April 27, 2025
Escape
“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” ― Seth Godin
I ran across this quote the other day. My initial conclusion was complete agreement with Godin—you shouldn’t feel the need to escape from your life.
As I thought about it more, however, I realized: why is taking a vacation considered a form of escapism? You always hear advertisements talk about “escaping” to somewhere exotic, as though you are trapped in your life and the only way out is to sneak away when the gates are down. In reality, your life doesn’t get put on hold when you take a vacation; it’s merely been transported to a new place, temporarily.
Nearly everyone needs a “break” or “change of scenery” or “change of pace” from time to time. Monotony is deadening to the senses and murderous to productivity. There is nothing wrong with stepping away from it all. You haven’t done anything wrong, necessarily; there’s just more to the world than what you have been seeing, and you should wish to expand your horizons a little bit.
Altering your location, pace, or schedule, perhaps drastically, from your daily norm can be hugely beneficial. It forces you to pull away from the things you have been so close to on a daily basis and provides you with perspective. Your mind can process and uncover new ideas you were unable to see before, being so wrapped up in what you were doing.
Vacations aren’t escapism. They provide new perspective on the daily content you’ve temporarily stepped away from (or merely slowed down). Perhaps Godin needs a vacation himself, to see that.
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