How Often Do You Vacation?

“All work and no play makes Jack dull boy.”

        ~ Old Proverb

You’ve probably looked at the mountain of work piled up on your desk and thought about how great a vacation would be. Perhaps you’ve wistfully looked at a travel brochure of a tropical sunset or a majestic mountain top and wished you were there. It’s a common dream, but like most of us, you sadly put the travel brochure away and get back to the grind.

Come to think of it, how long has it been since you’ve had a vacation? Maybe it’s time. There are quite a few reasons to consider getting away from it all.

Avoiding burnout. You may love what you do, but it doesn’t mean you don’t need a break from it once in a while. By nature your mind craves new challenges and variety. Doing the same thing day in and day out is inevitably going to lead to frustration and burnout.

Higher productivity. It may seem counterintuitive at first. After all, how can you be more productive if you’re lying on a beach somewhere? Well, study after study has shown that people come back from a vacation refreshed and full of energy and are actually more efficient.

Fresh ideas. Working late hours while staring at the same four walls everyday not only wears you out physically, but it leaves your thought processes in the same old rut. As a result, fresh new ideas about how to do things may be hard to come by. By contrast, getting away provides new stimuli and puts your mind to work in different ways. Many great ideas have come from observing nature, sitting on a beach or gazing up at the stars.

If all these reasons aren’t enough, consider your family and friends as well. Chances are they would like to see you on occasion. Regardless of our success in other areas of our lives, relationships with other people form the backbone of our happiness. They strengthen us, giving us the resolve to carry on when things aren’t going well. They give meaning and purpose to our lives. In the press to get things done, we often forget about how important these relationships really are. A vacation is the perfect time to reconnect ourselves to what matters.

So don’t work yourself into a stupor. Take the time to think through your work-life balance and you’ll find yourself happier, more creative and more productive. Sometimes the best way to get ahead is to get away.