7 Lessons from the trip to San Juan


We just had one of our most relaxing vacations last week in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and it created a nice shift in perspective for me on life in general. I thought I would jot down what I liked and learnt. Here are my lessons from the trip.
  1. Don’t cram too many activities – It was a refreshing change and one of our best vacations because we decided that there was no schedule and we are not going to cram activities. It was a vacation from the schedule and it was refreshingly relaxing. Letting go of schedule pressures and just being in the moment is pure joy. 
  1. Don’t be in a hurry –I confess I needed a reminder on this. Our informal tour guide reminded me that it is island time here even a coffee might take time to be served. He just told me to relax. I guess this is a great lesson for me. Sometimes we are in a hurry to get everything done and then do even more. However this was a good reminder to just let go. 
  1. Be present – Most of the time we are either thinking of the past or contemplating the future. Of course with wisdom it is only the present moment that we really have and if we learn to enjoy that moment we can really enjoy in life’s simple pleasures. Another philosophy of mine is every day is the best day of your life so learn to enjoy what shows up. Of course this is not easy but we can try. 
  1. No heart attacks – Again our informal guide said people here don’t die early because they are relaxed. It really got me thinking that if we want to live long we really need to take care of stresses better. We have to take it easy and have an abundance mentality. Let go of the thinking that we have to compete with every person we meet. Everyone is successful in their own way and enjoy others success. Let go of the fight or flight mentality. 
  1. Be prepared to change plans – We actually thought we will start early and catch the ferry to Culebra. However there was a chance we won’t get a place. Later we decided that lets just take a flight even if it is the shortest one (credit goes to my wife here for doing the research).  She then shared her research with few others who also did the same thing.  Especially in vacations if we want it to go well we need to be prepared to completely change our plans and make peace with that. 
  1. You can’t do everything – No matter how well you plan or are organized you are going to miss some places. Don’t feel guilty about this as you can only do so much. This applies to our lives as well. We might want a million things but we only have 24 hours and everyone needs different amounts of sleep so don’t feel guilty of not getting everything done because you can’t. 
  1. Life is not a race – Only we can put a gun on our head and expect everything to be done really fast. Instead slow down and enjoy every moment. Enjoy the weekends; slow down and forget the schedule for a while. I know with kids all of us want to put them in all different classes and we want to them to do everything that we never did (pun intended) but do lesser. By doing lesser activities you can concentrate better on mastering those few activities.
The overall trip was a shift in perspective for me. Before I forgot I wanted to jot down these thoughts which could help when I face the inevitable downs. Thanks for reading this and hope you enjoyed reading this.

 The views expressed here are my own and do not represent my organization.

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