Take a Needed Break

I just came back from a 3-week visit home that really helped me take care of personal matters, rest and, most importantly, clear the mind to re-evaluate my next career step, my next step in life. 

I had never seen so much of my country as I did in the last 3 weeks, traveling north to south and east to west and traveling to places that draw foreign tourists like bees to honey and that I was too lazy or too uninterested to consider visiting in the past.  While visiting one of the most impressive rain forest reserves in the world, Monteverde Cloud Forest, and marveling at the beauty of the hundreds of moss-covered 10-meter-plus tall trees there, I arrived the the following conclusion:  Nothing clears the mind and the spirit like a holiday.

I don't know about you, but solo-traveling and purposeful solitude did it for me.  I do not think I had been so relaxed, especially in the last 6 years as when horse back riding in the humid plains of the tropical north east.  I found the Pacific beach sunsets, full moons over the valley and the sounds of the green jungle truly humbling. 

I cannot confidently say I defined what my next step will be, but I did conclude the following:
- It is in my power to decide and take the necessary steps to achieve my goals.
- I am a fighter with the track record and results to prove it and further advance professionally.
- This transition I am going through is just that, a temporary situation that will lead to better and bigger challenges.
- Work, in whatever shape or form, be it viewed as monotonous, prestigious or complex, gives one the chance to shine.
- Work is what you make of it:  It is in our power to transform our work to give our very best regardless of the activity.

It sounds like a cliche, but a holiday does help clear the mind.