By Nadine Araksi, Toronto-based Story Coach

“But what will I come back to?”

Woman tries to take a vacation: a true story

Do you feel like you’re watching the whole summer pass by, working your butt off while everybody else is jet-setting and swimming? Do you scroll the socials, only to feel like your entire feed got a trip to Europe this year while you’re sipping an Aperol Spritz on your same old patio, pretending you’re in Italia? You’re not alone.

On our group coaching program call recently, one of our clients mentioned that she rarely takes a vacation. The company where she works banks the unused days until the end of Q1 the following year, and if she hasn’t used them by then, she simply loses them. No payout, no accumulating days so she can retire three years early, just gone.

Through the Align to Thrive program, she decided she was finally going to take a vacation, dammit! She diligently booked the time off, alerted everyone who needed to know and was imagining days spent lunching with friends, getting a mani-pedi and a haircut. But as of the day before, she was getting nervous. Suddenly, Day One of vacation had the forecast of 100% chance of working while on vacation.

You’re not taking your vacation because of your stories

First off, let me say that other than the semantics (e.g. the payment structure of your current means of income), you don’t have to EARN time off. You deserve to rest at regular intervals. You deserve—no, in fact, you NEED—habitual time WITH yourself where you simply get to BE in your own energy and curiosity in observer mode. It’s healthy, and taking time away from our daily responsibilities often has the effect of helping us open our hearts and minds to what’s possible.

Many of you say you want work-life balance, only to continue to allow work to spill over into your time with yourself. If you feel like you just can’t and no one understands, allow me to read your mind.

Some of the reasons the women we coach sometimes struggle to take a vacation:

• You have a niggling feeling that someone will undermine you at work while you’re gone
• You feel guilty for being a human who needs downtime (why couldn’t you just be a robot already?)
• You’re nervous about the volume of work/emails you will come back to
• You couldn’t possibly spend money/time on something as frivolous as a vacation
• You believe that things can’t function without you there
• You worry that you’re going to work anyway, and booking the time off makes you feel shame

Spoiler alert: These are all scarcity mindset stories. And scarcity mindset sounds like “not enough” and “too much.” Not enough trust, energy, time, money, resources, connections, or belief in yourself. Too much risk, work, mental energy, and the chance of mistakes happening. Stories on repeat become habits. You become the employee who can’t seem to take time off. You end up perpetuating ideas about productivity (stories that began in the Industrial Age) that are harmful to human health—your own health being the top concern. At the root of your resistance to taking a vacation, there’s a story that invokes feelings of fear and insecurity. But on the other side, we promise that there’s calmness and confidence.

How the Alignment Framework helps rewrite unhelpful vacation “stories”

While it might be hard to believe, there’s a version of this life where you get to take your vacations and—GASP—actually enjoy them!

At Kickstartology, we ask you to wave the magic wand, not the wand of mediocrity. We teach you how to create a beautiful vision for your life that has more fun, joy and ease to it, by checking in daily to see what you need to do to get into alignment. Then we coach you as you work towards the goals and habits that will create that life. Once you zoom out enough to see the life you want, to truly admit it to yourself, we help you zoom in on the stories keeping you stuck and show you how to rewrite them to help you get results.

What results, you ask?

• Less stress and mind drama
• Less procrastination
• Less self-doubt
• ABILITY TO TAKE A VACATION, GUILT- AND WORRY-FREE!!!
• More clarity
• More time and energy
• And almost always, more fun

If your current stories are keeping you stuck in a timeline you want out of, book a conversation. Mindset work is the fastest way to a storyline you’ll feel thrilled with.

P.S. Find out how to work with me if you're ready to break the patterns keeping you stuck and get out of your own way: Let's talk.

Book a free coaching exploration call and I will tell you everything you need to know and what results you can expect with my group coaching program for women or 1-on-1 coaching.

Free: Get unstuck with our mini starter course:

KICKSTART: THE FIRST STEP

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