How to not f*ck up your annual leave!

Well I f*cked up that winter break! And I feel embarrassed to share what happened...

🤦‍♀️Well I fucked up that winter break! 🤬

And I feel embarrassed to share what happened.

It was completely against my values and “wellbeing first, work second” mantra.

And very unlike me to allow this to happen.

But I hope that you can learn from my mistakes!

I had a winter break in my calendar since the beginning of the year.

I was planning to go snowboarding down south but didn’t get around to booking anything.

A month out I was invited to speak at Women of Poneke on the Thursday night during my week off and my rubber arm said yes.

I knew I was heading away on a girls weekend to Taupo on the Friday so felt okay about it.

The week started with some beautiful mornings filled with gym, saunas, walks with my brother and the dogs…

But I spent Monday to Thursday afternoons clearing some critical work and preparing for my talk…

And let’s be honest, the closer a speaking event gets, the higher the nerves!

I could feel the resentment building so strongly within me.

Combined with a level of fatigue and overwhelm for upcoming busy months, I couldn’t relax until the talk was done.

Fortunately the speaking event was awesome and so uplifting!

On the Friday I headed off on a roadie with my girlfriend on a high!

We checked out the snow report on Sunday and it sounded a bit mediocre so I wasn’t keen. 

I could tell at this point I wasn't really feeling like my normal self. 

But we decided to go mountain biking instead, which was fun!

Afterwards we bought a coffee and as we sat down I had a little meltdown!

I didn't cry, but I could feel this sense of overwhelm with what I was returning to at work.

It just really hit me, randomly over a coffee. 

And I felt so bad for my friend because she was trying her best to support me but I was in this grumpy low mood. 

I think it had been brewing though. 

We went back to the house and I decided I needed to do a little bit of work to get my head around what I was actually stressing about.

I felt so much better after that. 

Until I got home, I felt like I had the Sunday Scaries – like back in my hangover days!

It continued as I woke up with a case of Mondayitis. 

From the whole transition of being on a break – that wasn’t really a break – to getting up early, off to the gym and into it.

Thankfully I had a meeting postponed.

And once I worked through the immediate things I realised it was actually not that bad. 

So that's the honest truth about how my holiday was!

Here’s my lessons learnt on how to not fuck up your annual leave…

1️⃣ Don’t agree to speak (or do ANY work) whilst on holiday - unless it's life threatening!

2️⃣ Don’t have access your emails or LinkedIn

3️⃣ Block out your calendar for the first few days back

4️⃣ Staycations are dangerous!

Are there any lessons you’ve learnt about taking holidays that you can share?