Vacation All Year Round

Want to be on vacation all year? The key is attitude. What if you could be that vacation self – that one you really like – the rest of the year? It’s possible!

We’ve all felt that buzz from an amazing vacation: you look like a knockout, and everyone around you seems to notice how awesome you are. People are more attracted to you; people are more interested in you. You take more risks, and you experience everything with the vigor of your first brush with love itself. You accomplish feats you never even thought were possible. You throw yourself into the stream of life.

Then you get back home, and nothing is quite the same there, either. For a week. Soon after, it returns to “normal,” and it’s that boring old normal, rather than the special “new normal” you loved so much. And you’re no longer a magnet for special things, fun events and sparkling conversation.

It’s time to learn how to parlay those seemingly temporary feel-good sensations and aspects of your self-esteem into better living all year long – and it’s easier than you might think! Turn that people- and idea-magnet back on.

Here are our favorite tips for being “on vacation,” in the very best sense, after you get home:

1. Visualize it to realize it. Sure – you enjoyed a week that you never wanted to end, but then it did end, as all things must. The best way to keep your mind in peak “vacation” mode is to visualize yourself once more as that hot thing you were when you commanded attention all over town. Pick five things about your trip that made it the time of your life. When your drab old workaday self starts seeping in once more, squash those killjoy feelings with some exciting visuals: use “fleeting moments” from your trip as tools to bring yourself back to that reality.

2. Pictures are worth a thousand words. Remember that you’ve got cold, hard proof, in the form of titillating photos of you scaling Mount Kilimanjaro, catching fresh tracks in Aspen – or whatever it was that you were doing on vacation that rendered you so fetching and such a swashbuckling figure. These are fantastic devices for remembering just how great you really felt, and getting your energy back on track. Grab ten photos from your travels – all of them – and create a quick vacation board that captures your favorite moments from your past excursions. Tack that poster up in places that threaten to bring you back to reality (your office, the locker room at the gym, the kitchen, or the kids’ playroom).

3. Look your best. When we are out of our regular routines we tend to look better than we do normally. Part of that has to do with our state of mind: the freedom that comes with time away from home makes us more delicious than usual, and we know it. So does everyone around us.

The other issue here is this: it does take time and effort to look our best, and so we shine when we’re out of town. After all, we have the freedom to do so without those family obligations and work deadlines getting in the way. But just because you’re home again doesn’t mean you need to put your hotness away in a drawer with the swimsuit. What’s the solution? Remember that looking good isn’t a chore: it’s a means of nurturing yourself. Done right, it’s pure pleasure. So start by implementing a beauty or grooming routine that brings you back mentally to “that place.” You deserve this.

4. Crank up the volume. Remember those soulful sounds and romping beats you enjoyed from the dance floor during your getaway? Music is a beautiful thing, and it’s almost magical in the way it can bring you back instantly to another time and place. So flick on your iPod, and add a few of your favorite vacation songs to that heavy-rotation playlist. You might even bust a move to a mental conga line in the elevator as you ride up to the office. It’ll help!

5. Stop saving the good things in life for a vacation day. Why reserve the juiciest parts of your identity and activities for one week, and then let them lie dormant the other 51? Are you making excuses to go back to that ordinary life? Listen to the chatter in your brain, and and watch out for any of these: “I’m saving that outfit for my trip.” “I’ll get my hair cut and colored right before the ship sails.” “I’ll fix my flabby abdomen a few weeks before we leave town.”

Why not get some of this self-improvement on-line right now, instead of putting yourself on hold until the plane lands in Lisbon?

Yes, we get it: you’re busy. You’re a creature of habit. You’re set in your ways. But if you act now, and go on vacation during your “normal life,” you might get a mental jumpstart for your next trip. What’s even better is coming to realize that the amazing person you admired in Figi is you. And it’s just as real as any other part of you. Love it – and live it.