Three Lessons From the Last Day of School
“School’s Out For Summer! School’s Out Forever!”
-Alice Cooper
Here in Philadelphia, and many other places I would guess, today is the last day of school. Wahoo!
Kids are very, very excited. If my teacher friend is any indication, the teachers are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more excited than the kids. The teachers are ready to cut loose! Be careful if you go out tonight, lest you get overrun by a band of cavorting teachers…I’m anticipating it being like an episode of Jersey Shore with good grammar and math skills – though I guess a lack of grammar and math is kind of what makes Jersey Shore the show that it is. But I digress…
Most of the rest of the non-academic world doesn’t get a summer vacation (which, as I write this article, seems like a sad thing). But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn some lessons from our summer vacation enjoying friends and colleagues.
Here are three things that, even if you can’t take July and August off, you can still do to reap some of the same benefits as those who do:
Build Anticipation
What’s great about the last day of school is the anticipation that builds up to it. From at least the first day of June, and often before, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. You look at that circled date on your calendar and start salivating like Pavlov staring at research data. That’s at least a month of growing anticipation and excitement. When that last day hits you are like a balloon so overfilled with anticipation that the slightest noise or disturbance will make you go POP!
As adults, we don’t often have that kind of anticipation. The closest some people come is when they let themselves get really hungry before going out to dinner at a busy restaurant. Though that slight fainting feeling they get from low blood sugar is hardly what I would consider “good anticipation.”
For the rest of us, the only excited anticipation we feel is when we are getting ready to take a great vacation. But how often do you do that? Once a year? Once every couple of years? Rarely, if ever? Sadly, sometimes even when you plan a trip or vacation and won’t feel that beautiful pre-trip exhilaration. It will just be one more thing to do. What’s the point?
We all need things in our life that we are looking forward to. It doesn’t have to be a whole summer off or an expensive vacation. Simple things, like a show you are going to see, a dinner at a restaurant you have always wanted to attend, a get together with old friends where you laugh until late, or whatever. The event is not important. What’s important is how you feel about the event in advance. If you feel an excited tingle in your belly, you’re on the right track. If you don’t feel anything, then you should pick something else.
Question: What are you anticipating? What is going on in your life that you are looking forward to, getting more and more excited about every day as it draws nearer? If you’re coming up blank, you may want to add something to your calendar.
Make Time For Other Things
Summer vacation was cool because I could work on stuff that had nothing to do with what the state of New York deemed important for me to know (for the love of God, if there was a good reason to read Ethan Frome, it has eluded me for the past 20+ years).
One summer I worked on a play I was producing with some friends of mine. That was awesome. Some summers I spent a lot of time visiting with friends who did not live nearby. That was super. I had friends do other fun creative things like go to camp, work on music or writing, and even start a business. Great stuff.
Regardless of whether you are doing what you love for a living or are working away at a less than fulfilling job to make ends meet, chances are you have side project you’d like to work on. Or two. Or three. Or, like me, three hundred and fifty two. (Ok, that’s a slight exaggeration. But only slightly).
Focus and prioritization are important. You don’t want to slack at your job or let your business suffer while you put too much focus on other fun projects. However, that is precisely why summer vacation was awesome! You could devote 100% of your time to everything but what was supposed to ben your #1 priority (school) guilt free, without hurting yourself.
In the same way, now, as adults, we need to make time for our side projects. That time needs to be set aside and taken advantage of guilt free, and in a way that doesn’t hurt our primary source of income. You could have a specific time every night, or take an entire Sunday, or, if you are so lucky, take a long weekend or vacation to just work on that projective you have been putting off “until there is time.”
While these side projects may never make you any money, or directly help your primary business or job, they will feed your soul and re-energize you for when you do return to work. And you never know; many an amazing business and creative achievement started out as a small “side project.”
Question: Are you setting any time aside to work on hobbies, side businesses, or long term projects? Projects that feed your soul, not projects that “just need to get done”? You may not be able to take a true sabbatical, but if you can set aside some time here and there to let all your other worries go and just focus on a project just for you, you will recharge your batteries and reap the rewards.
Play!
Although the above point must make it sound like I was a crazy Type A busy little bee every summer, the truth is that most summers I just liked to play, especially when younger. And that was really why the last day of school was so amazing. Two months of pure, unadulterated, play time! How do you beat that??
Play is awesome, and not just for kids. Studies show that adults can benefit from play too. Obviously, you can’t play all the time. Even as an older kid you may have had to work and earn money, but there was a certain freedom to the summer that created a playful, fun mentality.
Sadly, that mentality gets quickly lost when we enter adulthood. People forget how to play, and lose sight of its importance.
We need to recapture that mindset. Add a little play into your life everyday. Beyond that, add in big “play” type activities whenever you can, whatever “big play activities” are for you. Scratch that; don’t add them in “whenever you can,” because you’ll surely never find the time. Consciously schedule those playtimes in and hold to those like you would any other appointment! You’ll be happy you did.
Question: How much “play time” do you have in your life? You probably can’t set up an entire summer of playing, but how about a week? A weekend? A day?? An afternoon??? Play should be a regular part of everyone’s life, even adults. Find a way to work it in regularly.
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By Avish Parashar. As the world's only Motivational Improviser, Avish uses techniques from the world of improv comedy to engage, entertain, and educate audiences on ideas around change, creativity, and motivation. Connect with Avish on Google+
One Response to “Three Lessons From the Last Day of School”
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Great post Avish! As a teacher, one other thing I really like about the last day of school that I don’t think I would have as much in the corporate world is the sense finality and of a new start. Each school year is a completely fresh slate and the last day of school is a great deadline for self-reflection to make changes for the next year!
But also, please give teachers some credit – like Jersey Shore with math skills and better grammar and better hair! 🙂