On Vacation: Why Time Off Makes You Smarter
Hitchhiking to Jackson, Wyoming.
Little Neck, Massachusetts
5:17 pm
This just in:
Going on vacation can actually help your business grow.
(Ridiculous, I know, but hear me out here. This one's gonna make some of you downright itchy!)
As a recovering perfectionist and pure-bred workhorse, I know all about the idea that doing “a little more” work each day gets me further ahead. (Ahead of what, I’m still a little foggy on. But surely, it’s something completely and totally awesome...)
That said, guess what I did after I had more business than I knew what to do with in June…
I took a big, fat, hairy five-week vacation.
To be totally honest, it was an experiment. Could I possibly leave work that I love behind, and sneak off to ride bikes through Yellowstone National Park, visit loved ones in Montana and Massachusetts, and go on walkabout? I did it when I was someone else’s employee…
…but was that even possible when you’re your own boss?
(Insert disembodied, booming, divine-sounding voice here. With bright beaming stage lights, too, if you’ve got ‘em handy:)
Yes!
Not only is it possible, it’s necessary.
Here’s the fear: that if I leave my business, all my clients, prospects, and projects will shrivel up and die on the vine.
And here’s the truth:
Get over yourself, darling!
Let’s not beat around the bush here. Vacation makes us better, smarter, more attractive people. Here are 3 reasons why:
1. You’ve got to leave your “familiar” to stay on your toes.
Stephen Covey in his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People says something awesome about making time to “sharpen the saw” of your mind and expertise every week. Vacation does this on a deeper level. If you do the same things, talk to the same people, and solve the same problems day after day, eventually you’ll run dry. Fact. Getting out of your routine puts you on the path of new learning, new ideas, and new directions.
And if those things don’t grow your business, honey, nothing will.
(For instance: In my "civilian life," I know that hitchhiking is a horrible, dangerous, do-you-have-a-death-wish? idea. But when you're on a bicycle in Yellowstone National Park and need to get somewhere fast, you don't have a lot of choices.
The photo above is of my friend Elizabeth, who's a psychologist in her civilian life, and me, in the minivan of 3 kiddos from Omaha, en route 77 miles to Walmart in Wyoming because little Arla managed to lose both her left shoes camping. I learned plenty about her 8-year-old brother's take on technology during the ride. And had to leave my familiar to do it.)
2. Good ideas find you more easily.
As small business owners and entrepreneurs, we tend to dwell in “transmission” mode. Broadcasting, communicating, and connecting. But vacation can move us into “receiver” mode. Where we relax enough to listen to those “still, small voices” within us.
Which is where grace, serendipity, and insight live.
Case in point: talking with my dad, a Human Resources professional, about how he helped one of his neighbors who was looking for work this summer.
They were working on the fellow’s resume, and my dad said something awesome about using words that show you are a thoughtful person who knows your line of work... but also that you're a person who uses language that's "just a bit more interesting" than the tired, overused language that everyone else uses. ("He's a salesman who listens. How many salespeople know that their skill involves more than just talking?")
“Sparklewords,” he called them. This hit me like a lightning bolt: this is what good copywriting is all about! (And why hadn’t I come up with that?!) I never would have met that idea had I stayed at home, working. I had to get out, into the larger field of life.
3. You’re better looking.
Sunday’s Boston Globe just had an article about “the next chapter in civil rights,” which they termed the “beauty bias.” Apparently, people want to work with people who are attractive. Shocker!
But if that’s the case, then it’s just one MORE reason to take a vacation.
Relaxation, leisure, and joy have the strongest anti-aging effects known to humankind (though we still keep talking about botox and surgery as if they were the real secrets to staying young that nobody talked about).
If you’re looking to attract your ideal clients—whether it’s through your website, networking, content marketing or any other campaign—your happiness, calm, and satisfaction are very real ingredients in your success.
So whether you’re working on building a smarter website or growing your business, I wish you an inspired, restorative and fabulous vacation. Let me know how it goes. But only after you’re back in the office.
