Tag Archives: vacation

Time-off will improve your time on!

Did you know that 9 out of 10 Americans say their happiest moments came from vacations, yet according to Horizon Workforce Consulting two-thirds of Americans do not use all their paid vacation days?

It is a contradiction that the majority of people value their family over work, remember vacations more vividly than other weeks of the year, and yet often avoid actually taking these coveted vacations.

How many of the weeks you can remember over the past 10 years were during a vacation?

Do any of these reasons keep you from taking time off from work?

  • You fear asking your boss for the time off?
  • You feel guilty taking time off because it will put a burden on other people you work with?
  • You dread having to orchestrate everything to accommodate you being gone–who will handle some of your responsibilities, what needs to be rescheduled, what will you miss, and how will you get other things done before you go?
  • You dread even more the pile of work that will await you when you get back?
  • You don’t want people to see they can get along just fine without you?

Other countries with long-standing minimum vacation requirements don’t seem to have the level of vacation phobia that Americans struggle with.  Taking time off from work (whether you work at home caring for others, have a full-time job, or something in between) is good for you and for the work you do.  Let’s look more closely to relieve you of participating in what TakeBackYourTime.org calls the epidemic of overwork.

  1. By taking a vacation you will actually improve your work because time-off:
    1. Increases productivity
    2. Sparks creativity
    3. Improves problem-solving
  2. According to a 9-year study by Brooks Gump, PhD, MPH, and Karen Mathews, PhD more frequent vacations are good for your health and may even reduce your chance of stress-related deaths from things like heart attacks.

One of the first things you are instructed to do if your computer is having trouble is to turn it off and then re-start it.  You, too, need time to reboot.

Everyone needs unstructured time to explore their creative nature, experience joy, and reconnect to loved ones.  This time does not mean leaving your work and using the time to care for an elderly relative or fix up your house. This is time where your responsibilities are lessoned and your playfulness is increased.  It can be across the ocean, down the street, or in your own backyard–as long as you get to genuinely let go.

When is your next vacation?  If you don’t have any time-off planned, why not sit down tonight and start day-dreaming!

 

Create Your Own Endless Summer

Do you wish to let summer linger just a little longer? Whether your kids are going back to school, college kids are moving away, or it’s vacations that end just a little too soon there always seems to be an element of “I’m not quite ready…” that hangs in the air this time of year.

Do you notice it?

This year, rather than feel that longing as an inevitable part of life, I have decided to look at what specifically I grieve loosing as summer comes to an end. Then I plan to explore how can I incorporate more of those things into the rest of my year.

I suggest you join me in this exercise and see how you, too, can create a life that better meets your needs more of the year. (For my tribe down under, spend a little time imagining summer and then jump in, even though its winter for you. The imagining of the warmth will do you good!)

Here are the steps I suggest you try:

  1. List all the qualities of summer you enjoy. What about summer makes it a special time of year?
  2. List all the activities you usually only do in the summer.
  3. List anything else that comes to mind when you think of summer.
  4. Now go through your list and notice which ones bring up the fondest memories, the biggest smile, or just a feeling of ahhhhh! Highlight those.
  5. Lastly, start to imagine creative ways to incorporate some of these activities into your life year round.

As an example, one of my favorite parts of summer is our family vacation—whether we travel to adventurous places or just travel down the road to a place close by our family vacations have always been a highlight of my year.

As my children move out and into adulthood this time has become even more sacred for me—time for us to reconnect without distractions and be a “whole” once more.

Although I cannot expect everyone’s schedules to allow for us to do a family vacation every season, I have decided this year to proactively plan into my year trips to see my children where they live. It will allow me to extend the benefits of feeling connected, being playful and enjoying them that I now attribute to summer.

The key here is I am going to plan these trips now, rather than wait. Otherwise life, work, and other commitments rapidly fill my windows of opportunities and these trips either don’t come to pass, or are combo trips without the same pizzazz!

One of the reasons our summer vacations become so good, is because we all know about them, plan for them and contribute to their success.This year, even if the interim trips are very simple I will not be waiting around for next summer’s family vacation; instead I will be creating mini-vacations with my kids all year long.

Share you ah-ha’s with me and the ways you will be exploring creating your endless summer!