Can you take off a month? Below are four steps to make it a reality! This might sound crazy, but if you want to experience a quality vacation next summer (2012), you need to start planning for it now! Do you want one of those photo album memories that lasts a lifetime? If so, keep reading.
I want to challenge you to take an entire month off to enjoy the benefits of extended physical rest, improved family relationships and personal free time to detox and revive your creative juices and motivations. Most people say, they can’t afford it, I want to suggest, you can’t afford not to! Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
One of our family’s best memories was a month long vacation to Greece. I especially remember a few days we spent on the island of Santorini, where we were fortunate enough to stay in a hotel positioned on beautiful cliffs overlooking the Aegean Sea. During our first morning there, I struck up a conversation with another of the hotel’s guests, a young, Swedish mother of three. When she asked me how long we had been on holiday, I smugly replied, “We are two weeks into a four week vacation!” The tables turned on me when I found out that she and her family had been traveling for six weeks; and my pride in my fantasy that I was the lead dog in vacationing well quickly transformed into a harsh reality check. To most people I met on our trip, our four week vacation was a short one.
For a vacation to be significant, your time off does not have to necessarily number thirty days. But planning for and executing a restful, meaningful holiday must be an intentional exercise. To maximize time off from work, there are some things you need to consider.
1. Vacation is a calendar item. Make it a priority.
2. Plan financially for your vacation.
3. Go where you’re energized. Whether it’s the mountains or the beach, a resort or a cabin, a play-cation or a stay-cation, choose to spend your time in a way that will rejuvenate your body and spirit.
4. Define your vacation obstacles, and work in a strategic way to overcome them. Pre-planning for your absence is a tactical move that will keep your time away from the office from spiraling into chaos.
Every man who possibly can, should force himself to a holiday of a full month in a year, whether he feels like taking it or not. - William James
You can do this, you must do this!
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