I Don't Want to Get Back to Normal

Six weeks of travelling, visiting people, eating, drinking, exploring and generally enjoying ourselves.
And, like most people when they come back from a long holiday, part of me immediately thought:

Right. Time to get back to normal.
Back to the routine.
Back to the gym.
Back to eating properly.
Back to work.
Back to all those things I was doing before I left.

But as I sat with my journal this morning, I started wondering whether that's actually what I want to do.
Maybe I don't want to get back to normal.
What exactly is normal?

We have these routines in our lives.
We get up at a certain time. We exercise in a certain way. We eat at certain times. We work certain hours.
And after a while, those routines become our normal.

There's comfort in that.
But there's also a danger.
Because sometimes we follow a routine simply because it's what we've always done, rather than stopping occasionally and asking:
Does this still work for me?

Six weeks away gave me a natural break from many of my routines.
And instead of immediately picking them all back up again, perhaps this is an opportunity to look at them with fresh eyes.

What worked before I went away?
What didn't?
What did I miss?
What didn't I miss at all?
And what might I want to do differently now?

I didn't stop moving
Exercise is a good example.
At home, exercise tends to mean going to the gym.
On holiday, that changed completely.
We walked.
A lot.
We explored historical places.
We wandered through towns.
We spent time in the countryside.
We swam in lakes and in the sea.
I wasn't following my normal exercise routine, but I certainly wasn't doing nothing.
I was simply moving differently.
And much of the time, I was doing it with my family.

That's made me question something.
Was the purpose of my routine really to go to the gym?
Or was the purpose to move my body, look after myself and feel well?
Those aren't necessarily the same thing.
Sometimes we become so attached to the method that we forget why we started doing it in the first place.

Life moves
The same is true of family life.
When it comes to holidays, the needs of the family change.
Children grow.
What they enjoy changes.
What we enjoy changes.
The way we spend time together changes.
And yet sometimes we keep trying to recreate what worked before.

Perhaps routines are like that too.
What worked for us five years ago may not work now.
What worked for me before this holiday doesn't automatically have to become what I do after it.
Life has moved.
Maybe I have too.

A reset, not a restart

So rather than thinking about this week as getting back to normal, I'm thinking of it as a reset.
Not throwing everything away.
Not creating some dramatic new version of myself.
Just looking again.

Which routines still serve me?
Which ones have become habits simply because I've always done them?
What did six weeks away teach me?
What do I want to bring back?
And what am I quite happy to leave behind?

There's something freeing about that.
We don't always have to return to exactly where we were.
Sometimes a break gives us enough distance to see our lives differently.
And perhaps that's what holidays can give us beyond the rest, the travel and the memories.

Perspective.

So I'm not going back to normal.
I'm going to create new routines for where I am now.

Until next week,

Stefan

Your Life. Your Call.