Christmas and new years are traditional holiday times for Australians.

We recently returned from our holidays to Singapore and Vietnam… and the key word here is RETURNED.

… Because the problem with holidays is that you have to come back.

We flew to Singapore and jumped on board a huge boat for a 5 day cruise. The thing about a cruise is food – and it is all you can eat variety. Combine food with reduced activity and it spells weight gain.

Straight after the cruise, we flew to a resort in central Vietnam. Again, a full buffet breakfast was included in the package and gorging on the local food for other meals…

About the second day in .. I thought that it would be good to go to the gym.

Normally, I float around 68 kg.

After the first morning in the gym, I jumped on the scales. It read 71 kg.

The next day, it was early morning gym again. 71.2 kg. Must have been something wrong with the scales. .. So, I missed the morning after.

Another day goes by and I do the gym thing again. After the sweaty workout… 71.4kg. “I must start cutting down” I told myself.

“… Last day at the resort. 71.7kg…” read my travel diary

Weight is an obvious example of “letting go” when we take off for holidays – but there are other areas of our lives that we also let go. Then we suffer the pain of it when we RETURN.

The Socceroos won the cup on the weekend. In the game of soccer (and many other ball games), there is “time out”. This is usually HALF TIME.

This is akin to our annual holidays – when we take time out to relax before the next year comes around.

The major difference between half time in a game and our annual holidays is preparation. Ball players go into half time knowing that they have to return and do better. Half time for them is not about “letting go” – but about preparing for the second half.

Our problem with how we handle our holidays is that we don’t like to think about coming back. So, there is no time spent on preparing to return to the “REAL WORLD”.

I have met very few people who go on holidays and do not return. We all have to come back. And if we do not prepare for the return, things will fall into a heap – making you feel that you need a holiday from the holiday that you have just had!

… We have to learn that we have to handle a holiday like ball players handle half time. I hear of people who spend their holidays sitting back and reviewing the year just gone past and then take the opportunity of the quiet time to grow fresh thoughts about doing different things in the new year. As a result, they say that their holidays can become their most productive part of the year.

Life is a game. It is about playing hard and taking breaks in between. But the breaks are not meant for ‘packing your bags – and see you later’. The rest periods are to prepare for the next sessions.

The choices are:

• Let go – and get a mauling when you return… or
• Prepare – and hit the ground running for a fresh go at another round of life.

I did a lot of the first choice during my recent holidays. But I think I did enough of the second to get by without a major mauling when I got back.