|
Summer Break for
Grownups,
Remember when you were a kid and longed for
the first day of Summer? The first day of Summer meant that school was
completely behind you, and the city pool was officially open, and the days
were long and the evenings stretched slowly into the night. There was
plenty of time to ride your bike or your horse, or walk through the park or
the fields (depending on whether you were a town kid or a country kid).
Summer meant a break in the routine of the
school year, when you had both parents and teachers telling you
what to do. During the Summer, you played outside all day, every day
(unless, of course, it happened to rain). You only came back to the house
for lunch or supper, or when it finally got too dark to play outside and
your parents called you to come back in for the night. Those long days gave
you plenty of time to choose solitude when you wanted it, so you could
explore on your own, or try something new on your own, with no one standing
around telling you how to do it or pointing out the steps you hadn't yet
mastered. Remember how much easier it felt to be brave about learning how
to do something when no one was watching you?
Somehow, as adults, we lose sight of that
place where our determination to master a skill is greater than our fear
that we will only demonstrate our lack of skill in the attempt. Children
don't usually worry about that; their entire focus goes into learning the
new skill. That is why children typically learn so much faster than
adults. Children embrace the idea of doing things by computer, while adults
get distracted by the concept that they now must learn a new way of
doing something. Adults split their focus between learning the new
skill and the necessity of learning the new skill, and that
bifurcation costs them more time in the learning process itself.
If you haven't let yourself experience the
joy of Summer in some time, maybe this is the year to renew your
acquaintance with the freedom and confidence that comes from exploring new
territory. When planning around work and vacation time and family
commitments, it is easy to let an entire season go by without really living
it. Summer, like life, goes by so quickly. One minute you have the whole
season ahead of you, and the next minute you are shopping the back-to-school
sales.
This year, take a break from all of that
frenetic activity. Instead of the planned vacation that exhausts you as
though it were a military troop movement, take a few day trips or weekend
excursions scattered over the weeks of Summer. Step outside your comfort
zone and let this be the time when you tackle that new thing you've been
wanting to learn but didn't have time to focus upon.
Open your mind to possibilities, and make
room in your schedule for the people and activities you truly want
to spend your time on. This year, give yourself the chance to be a kid
again as you explore and enjoy the gifts of Summer.
click here for Phoebe's
column Summer-A Season of Creative Inspiration
|
