You come home from a trip energized, proud of all the new habits you upheld for a week, and then your routine eats them alive. Turns out the brain likes vacations because they are short, low-stakes demos of a different you rather than training wheels for permanent change.
If you want more than a glow that fades, treat change like software: ship tiny, repeatable updates. Schedule regular 1–2 hour “vacation windows” where you silence notifications, leave errands behind, try one new habit, and write down what felt different. Those little demos are the only way a trial version becomes the full product.
I hashed that out with my wife about a decade into the marriage by explaining the difference between a trip and a vacation.
Now we are clear on which one we are going on. Sometimes I stay home and take a vacation while she goes on a trip with a friend.