You know that great feeling you get when you have a super holiday? Wouldn't it be great if we could keep that feeling in day to day life? Maybe it's not that far fetched...
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[MUSIC] Hey there, my name is Shane Kraddock, and this is the Interage Podcast, where I share a different take on how to lead and live a sustainable high performance life. Over the course of different episodes, I'm going to challenge the belief that tension, stress, and struggle are essential to success and creativity. My experience is that there's an easier way, there's a better way, and indeed, there's an essential way that we need to explore for the times that we live in. So let's go ahead, let's jump in and explore. [MUSIC] Hello there, welcome to the Interage with myself, Shane Kraddock. I am just back from a nice holiday with my family, Judy and the kids. And I suppose that has probably inspired, but not probably, it has definitely inspired today's podcast episode, which I'm recording just after the holidays, so it's called "Keeping the Holiday Feeling." What was interesting for me with this holiday was we went to Turkey, it was very hot. But for me, people will often talk if you're going for a week or two weeks, that generally, when you go into the second week, if you've stayed away from connection with work in terms of email and contact, that you will relax to a different level. And that's definitely my experience. In this case, we were gone for, I think, just 12 days. But what I found to assume was that I was so switched off by day two that I was almost horizontal. There might have been the heat, because they're going through a heat wave there. Normally, it's about 31 degrees Celsius, 32, it was about 40 degrees, which is definitely too hot for Shane, but we suffered on. And the point that I'm trying to make today is, when you're on holidays, when you have a really good holiday or a break, that you move into this very relaxed zone. And you have this, what I would describe, holiday feeling. And I used to wonder, it wouldn't be great if you could actually have that holiday feeling outside of holidays. I mean, that's one of the reasons why we love going on holidays, even thinking about holidays, is that we just feel, usually feel happier, lighter, better. And it's just a much more enjoyable experience. But I was always very curious as to, why couldn't you have that? Why didn't I have that outside of holidays? And then I realized, oh, you can. So you can have the holiday feeling outside of holidays. You just need to understand the inner dynamics of how it's created. And obviously, if you join me on this podcast, you know, I take a, as was a slant on the inner side of things. That's why I wrote the book, The Inner CEO, is to kind of share my own take on what I consider to be the most important variable in true success. The inner side of business and life. So when I talk about the holiday feeling, what do I mean? I don't mean, you know, okay, hammock relaxed, almost, you're almost like so relaxed, your heart, you know, as is a horizontal. So it's more to do with suppose, suppose an inner relaxation, almost like you have a calm ocean as opposed to a turbulent ocean. It's a very pleasant feeling. All is okay. Now, in reality, I think if you look at that a little bit more closely, you see that you're disconnected from your thinking about your work and your life. And I think that's one of the reasons why you feel better, is that you're distracted from your normal day-to-day thinking. And I think a good way to show this truth is that maybe a day or two before you come back from your holidays and you're just about to return. Have you ever noticed that your thinking starts about work and life starts to come back in? And it can start to remove the holiday feeling. Now, I noticed my own thinking just a day or two before coming back from Turkey back to Ireland. I noticed some thoughts coming in to do with work. Now, it's because I know a little bit about this area. They realize, oh, I don't want to go into those thoughts. So I just let them pass by like clouds in the sky. And that's as simple, I think, as it is. But if you don't understand the basics of your inner world, very often those thoughts can take you over and rub you up that feeling. Now, this is also one of the reasons why I encourage my clients or anybody who I know to take moments during the day, this is in terms of your normal work day, your normal life, where you just let things go, you just let thoughts go. And where you kind of almost intend on bringing in what I would call a 3C state, calm, clear, centered, or another way of saying that is free flow mode, or another way of saying that is holiday feeling mode. Because what is holiday feeling mode really is just the absence of thoughts. When those thoughts that are annoying you or you're busy with your life and work, worry, anxiety, stress, things to get done, when they're not there, my experience with myself and certainly with people that follow a little bit of what I'm talking about is that there's this kind of a nate feeling that's just there underneath everything that comes out when we're very relaxed. And holidays, of course, generally are where we do relax away from those thoughts. Now, in a normal day-to-day level, this is where, for example, something like a meditation practice can be useful. It doesn't have to be essential, but it can be useful because at its core meditation is about practicing letting go of thoughts, good or bad, or any sort of thought, just let go. That's really what meditation at its core is about. But on a fun level, a very useful inner exercise to do, to experiment with this even today, even now, is to recall a favorite holiday of yours. You can think about holiday over recent years where you just really switched off, you enjoyed yourself. And just for a moment, if you're driving a car, by the way, please stop the car. Don't do this as this will distract you a little bit. So do this when you're stationary. But you could bring to mind that holiday and just step yourself in a sense, is just recall where you were looking out through your own eyes, what you saw, what you hear in terms of the sounds and how you felt. I'm bringing that feeling, taking the good and just kind of absorb yourself for a minute or two in that feeling that comes from that memory. When you picked yourself on that nice feeling holiday, it's a great way to use memories to your advantage. And if you get into that and the way I'm talking about, you start to feel different, you start to feel better. But why? Why? Because you're activating what I call the projector fundamental, which I explain more fully in my book, The Inner CEO. You've also probably heard me explain us maybe on a couple of podcasts here. But the projector fundamental essentially is, whatever you play in the projector of your mind, magnify, you went to life as a movie. And you also feel it in the same way if you're sitting in a cinema. If you're watching a horror movie, you will feel scared. If you're absorbed in the movie or if you're watching a comedy, you laugh. And that's our mind works the same way. The point of it is, is that you and I can affect how we feel, regardless of circumstances. So by changing much in the projector of your mind, you can change how you feel. And this is why two people in the same situation can have very different experiences. I've just seen it so many times. You know, even dealing with very successful people, I could have one person in the same situation as somebody else. But one person could be very dissatisfied with their life, with no appreciation, complaining, just not happy. And another can be the exact same situation. And because of their mental focus, they can be very preservative, very grateful for what they have. And just very happy. But why is that? Again, it's Dan to, I suppose, an awareness of where we're putting our attention or we're putting it into the moment or we're putting it into pleasant thoughts or we're putting it into thoughts that disturb us. And certainly that holiday feeling, I suppose you can guess where that comes from. It doesn't come from focusing on what's wrong. It comes from, I suppose, from most people, it's unconscious because they don't realize necessarily what's happening. They associate getting away with holidays and feeling good. Really, it's more to do with the inner dynamics of what's happening. They're distracted away from their normal thinking. They're perhaps gauged in activities like we did different things like we did white water rafting Monday, which was amazing. We did, we're at my boat one day, which is also new for the mind. It's distracting. And it's all good. It's not that you don't do it. It is great. But it's just an awareness that you can have that feeling outside of the holidays, bizarre as that sounds. But it's true. That's my experience. So what about you? Now, maybe you've had a recent holiday that you can recall and bring that feeling more into your day during those holiday moments or moments of breaks in your day back in your normal life. Or maybe you're tired listening to this or maybe you're looking forward to a holiday. Maybe you're, "God, I wish there was a holiday coming up." Or maybe there is one coming up. But regardless, you can still stop today and take a few breaks, take an inner break, a few of them. And don't look at your phone. Just focus, perhaps, on taking some breaths, closing your eyes. Somewhere, again, where you're static, you're not doing any action. And you could recall a holiday, a great holiday you were on or a break, and imagine what, bring it to mind and steep yourself in the senses, bring in that feeling. And what you'll find is that feeling there, it bizarrely is there when our minds relax. Relax what? When they relax away from interfering thoughts. Now, as I say, holidays might be the activator of bringing in that feeling, which is great. But the cause of the feeling isn't actually the holiday. It's the absence of those interfering thoughts. And once you start to consider that and see it for me anyway, and what I've seen with my clients that are open to this, it's a game changer. Because what that means then is that you can become the creator of the feelings inside you, regardless of your external circumstances. And that is absolutely huge. And so, to close out, the holiday feeling that we all love, if you're a great holiday, it's just an amazing feeling. But what's even better is that it can stay with you even after the holidays. That's it for this week. Ciao for now. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
