If you are currently living in the Northern Hemisphere, it is summertime. The thermometer is higher along with your kids' energy level and number of reruns on television.

Another signal of summertime - a greater number of people taking vacations from work.

Over the past few months, my husband and I have had several family members and friends at our lake house who were doing just that -- taking a vacation from their jobs. (We continue to be honored that they spend their precious few vacations days with us.)

Writing in the 1950’s, Malcolm Knowles, a pioneer in adult education, found that adults learn best through experience. He wrote that adults should be in the “habit of looking at every experience as an opportunity to learn and should become skillful in learning from it” (Informal Adult Education, Chicago: Association Press).

I know many readers of this blog can get behind Dr. Knowles conclusion and agree. Interesting and novel experiences are developmental, providing opportunities to drop another color in life’s kaleidoscope. They pull us out of our comfort zone and often give us some insight about ourselves. Sometimes they bring us to a better place in our lives, personally or professionally.

Then again, sometimes they are just interesting experiences, good for a memory or two.

I was in Rome this past week for a conference. Alone on the Spanish Steps, waiting to meet friends for dinner, I watched a group of T-shirt clad American study-abroad students struggling with limited Italian, a shared Fodor’s guide, and a map.

Watching the new batch of study abroad students getting comfortable on the marble steps of Rome’s lap, my first surge of emotions was pure jealousy.

Seductive Rome was starting to flirt. Twenty-three short years ago, the Eternal City was flirting with me -- in the exact same place.

On a recent trip to Paris, my husband George and I went to visit Jim Morrison’s grave. George is a fan of The Doors. I, quite honestly, did not even know Jim Morrison was buried in Paris. While I would have preferred a Sunday afternoon stroll through Tuileries Gardens or a long lunch on Île Saint-Louis, George’s off-key rendition of “Break on Through (to the Other Side)” sung each morning for the week we were in Paris was more than a subtle hint that he was committed to paying his respects to the deceased rock legend. Heck, it was in the guidebook. On our last day in Paris we took a taxi to the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Here is something that surprised me: I liked the visit.

About 20 years ago I was given a piece of well-intentioned but rather bad advice. I was advised to tone down my positive affect in the workplace – specifically, to stop smiling so much. If you are reading this and know me personally you are probably smiling at the thought of me, in my 20’s, in front of a mirror working on not smiling. If you don’t know me personally, I’ll share data point: at the photo shoot for this website, the photographer noted that I had only one “look” that worked – smiling. The others, he correctly noted, looked unnatural (scary, if you ask me).

If you won 4 million dollars in a lottery would you continue working? Research of Drs. Richard Arvey, Itzak Harpaz, and Hui Liao found that the majority of big-money lottery winners with a high work centrality do continue earning income in some form. This provides compelling evidence that people gain intrinsic rewards from their careers.

Given the staggering number of people who report that their jobs are a source of negative stress, you may be surprised by this research finding. I was not. The source of work-related stress is not the income-generating activity; it is doing this activity without control. While many lottery winners continue earning an income, a very small percent of them continue doing exactly what they were doing prior to winning. The lottery winners’ new financial freedom affords them opportunity to craft the careers they really want. They are fully in control of their career destiny.

Wiley Publishers just sent me an advanced copy of a professional trade book I wrote with my colleagues Dave Lepak and Jaime Bonache entitled Managing the Global Workforce. The primary audiences for the book are Human Resource (HR) professionals and students in HR courses. (My Rutgers Master of HRM students who have already graduated just breathed a collective sigh of relief. Could you hear it?)

Here's an amusing publishing question for you: How could a book that has not yet been released be available to purchase "used" from Amazon.com? Talk about an industry with a short life span. Yeesh.

My husband George and I arrived in Hawaii very late on Monday night to start a well-deserved vacation in a place we both love. On Tuesday morning, I received a call that my dear friend Frank passed away -- cancer. He died in the arms of his wife Kylie and two daughters and is no longer in pain. He died having lived a fabulous life.

We visited Frank just before we left and he smiled widely when we told him where we were going. (The last time we vacationed in Hawaii was 2 years ago with him and Kylie.) At the end of our visit, I gave Frank a hug and a kiss, told him I loved him, said “good-bye” and that “I would miss him in Hawaii”. I guess I could have left off “in Hawaii”.

Interactions today are fleeting. Information availability is overwhelming. Our attention is diverted easily as we are inundated with competing demands on our cognitive and emotional resources.

I, for one, want 2010 to be about quality (not quantity). My New Year’s resolution is to practice mindfulness – to live moment and be more present.