It is so easy for us to find ourselves in a ‘rut’ when it comes to life. A life where we find ourselves going through the motions day after day, week after week and before you know it – month after month.
If I’m completely honest I’ve experienced this at different phases in my life. A case where I’ve been ‘existing’ and not really living – and for me this is depressing. Not by the ‘clinical’ definition – nor would I say I have depression – but for me life is ‘lifeless’ if I’m not living my life with passion and purpose. If I’m going through the motions I know it’s time for a shake up. One of the challenges of ‘existing’ is breaking this pattern and, if you find yourself bored, broken or burnt out, guess what the hardest thing to do is? Break the pattern….. You just don’t have the energy for it. Every small climb feels like a mountain – and everything can feel ‘hard’. Luckily for me the trip with Contiki came at the perfect time.
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A chance to get away for 3 weeks – switch off from work and gain clarity on what I want for the next chapter. An opportunity to get refreshed and rejuvenated the perfect ingredients needed to ensure that I hit the ground running when I got home. I knew my resilience, productivity and focus would all be up as a result of the break.
I’m not really a big believer in ‘pushing through’ when it comes to my work and training.
When I’m in need of a break I don’t seem to attract new opportunities my way. My training starts to suffer, I lose clarity, I struggle with ‘willpower’, my focus starts to drop, my creative juices dry up and I find myself running on the spot almost like I am in quicksand. It’s pointless.
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On the flip side when i’m not in the ‘grind’ things start to shift up. When I came back from over seas I found myself achieving more in a day than what I would in a week back home. The creative ideas were jumping out at me left, right and centre and everything was coming to me with a little more ease and flow.
One of the other positives was the ways in which i expanded. On my recent trip with Contiki through Spain and Portugal I found myself in a new environment meeting new people and heavily immersed in new cultures and a different way of living each and every day. I hadn’t seen much of Europe before – so it was eye opening for me.
Our trip had us city hopping regularly and the differences had me expanding in so many ways.
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When you combine these experiences it has us growing at a much faster rate than we would be in the real world. We are such creatures of habit that we tend to stick to the same people, the same places and the same environment and this can really stunt our growth.
Travelling improves your happiness and social skills like nothing else. I’m lucky that through my training and coaching I have a lot of time with people but in many industries people are extremely isolated. They find themselves spending a huge amount of time in front of the computer with very little human interaction – and while we think we’re ‘connected’ because we are constantly emailing, have ‘friends’ on facebook and instagram we’re actually starved (and craving) for face to face, human to human interaction.
I will be forever be grateful for what this Contiki taught me. My time in Portugal was particularly eye opening for me. I remember being on the top of the Porto bridge looking out over the spectacular city and river thinking about how ‘small’ I’ve played when it comes to understanding the world, the opportunities and the differences between us here in Australia and the rest of the world.
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Whilst we are all fixated on the number of $$ in our bank account or our next promotion at work, I believe that the only regret you will have in life is if you keep putting off that holiday or let life slip by without seeing the world. Get out there, travel the world and remember “no regrets”!
Tegan travelled to luminous Lisbon in partnership with The Travel Project, and Visit Portugal
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl2hFfYDHsk/?hl=en&taken-by=blakeworrallthompson