“You take an angry man to the Himalayas, he just starts complaining about the food. Nowhere is magical unless you can bring the right eyes to it.” – Pico Yver

Don’t ask me how I arrived here, but recently I ended up reading a 2010 study published in the Journal of Applied Research in Quality of Life, the summation of which was:

• people experience more happiness in the planning of a vacation, than the vacation itself.

and

• you can maximize your pre-trip happiness by sharing your plans with friends and family. Maybe even blog about it….

How about that? Turns out that last minute trip isn’t such a good idea after all.

Further, while all vacationers experienced pre-trip happiness, people only experienced a boost in post trip happiness if their vacation was labeled as “relaxing”. Those who labeled their trip as “stressful” or even “neutral” experienced the same level of happiness as those who hadn’t vacationed at all.

Who doesn’t vacation at all you might ask? Most Americans. Mind blowing.

A 2015 Huffpost poll found that a staggering 32% of Americans took zero vacation days. Zero.

It would also seem that instead of one, big, stress filled, anxiety ridden two or three week mega vaca, we should be taking smaller, 3-4 day trips throughout the year. A formula of which yours truly gleefully subscribes.

More trips. More to plan. More to anticipate. More happiness.

Doesn’t that sound great?

See you on the journey.