Summer holidays are nearly here! And boy do we need them more than ever right now with the current world stress levels.Â
Now I don’t know about you but this pre summer hols time always feels slightly like torture for me.
On the one hand, I want to get stuff wrapped up and yet work is insanely hard to concentrate on because my mind is buzzing with all the things I want to be doing when I am on my holiday.Â
Years ago I would half burn out before the holidays. Sleep for the first week and then end up going back to work having done half of everything I had wanted to do. Which of course meant starting back at work resentful and unhappy. Not a healthy or productive state to be in after a holiday.
Luckily for me (and now for you guys) around 15 ish years ago I met someone who changed all this.Â
I met a wonderful inspiring woman who will always be known to me as the Blue Faery. This amazing woman was one of the first to introduce me to planning, goal setting and evaluating progress. (You might be thinking what the heck has that got to do with enjoying my summer holidays, just bear with me and I promise it makes sense!)Â
Now goal setting and planning all of that is normally considered very focused, concentrated work, in other words, adulting with a capital A. However when it came to holidays the Blue Faery threw all of that grown-up stuff out of the window and used the same techniques in a completely different way to refresh, recharge her mental energy and work/life balance.
Now you see she had a very Adult job, you know the practically 75- 80 hour a week job. Her five weeks of summer holidays were very precious. She understandably viewed them as the reward for all of her hard work throughout the rest of the year.Â
So she devised the simple system of the Summer Goals Poster!Â
Every year on the first day of her holidays she would make an A3 poster with her summer goals. The rules are concise. 95% of the things you put up here have to be fun and things you want to do. You can have 5% of have too’s, if you really must, I don’t recommend it tbh. But NO more than 5%. And then you decorate your poster, drawings, glitter you name it.
A Summer Goals poster helps you to focus on fun and having a good time.
In a way you are creating a mini bucket list to guide you through and create an amazing summer!
I will never forget the first time the Blue Faery and I made them together. Our posters spread across the floor as we returned to the age of 5 laughing, drawing, cutting, sticking and glueing. With a cold glass of wine and good company, I felt jubilant. The poster went up in my house and I did everything on it that year. When the summer was over I went to work feeling refreshed and satisfied. And I have done it every summer since.
It is amazing how powerful taking the time to focus on the things we really want to do makes such a powerful shift in our energy. My Summer Goals Poster helps me to really invest in me each year and makes certain I remember to have fun. (Something very important to a self-employed workaholic!) I have never felt I have wasted my summers since the year I began doing this. Making my plans clear in a fun and childish way always sets the tone of a fun and free summer.
Now making my Summer Goals poster marks the start of the holidays.
(And not just the summer but all my holidays).
The putting away of grown-up responsibility and signals me stepping into the time where I decided when and where I do things. I have done this alone, with my family, I believe the Blue Faery makes them with her daughter every year and this year I will be making them with Mr T. I honestly cannot put into words how empowering this process is. I can just recommend you try it. And I know if you do this and make crossing off these goals important you will have the best ever summer every year!
And I think with all the lockdown -itus and the limitations we have on out normal summer holiday routines this year making a summer goals poster is even more important than normal. Because we are going to have to think out of the box when we are spending the summer at home!
So to make your own summer goals poster
- Find an A3 piece of paper or card.
- Gather felt tips, glitter, magazines glue and scissors and anything else you want to decorate your poster with.
- Find a friend and/ or grab a glass of something that you love, put on some summer music.
- Write SUMMER 2020 at the top of your paper and write out your summer goals. ( recommend making only 6 – 8 don’t over load your self as you are going to need down days too)Â
- Decorate like crazy
- Put it up somewhere you will see it every day
- Follow your goals and tick them off as you go along.
- Have an amazing summer!!!!
You can do this for just you or for your family. It’s a really fun process for the kids to get involved with!Â
And when you are done come over to the Re:Root your life community group on facebook and share pics of your summer goals posters to inspire us all to have the best summer ever!Â
Remember it’s all about enjoying your journey and this is a great way to remind yourself of that!Â
EnjoyÂ
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<3 Emma-Jane
