Why and How to Keep Your Habits Alive on Vacation
I go on vacation a lot. We’re typically gone over 150 days a year.
And I love it. There’s nothing better than exploring new places, meeting new people, having unique experiences, enjoying the local food, and having a very different rhythm than my normal life. In fact, that different rhythm is part of the pleasure of vacation. But it can also cause some problems.
The problems stem from treating vacation as a complete break from everything. Most people don’t just take a break from work and stress, they also take a break from all the habits that make them feel their best. They stop exercising, stop following their routines, eat poorly, drink more, sleep less, and basically abandon the healthy and productive lifestyle they have worked hard to create.
Since I’m on vacation for almost half the year, if I did that, the result would be disastrous.
But even for a one week vacation, the impact of pausing all your routines and habits is far greater than you think. Because it’s not just that one week of no exercise, eating poorly, drinking more, and sleeping less. It’s what happens when you get back from vacation. Most people struggle to restart all those positive habits. Once you understand the science of habits, it’s clear why this happens.
At this point, almost everyone has read a lot about the importance of habits and how they work for or against us. James Clear’s book Atomic Habits has sold over 25 million copies and 8 years after publication, it’s still consistently one of the 5 top-selling books in the world. One of the key lessons from the book is that habits are all about consistency. As long as you practice a habit every day, it’s easy to stick to it. Stopping, even for a few days, can make it hard to restart – almost as hard as starting from scratch.
Another key lesson from the book is that habits build your identity, and then the identity your form is critically important to maintaining those habits.
Every time you follow through on your habits, you reinforce your identity both about that habit, and as a disciplined person. And each time you don’t stick to your habit, you chip away at that identity.
So when you keep your core habits alive during vacation, not only do you keep those habits intact, you also maintain that identity as a disciplined person with good habits. That makes it easier to return to your normal routine.
If you know much about me or Happiful, you know I have a lot of structure in my life. I have a clearly defined Morning Routine, a consistent set of Daily Activities, and a specific Daily Shutdown routine. In total, I have 47 actions built into my Ideal Day Checklist.
They’re all in my Ideal Day App, and I use the app every day to keep me on track, checking the actions off as I go. It’s the foolproof system that keeps me on track for all my habits and key activities.
But I don’t want to do all those 47 things on vacation. On vacation, I want a different type of day, with less structure and more free time and flexibility. I want a shorter morning routine and fewer required daily actions. However, I don’t want to lose my identity as a disciplined person with good habits. And I can’t abandon my health habits for 150 days a year, or my health and fitness would suffer badly.
The solution: I identify a core set of habits I want to maintain when on vacation. They’re the things that keep me healthy, energized, and feeling like myself; and make sure that I don’t fall too far behind on my businesses.
Every day on vacation, I do my gratitude journal, my input free morning walk, my stretching routine, my breathwork and posture, at least 30 minutes of exercise, and I review my values, my Quarterly Rocks, and my affirmations. I also follow a few key items from my normal Daily Shutdown. So, I only have 12 things on my daily checklist instead of 47. I do allow more carbs into my diet (you can’t avoid some bread, pizza, pasta and gelato in Italy!), but make a point to still focus on protein, vegetables, and fiber. I may drink wine a bit more often (again, hard to avoid this in Italy) but keep it limited, and I still go to bed early so I can get enough sleep. So although I flex a bit, I don’t throw away all of my health habits. My goal is always to come back in as good shape as I left.
Keeping these core habits in place means I maintain my health and wellbeing on my long vacations. And I can get right back to my normal routine upon return.
The key to making this work, at home or on vacation, is the Ideal Day App. The app has all my 47 daily actions in it for my normal routine when I’m home. Every day, I check them off as I do them. That’s what keeps me on track for all my habits. That’s how I have an Ideal Day every day.
When vacation starts, I simply toggle off the actions I’m not going to do. I might add a couple things or adjust the order to fit the new rhythm of my days, and in less than a minute, I have my vacation version of my Ideal Day.
When I get home, it takes about a minute to switch everything back.
The most important habit is actually using the Ideal Day App itself.
It’s the keystone habit that supports all the others. Because if you start each day using the Ideal Day App, that makes it easy to follow through on all your desired habits and actions, whether on vacation or at home. That one habit almost guarantees success.
So even on vacation, I start the day by opening the app, taking the actions, and checking them off as I go. Because I want to enjoy my vacation and still come home feeling great.
If you haven’t tried the Ideal Day App yet, I urge you to do so. It’s free, and it is the key to making every day your Ideal Day.
