Summertime…and the living is easy!
This year my beach vacation was utterly relaxing.
Having just returned home, I sit here lingering in the serenity of this wondrous feeling of chilling so completely.
I found rest and relaxation by looking at leadership goals in a new way. I made it a point to include big goals (discovering the power of surrender) and little goals (reading three mindless books at the beach this year).
I didn’t quite reach my goal of reading all three books during my vacation. Even though I finished the third book at home on Saturday, it still feels like a significant breakthrough to me.
It was such a delightful and positive experience.
I really could surrender to fantasy filled fiction. Versus being so focused on business goals, integrated social networking strategies, and leadership, mindfulness, and presence—which I am normally so passionate about—-and almost consumed by at times.
And that little goal of reading held its significant power over me.
It started so simply for me. Walking into the nearby Barnes & Noble before I left and buying Summer Affair by Elin Hiledbrand with its gorgeous beach cover. Perfect.
Once I started reading, I became immersed in the fictional lives of dozens of people I didn’t know (nor needed to know) living on Nantucket Island. I was out of my normal routine. I was allowing myself the pleasure of mindless enjoyment and enriching exploration. I couldn’t wait to read each new chapter. What a complete joy to read.
Once finished with book one, I couldn’t wait to devour another. So I kept the momentum going and got a second book, Castaways, by the same author. Four couples, intertwined with each other at multiple levels and depths. Delicious.
I longed for more. So then there was book three, The Diary, by Eileen Goudge. Taking me back to a woman’s diary from the 1950’s, I read and became enchanted with the lead character Elizabeth’s will to seize what it was she TRULY wanted in life no matter what anyone else thought.
As I finished the third book tonight, even if after arriving back home in Allentown, Pennsylvania, I realized that setting that “little goal” to read a novel this vacation—one that could carry me away—had returned far more investment by week’s end than I had ever anticipated. I had in fact gotten so caught up in the literary momentum I ended up reading three books in quick succession. Who knew when I walked into that Barnes & Noble, how powerful that would be.
By focusing on fiction, I was allowed to refresh my love of reading for fun and build some reading “capital” for more serious reading throughout the year. I enhanced my leadership capabilities by imagining in a deeper way than I typically do. And most important, I catapulted myself completely out of my routine and launched myself vigorously into a new world of possibilities.
By enriching myself, I am now ready to create more success, more meaning, and more contribution—to help others to accomplish their leadership goals in service of themselves and others.
My vacation goals served me well. I get the sense that they will sustain me and my leadership for some time to come.
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