I Took 2 Weeks Holiday
Here Are 5 Lessons

I’ve just come back from a few weeks away with family, sunshine, and space to breathe. It was a reminder for me that many times, the most productive thing to do is to not try to be productive.

As I return, also from my Substack writing hiatus, I’ve been reflecting on a few lessons that landed for me.

So today, I share five personal reminders about what it really means (to me) to live this one life of yours well. Not just exist, not just achieve, but truly live.

They don’t have a set theme or rhythm – just what came to mind whilst I was away.

1. Joy doesn’t need to be earned

Before I left, I caught myself wrestling with guilt.
Thoughts like:

“I don’t deserve it yet.”
“I’ve not achieved enough this year to take a break.”
“I should be doing more.”

It’s strange how those thoughts creep in, even when I know better.
They come from an old conditioning that says I must struggle to be worthy of rest.

What a lie that is.

Joy isn’t something you earn after you’ve worked hard enough.
Joy is who you are. It’s your birthright. It’s your natural state before the world told you to prove yourself.

Alan Watts said it beautifully,

The truth is, no one lived a good life rushing through it. And when I finally listened to my intuition – booked the flights, spent the time with family – I realised how wrong my mind had been.

I’ve come back more alive, grounded, and creative than I’ve felt all year. Not because I earned the break, but because I finally remembered: rest and joy are fuel, not rewards.

When you keep postponing joy, life becomes one long rehearsal for a show that never begins. You work harder, but feel emptier. You hit milestones, but they mean less. The longer you wait to give yourself permission to feel alive, the more disconnected you become from the very energy that makes high performance possible presence, gratitude, and wonder.

2. If you don’t define your life philosophy, you’ll live by someone else’s

All this achievement and worthiness based thinking comes from a philosophy of life we’ve been conditioned to, particulate in the western world. It’s so easy to fall into borrowed beliefs from religion, culture, social media etc. They all whisper their versions of “success.” I’ve fallen for them many times.

The reason I felt bad about going on holiday was because I temporarily forgot my own life philosophy. I got caught in the noise.

For me, time away isn’t a luxury; it’s part of the work.
It’s what allows me to serve at a higher level when I return clearer, bolder, more creative.
My clients feel it, my family feels it, and I feel it.

The world will keep telling you to keep moving – to do more, earn more, be more. But wisdom begins when you start asking, what’s actually true for me?

My philosophy is simple:
To have health as an elite athlete, to do work I love and serve my mission, and to be around friends and family whom I love spending time with.

As I went away I was able to see all the distractions that have been away that’s deviating me from this core philosophy. And there will always be more distraction. We need some time away to gain perspective and to then come back and cut back on all the crap that’s getting in the way of what matters most.

If you never define your own philosophy, you end up living by someone else’s metrics of success and losing yourself in the process. You become efficient but empty, productive but purposeless. Each year gets busier, yet somehow further from the life you actually want. Without conscious philosophy, you mistake motion for meaning.

3. Circles shape destiny more than geography

Every time I travel, I find myself wondering, “Would I live here?”
But this time, something new hit me it’s not so much the location that defines our growth and life circumstances as much as it is our circle.

You can move cities, countries, even continents. But if you stay surrounded by the same mindsets, same energies, same conversations you’ll recreate the same life wherever you go.

It’s not geography that shapes us nowadays (in an online world). It’s proximity. Who you spend time with (online an offline) determines what you believe is possible. Your circles quietly dictate your standards, your identity, your future.

It reminded me to keep assessing the rooms I’m in socially, professionally, creatively, spiritually. Because the right circle can elevate you, and the wrong one can sedate you.

Stay in circles that drain your energy, and you slowly forget who you are. Your ambition dulls. Your creativity fades. You start shrinking to fit rooms that were never meant for your greatness. Without conscious change, you’ll spend your life adapting to the expectations of others instead of evolving into your highest self.

4. The world is far kinder than the media tells you

I flew to the US just a week after a tragic news story dominated headlines. The online world painted America as divided, angry, broken.

But the America I experienced was the opposite kind of strangers, warm families, laughter in parks, smiles in cafés. Everywhere I went, I saw goodness.

It made me realise: the majority of the world is not at war with itself. Most people simply want to love and be loved, to protect their families, to live in peace.

The media profits from our outrage. It amplifies division because division keeps us scrolling.
But when you look people in the eye, when you speak to them not through screens but soul to soul you remember: we are far more alike than we are different.

We’ve forgotten how to see the divine in each other. If we did, most of our conflicts would dissolve overnight.

The world doesn’t need more people fighting to change others.
It needs more people brave enough to change themselves.

If you let screens shape your worldview, fear becomes your default state. You start seeing enemies where there are brothers, threats where there are opportunities for connection. Cynicism replaces compassion. And the more disconnected you feel from others, the more divided you become within yourself.

5. In a world obsessed with “success,” time with family is the ultimate achievement

This trip was filled with family. Cousins, uncles, aunties, grandparents all under one roof again.

Watching my daughter play with her cousins reminded me what wealth truly is. These are the memories she and I will carry forever. Not the things we buy her, but the stories, the laughter, the love.

Once upon a time, humans were raised in tribes. We learned from elders, told stories by the fire, and grew up feeling part of something bigger than ourselves. Now, many of us are raised in isolation, our community reduced to WhatsApp groups and birthday emojis.

Family grounds you in what’s real. These moments laughing, eating, being are not distractions from life. They are life.

Ignore family long enough and success becomes a lonely echo chamber. You might build empires but have no one to share them with. You’ll look up one day and realise the people you love became strangers while you were busy chasing goals that never truly mattered to your soul. The greatest regret is not failing, it’s missing what was beautiful while it was right in front of you.

The Game

This game isn’t about living one way. I’ll forget some of these lessons again, I know I will. It’s about doing the work to remember what’s true, again and again.

Like a surfer riding the waves, we fall in and out of alignment. Innocently. It’s all innocent.

There’s no need to judge myself when I drift off course. The only thing to do is slow down daily and create enough space to be reminded of what truly matters most and not take life so seriously!

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