Over 62% of Americans didn’t take all of their paid vacation days last year. WHAT? 62%! Wow, that is crazy, and it is up by 8% since the last time I ran this post back in 2017. We all claim that our lives are so busy and that all we do is hustle and bustle, yet over half of us aren’t taking the days we are paid to take off.
Some people don’t think they have time for vacation, some people are obsessed with their jobs and others feel bad for taking days off even though they are there to use.
Everyone needs a break—they need time to refresh, renew, and reenergize! When we get too involved in a routine, our productivity and creativity start to decrease. We feel less challenged, less motivated, and more stressed.
I work with a lot of people in sales and one of the things I’ve always told my employees and my clients is – take a vacation! When it comes to business I know people who have come up with some of their greatest business ideas while on vacation. So, why should you take a vacation?
A few of the benefits of taking a vacation:
Your brain needs to rest! The human brain, similar to other organs in the body, is not designed to go full throttle 100% of the time. It needs rest to recoup and continue to function. In this context, a vacation allows you to avoid burnout, turning your mind away from business problems and to activities you enjoy. The resulting boost of "feel good" brain chemicals, such as serotonin, can have a big effect on the mood you have when you get back to the office. You also might experience other physiological benefits from the reduction in stress, such as lowered blood pressure. When you feel better both emotionally and physically, you'll be able to tackle work issues or come up with new ideas with much more positivity and energy. You'll likely be able to maintain your interest in your business better, too.
Vacation inspires creativity. It helps you see new places, meet new people, and have new experiences. All of these moments can help inspire new opportunities and also bring new ideas from unexpected places. Depending on what kind of business you own, you might find unusual bits of inspiration from almost anywhere. If you’re in the restaurant business, you might get a new idea for your menu from one of the restaurants you visit during vacation; you might get the inspiration for a new product name or color combination for a logo design, or get some sort of bigger-picture inspiration for something to do totally differently at your business. Most importantly, you can try to bring back some of the positive energy and exploratory spirit that you find on vacation and put it to work at your business. What did you like about how you felt on vacation? Did you feel differently or “better” than usual? How can you make changes in your daily routine so you can feel that way more often?
In addition to getting new ideas for things “to do” for your business, vacation can also give you inspiration on what “not to do.” Vacation can help clarify your thinking and focus your mind in a way that resolves long-simmering problems and indecisions. After a short vacation, you might discover you no longer want to offer a certain product or compete in a certain market, or maybe you finally realize that you no longer want to keep battling with an uncooperative client. You might also decide it’s finally time to fire an underperforming employee. Vacation can help you realize which fights are worth fighting and which things need to be let go.
Do you need to hire an assistant so you can take a vacation? Contact us, and we can help!
-Danae Branson
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