Many people struggle with finding a sense of happiness in their daily lives.
While taking a vacation may serve as an escape, it’s really not a sustainable solution for long-term fulfillment.
In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of lifestyle design and how remote work is the key towards creating a life you don’t feel the need to escape from.
Takeaways
- Vacations themselves are not bad, it’s the context behind them that are often not great
- Create a life you don’t need to escape from
Not only do vacations disrupt healthy routines but they imply a larger more serious problem about how we are living our lives. Let’s dive more into the inherent issues with vacations
The Inherent Problem With Vacations
Let’s be real, vacations are amazing. But have you ever stopped to think about why we work so hard for 11 months just to get a couple measly weeks of freedom?
It’s like we’re trapped in this never ending cycle of justifying our slavery to our jobs, just because we get a chance to sip margaritas on a beach for a couple of weeks.
But here’s the real question, why are we always running away from our lives? What does that say about our day-to-day existence?
Is our life really that boring and soul-sucking that the only way to feel alive is by throwing money at some fancy resort? At the end of the day, shouldn’t we already be living our best lives and using travel as a way to amplify our already happy and fulfilling routines?
We need to break the cycle and start living our best lives, rather than using vacations to escape the mediocre ones we’re living now.
The Cost of Ignoring Daily Unhappiness
Let’s face it, we’ve all experienced those post-vacation blues. You know, that feeling of dread and lack of motivation when reality sets back in after a tropical escape.
It’s hard getting back into the swing of things, especially when you’re trying to recover from vacation splurges.
I mean, who doesn’t indulge in food, drinks, and partying when they’re on vacation? We all do – we deserve it.
But the consequences of those splurges can be tough. They throw us right back into the rat race cycle, working a job we don’t even like, just to save up for the next vacation.
It’s a never-ending cycle of temporary highs and everyday lows.
The Illusions of Vacations as a Solution
If vacations serve as the solution (an escape) to the problem of our everyday lives (unfulfillment), is that really a solution at all?
We are simply sweeping aside our responsibilities for some short term pleasure.
One might say it’s almost a drug to some extent. We enjoy the “high” of the tropical resort we booked our overpriced hotel at, and live in bliss for a week or 2.
In this sense a vacation is nothing more than an illusion of living a happy life.
There are far better alternatives to amplifying our lives and living a fulfilling life. Let’s dive into them.
Creating a Life You Don’t Want to Escape From
There is certainly nothing wrong with living a life full of pleasures. In fact we should all be striving to indulge in the things that make us happy in life.
But we also need to put in the work to build the life we want. Balancing fun and hard work can be tough, especially with the pressure of “hustle culture”.
Nevertheless, here are some crucial things you might want to think about when creating a life you don’t want to escape from.
The Importance of Lifestyle Design
Do you ever feel like you’re just going through the motions of life, without really feeling fulfilled?
That’s where lifestyle design comes in. It involves designing a career, social life, and daily routine that brings you fulfillment and happiness.
By taking control of your life and creating a vision for your ideal lifestyle, you can develop the skills and habits necessary to live a more purposeful life.
A life you don’t need to escape from.
Define Your Priorities and Values
Defining your priorities and values is a crucial step in lifestyle design. It’s all about identifying what truly matters to you.
Is it your relationships, your creativity, financial stability?
Once you’ve got that figured out, you can start prioritizing the people and activities that bring you the most joy.
Some people recommend using an ikigai template as a starting point.
Here’s a site that can help you work on creating your own ikigai venn diagram → Figma.com
Concept your dream life
Creating a vision for your dream life involves imagining what your ideal day, week, or year would look like.
This process includes setting goals and creating a plan to achieve them.
By visualizing your ideal life, you can gain clarity on what steps you need to take to get there.
Writing out a “2 year plan” for where you want to be in the near future is an example of how you can start working on this.
Execute Your Vision
It all starts with taking action towards creating your ideal life.
This may include pursuing a new career path, building stronger relationships, practicing mindfulness, or learning new skills.
While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to lifestyle design, taking small steps towards your goals will lead to compounding results over time.
Sure, you can still take vacations and have those highs, but at the end of the day you’re already living an exciting and fulfilling life.
Change Your Life With Remote Work
One of the greatest tools to create the life you want to live is already right in front of you – remote work.
Everyday it is changing the lives of thousands of people around the world.
Despite many companies desperately trying to get workers back into offices, remote work is here to stay for many years to come.
Therefore, now more than ever it is crucial that we are building up the skills to allow us to work remotely.
In fact, before we dive further, feel free to check out this article on 5 High Demand Skills to Learn in 2023 that can land you remote work opportunities.
Changing Your Environment Is Underrated
One of the most underrated aspects of remote work is being able to change your environment.
People severely underestimate the value of this, and how it can transform your everyday life.
Imagine working out of an air b&b in Barcelona, a cozy cafe in Paris, or even a beautiful beach in the Caribbean.
The point is, changing your environment is often all it really takes to bring fulfillment into our everyday lives.
Remote Work Solves The “Vacation Dilemma”
The best part about remote work is how it effectively solves all the problems with vacations we discussed earlier.
There are no “post vacation blues” because it’s just another day in your everyday life.
You won’t lose your momentum and routine that vacations tend to disrupt.
Plus, you won’t be blowing your budget on expensive things and splurging since you’re still working.
(I mean if you blow your money at home on expensive things anyways that’s a different conversation).
Plus, when you return home, it’ll be even more exciting because you’ve just spent a month living in another country! Who knows, you might even end up missing your hometown.
Wealth Hack Bonus
A little bonus hack for those who work remote is the opportunity to work a 2nd job that pays for your living expenses during your stay.
Imagine being a tour guide in the morning and coming back around 3pm to start your remote work job that ends around midnight.
Keep in mind 9am EST is 3pm CET.
If you play your cards right… you might not even need to ~actually~ work until midnight.
All I’ll say is check out this article if you want a better gist of what I’m implying. (You won’t regret it).
How To Land a Remote Work Job?
For the full explanation of the 3 Ways to Land a Remote Work Job, check out this article.
In summary, it really boils down to one simple thing – acquiring a high demand skill.
There are endless resources at our fingertips from sites like Udemy, Masterclass, and many more to pick up high value skills.
There is really no excuse for not taking advantage of them.
Remote work IS the next generation of work. Take advantage of it while it lasts because who knows what will happen.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment when we take vacations in order to escape our daily lives.
The time away from our responsibilities and everyday stresses can be therapeutic in the short-term, but ultimately won’t help in the long run in terms of fulfillment.
With this era of remote work upon us, we now have a great tool that can enable us to take back control of our lives.
It’s up to you whether you want to work for the vacation, or vacation while you work!
