How to Enjoy Family Vacations

Vacation with family is a good way to get away from your sanity and relax not even for a second." - Unknown 🤣

Good news, though! You can save yourself from this ⬆️ if you remember this ⬇️ .

You are always in charge of your expectations. 

Here’s what I mean. Let’s say you are going to bring 2 books on your family vacation, and have an expectation/hope/pipe dream to read for a couple of hours each day, uninterrupted. 

Then, when you end up reading for 20 minutes and get interrupted 4 times, you are annoyed. The annoyance is not from the interruption, but from the gap between your original expectation (OE) and reality.

Here’s what to do: 

1. Drop that OE. It’s not helping you.

2. Pretend you’ll win $100 if you predict how much reading time you’ll actually get. What would you guess?

3. Make that guess your adjusted expectation (AE). 

AE: I’ll probably read a few pages in bed before I fall asleep at night.

That way, if you get to read a few pages at night, you’ll be happy. And if you actually get some time on the plane or beach where no one needs you and can read there too, bonus! 

Let’s do one more - this one is selfish because I’m about to take my teens to Europe.

OE: My kids are going to LOVE this. They will be super excited and grateful for all of the fun I’ve planned. They’ll be so happy they won’t even fight or complain. They’ll be super into museums and culture.

If I were to win $100 to predict what will happen in reality . . . they’ll like the trip. It will be a lot for them. They’ll complain and fight sometimes. 

AE: My kids will like the trip, and complain and fight just as much as they do at home. 

That way, when they are arguing about who gets to sit in what seat on the train, I can just think, yep, that’s normal, and expected. And if they fight less or complain less, bonus for me! 

You are in charge of your own annoyance, my friend. Just adjust those expectations and you can have a lot more fun. 

PS  If you have a hard time with adjusting your expectations, group coaching can help!

Registration for my group coaching program The Good Life opens next week! Sign for a free 15-minute consultation to learn if group coaching is a good fit for you here.