Unfiltered Thoughts – How to Make Every Day Feel Like a Vacation

Sometimes, it takes leaving to realize how much freedom we have in our everyday lives.

Oh, how good life would be if we could be on vacation all the time.

We all look forward to getting away from it all. Away from the emails. Away from the chores. Away from the responsibilities.

Away from life.

It’s a strange duality. Getting away from our lives at home only to enjoy it more somewhere else?

I was thinking about this a lot recently on my trip with friends to Paradise Island, Bahamas. We spent our days on the beach, our nights at the marina near Atlantis.

It was awesome.

For a full week—seven days, 168 hours—I didn’t feel any stress. All of the baggage I was holding onto back home was gone. I was fully engrossed in the present moment.

Time felt different. The days felt longer, richer. With all of the seemingly extra time, I was able to go out and do so much more than I normally would.

And it made me wonder—why don’t I feel this way all the time back home?

I have a beautiful life. Both of my parents are alive and well. I have an amazing girlfriend, awesome friends, a nice apartment, a great job. And yet, it takes me being thousands of miles away from home to fully be present in that reality.

That doesn’t seem right.

Seems ridiculous, actually.

After some thought, I landed on a few reasons why this might be the case.

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1. Substituting Screens for Reality

One of the biggest differences between my vacation and my everyday life was how little time I spent on a screen. Without constant notifications, emails, or social media feeds pulling at my attention, I was fully engaged in the moment.

Intentionally limiting distractions throughout the day led to a fuller awareness of how my time was being spent. Instead of feeling like I was rushing from one thing to the next, I felt like there were infinite possibilities in how my day could unfold.

I’m an “iPad Kid” at heart. I spend too much of my day behind a screen. But on vacation, my world existed in front of me—not through a piece of glass.

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2. Focusing on What Really Matters

Or, rather, not focusing on what doesn’t.

On vacation, I wasn’t worried about petty frustrations or meaningless distractions. I wasn’t thinking about an email I sent last week or stressing about some hypothetical future scenario. My mind was where my feet were.

Back home, it’s easy to let our thoughts spiral into things that don’t actually matter. We overthink, we overanalyze, we stress over things we won’t even remember a month from now. But when we strip that away, we realize how much energy we’ve been wasting on things that don’t serve us.

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3. Slowing Down

Let each day come to you. Our culture applauds those who are always moving—always busy, always grinding. And while hard work is important, a lot of the time we’re just doing things for the sake of doing them. Not actually moving forward—just moving.

On vacation, I wasn’t in a rush. There was no checklist of things I had to get done. I took my time with meals, with conversations, with moments of stillness. And in doing so, I felt more present, more aware, more alive.

These three things helped me realize—damn, we can feel like we’re on vacation all the time.

Life is far too short to accept anything less.

So, friends, start your vacation today.

With Love,
Brady

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Message to the Reader:

This is the first rendition in our Unfiltered Thoughts series. These posts will be more raw—less polished than the main post each week. The goal is to stir some thought in you throughout the hustle of the week.

New posts every Wednesday, with the main posts coming on Sunday!

Thank you all for being here. 🤩