When you go vacation or sneak away to the cottage for the weekend, do you bring your laptop and/or blackberry?
When was the last time you truly 'unplugged' yourself from your professional or personal obligations? When was the last time you actually took an extended vacation? Many business professionals I speak to, struggle just to take one or two weeks of their earned vacation per year. It takes most busy professionals a few days to unwind and forget about the office and a few days before the break is over, they begin thinking about returning to work. If you are only taking extended weekends or one week long vacations, you are not resting.
Unplugging from the office, your stakeholders and all of your requests for time delivers the following benefits:
1. Allows you to rest your total mind and body
2. Allows you to reflect, celebrate and learn from your recent past and achievements
3. Provides you with time and solitude to think about where you are heading in the future
4. Connects you to something new to help you grow
5. Develops your ability to delegate
6. Develops your employees who can now take on stretch roles
7. Strengthen lapsed relationships
8. Meet new people
9. Develop your appreciation for different people away from work
10. Expand your knowledge about different people, cultures and places
11. Learn new ways of seeing or doing things
12. Allows you to make a major change or start a new phase of your life
Putting It Into Action
You have no excuses, think of the twelve reasons above. Book your remaining vacation this year. Research your extended break next year. Book your multi week vacation and make sure you get to visit a new area. Working vacations and staying connected to the office are not true, reflective re-energizing vacations. You owe it to yourself and your stakeholders to reinvent and recharge yourself every year.
With you along the path towards success,
Joseph