Are You Part of the No-Vacation Nation?

As a high achieving entrepreneur or professional, it’s sometimes hard to make time to unplug from the responsibilities of your business or career.

It seems like even when I do go away, I’m still checking email and responding to requests from clients.

Part of it comes from fear – the fear that if you unplug you’ll miss an opportunity to close a deal or make a big sale. 

Part of it is our culture in the US which does not encourage leisure and vacation time.

Compared to other industrialized countries, Americans are the most vacation deprived, getting an average of 11 vacation days per year compared to the 22-30 days that is standard in countries like Sweden, the UK, and France.

And of those Americans lucky enough to have paid vacation, 41% don’t use all their days.

For entrepreneurs, it’s probably even worse, since we don’t have “paid” vacation days. I travel a lot, but I’m almost always connected and working a few hours per day while on “vacation”.

I’m not alone. About 76% of Americans report that they work while on vacation.

But there is so much value in unplugging. 

For example, there were a few days on my safari in South Africa where I could not get reliable internet service. I was on a tour with other travel advisors, and as you can imagine we were all a bit stressed. But you know what, we all survived. People waited 48 hours, our back-ups in the office handled our clients, and everything was fine. And it was so pleasant to just have a drink in the lounge and enjoy great conversation without everyone trying to check their phone for messages every few minutes.

Although I travel a lot for business, I try to designate at least one trip per year with my husband where I unplug. I make a conscious effort not to have my phone with me, and I direct all my emails and calls to my office back up. We have fun, enjoy the moment and relax.

Vacation is necessary – to maintain your relationships, your mental stamina, and to help your business grow. When you step away from being constantly busy and responding to requests and messages, you allow your creativity to flourish.

There are two things you must do to escape the no-vacation nation.

• Build systems in your business that create reliable revenue, so that you can take vacation confidently knowing that your lead pipeline is working and the clients will be there when you’re ready to go back to work. If you need help with this, I have some great mentors I can refer you to.

• Schedule vacation time into your calendar as if it were an important business conference or meeting. It needs to be scheduled and budgeted for, and not something that you just do “if you have money” or “if you have time”.

If you’re like me, and you absolutely love what you do, it can be hard to break away.

But you must.

Your spouse, friends, kids and your pets will thank you! 

To learn more how to make the most of your vacations, book a free Discovery Call with me using the link below.