Whether you make it a STAYCATION or you vacate your everyday life and make it a VACATION isn’t as important as that you take the time to call a digital disconnect and recharge your own internal batteries. This is about resting and refueling your body, your mind, and your spirit.
While I’m certainly a fan of travel, (I’m one of those rare nuts that lives for a long airplane flight in the front of the plane), it doesn’t matter if you go halfway around the world, or stay and play in your own backyard for your vacation.
What matters is being really committed to calling a time out and putting that out of office email up, resisting the temptation to be available at all for even 2-4 days, you’ll return refreshed, recharged, and ready for action. Your business (and YOU) will benefit in big ways.
If you need to ease into a vacation, put your phone on mute and only answer calls 2-3x a day instead of every time it rings.
Turn off email notifications and check your email on your schedule, 2-3x a day or less, because you won’t be checking it at all on your vacation. (Remember this is a digital detox!)
Consider if you really need to text or can instead, push that channel to email or phone. Imagine a cell phone free vacation with just the person, friends, or family you want to be with, on your vacation with you.
Ween yourself off your social channels or schedule out content for the time you are on vacation (realistically being gone won’t be the social business suicide you think it will, stop being super human!)
Oh, and if you still aren’t sure you need a vacation, take a look at 10 Smart Reasons Successful People Take Vacations:
1. You will always accomplish more in the day and week leading up to the vacation than any other time. Having an external deadline that is immovable makes a huge difference.
2. By giving yourself time untethered from technology, you can fully recharge, refresh, and reignite your passion, your purpose, and your drive.
3. Focusing on IRT (in real time) friends and family will strengthen your relationships and provide more support when you need it going forward.
4. Vacations are great opportunities to reawaken your sense of adventure and exploration, whether you rough it or go luxuriously.
5. Reconnecting with nature is enormously healing and energizing.
6. Time out gives you perspective on issues and plans that you don’t have when you are in the thick of them.
7. Giving your body a chance to get out of a chair, out from behind a desk, out of the car (if you are doing a lot of driving), and out of an airplane seat is physically reinvigorating.
8. Vacations can be the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel that you need to push through a particularly sticky place in your business.
9. The happy memories of your vacation can sustain you through future frustrations by being a reminder of fun times ahead.
10. Vacations are often the breeding ground for your next BIG idea, allowing you time to unleash your creativity.
Tell us in comments below either your BEST VACATION or your NEXT VACATION! And I hope it’s SOON.
