendous number of e-mails, voicemails and a stack of work to start right away, despite still having “vacation brain.”
Simultaneously, you may ask if the vacation was really worth it. But not me. The vacation is always worth it. Let me tell you why and it might help your Monday go a bit smoother.
In a month when my “To Do” list seems to experience a growth spurt, I needed a book that would help ease and focus my mind. October, I’m learning, is an overwhelming mix of events, deadlines, anxieties and exhaustion at the end of a particular work cycle. Less: Accomplishing More By Doing Less, with it’s soothing green cover and simple table of contents, seemed to promise a light at the end of the tunnel.
Marc Lesser, author of Less and Z.B.A – Zen of Business Administration: How Zen Practice Can Transform Your Work and Your Life, is a Zen teacher with an MBA. I certainly thought I could learn a few things from this guy!
In this week of posts celebrating the Green Mountain Club’s 100th Birthday, I thought I would get off of the promotional soapbox and just talk about hiking, one of my favorite things to do. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that sitting on top of mountains is actually my favorite thing to do, but hiking to the top is pretty cool too.
The truth is, I work pretty hard. Sometimes my passion for my work becomes drive and focus and, well, Work. I love it, but I also want to strike a balance. That’s when I hike. And I find the most enjoyment in just 100 yards of hiking, not even the whole hike.
Right now, my favorite life and career resource is Creating a Life Worth Living by Carol Lloyd. The subtitle is “A practical course in career design for artists, innovators, and others aspiring to a creative life” and does not short shrift those of us who can’t master watercolors or work up the nerve for live performance art, but who nonetheless identify as creative.