Welcome to Minute with Mallon!

Something I Taught:

One of the 10 life categories I work on with my clients is Fun & Recreation.

Each quarter, we give each of the ten categories a score out of 10 in terms of how satisfied the client is with that part of their life. Almost invariably, when this number in Fun & Recreation is low, the other parts of the client’s life also score lower than they need to. When we come up with an inspiring Fun & Recreation goal for their 90-Day Growth Cycle, it's amazing how it impacts all the other areas, including Career/Professional. Which brings me to a point:

When you optimize for fun, you'll watch as it becomes the force multiplier in every other part of your life!

I was working with a client last week who is planning a trip to Hawaii with his family. The trip is nearly 8 months away. We began to talk about the different islands, and what he was planning to do. Since the trip is a long way off, he and his wife hadn't done much planning.

Here's a fact: substantial research has found that the anticipation of a trip usually brings more than half of the joy that you get from the trip. The build up to a vacation can create positive emotions, boost our mood, and reduce stress as we look forward to a break from our everyday routines.

One study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life found that the highest levels of happiness in a vacation experience were reported BEFORE the vacation, during the planning and anticipation stages.

Also, research has found that the best time to begin planning for a vacation that's months away is about 2 weeks before going on your next vacation.

You heard that right!

In other words, if we're in November and you're going to take the week of Thanksgiving off, begin planning your May/June vacation two weeks before Thanksgiving. That way, when you complete the Thanksgiving vacation, you're already in anticipation of the May/June vacation. This means you don't have to experience what researchers call the "post-vacation blues." It's a real thing and you've probably experienced it yourself!

So based on this information, what can you do right now to get more enjoyment out of your vacations?

Something I Learned:

In the book The Coaching Effect by Bill Eckstrom and Sarah Wirth, the authors discuss findings from team members in different companies about how to improve team meetings. Here are some of them:

"Bring in more speakers to monthly meetings."
"We need more exposure to success stories and idea sharing within the team."
"Share more best practices."
"We need more collaboration among my peers."
"We need better training and more time for training."

"The survey comments paint a consistent picture of what team members want from team meetings – more education, more learning, and more training."

Here to help if you need it! 👋

Something to Ponder:

"A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you've been taking."

Earl Wilson

Something I Saw:

Bare Bones in Buford. Be still my heart! ❤️

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Until next week!

Robert

Minute With Mallon. Vacation Planning: Where Happiness Begins!