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Edition 179 – Messy Sets

“Stay where you are!”

The loudspeaker from the beach echoed through the gum trees and stirred me from my reading.

“Don’t panic. We’re coming to get you.”

By this time, I’d put my book down and wandered to the edge of our balcony. Through the trees, I could see the main beach at Noosa Heads. And right in my line of sight was a swimmer, quite a way offshore. They’d clearly been caught in one of the many flash rips that had occurred throughout our week on the Sunshine Coast.

As I kept my eye on the swimmer, I watched as the lifesaver paddled his board towards the swimmer. It was just as it is on Bondi Rescue, except this was real, live action, around 400 metres from where I was standing.

The rescue was swift and no sooner had the lifesaver turned up than the swimmer was on the board with him. Just another day on the beach it would seem.

Our week in Noosa Heads was fabulous. We drank a bit too much. We ate a bit more than too much. This week, I’m detoxing from coffee and cake – a significant overindulgence on our holiday.

For someone that encourages regular breaks throughout the work year, I’d realised that all of 2018 had been merely long weekends tacked onto business trips or conferences. I’d not had the chance to switch off, decompress and do nothing and fatigue was setting in.

During our week in Noosa, I took the chance to unwind and let my brain declutter. It’s amazing what happens when you grant yourself the time and the freedom to do that. It enables you to:

  1. Rest more easily.
  2. Notice the little things that you wouldn’t otherwise – like how Rainbow Lorikeets are incessant in their conversation with each other.
  3. Consider some complicated client issues merely by not thinking overtly about them, but letting them percolate.
  4. Create ideas for new products and services for my clients.
  5. Be a part of some conversations with people who were as equally as appreciative of the surroundings we were in.
  6. Engage with people I’d never have engaged with in my life and hear a little of their life story.
  7. Catch up with a good friend of mine whose past few months have been challenging and confronting.
  8. Watch the week of the messy sets of waves take away the sand from a large part of the beach, so continuous was the pounding of the surf.
  9. Spend time with my wife talking not about our business, our adult sons or our extended family, but just about ourselves – where we are now; how far we’ve come; what our plans are for the future.

I’ve returned this week refreshed and ready for action. I’m grateful for the time that we’ve had away to switch off and enjoy the sights and sounds of being by the beach. 

When you watch someone drifting out to sea and the miracle of them being saved without little fuss or fanfare, it makes you appreciate even more the things we take for granted every single day.

Our holiday times and approximate destinations are now pencilled into our diaries for 2020 and 2021. What are you doing to plan ahead the time off you need, to keep the batteries fully charged?