Why You Need to Take a Vacation

Taking a vacation is something that everyone needs to do. Sure, the economy is in trouble, but a vacation can be a good move if you find that you’re unhappy with life or constantly living in fear over job security. A vacation can be a powerful tool for recalibrating what’s important in your world. Use them as an opportunity to discover what really matters to you:

Assessing Your Life

Taking a vacation can be a fantastic reflective tool. The escape from the day-to-day routine of going to work is a welcome change of pace. Usually when I go on vacation, I’m in a “disconnected” state where I can’t get access to internet and therefore have no access to work, which can distract me from my vacation.

Of course, the rise of smartphones like the iPhone and the Blackberry has changed this. To maximize the effectiveness of taking a vacation, I recommend going in a “disconnected” state. Turn off your email and let people know that when you’re gone, you won’t have access to email or voicemail. Tell people that you will not be reachable at all. But if total isolation is impossible, leave a phone number and say that it’s only for emergencies. For many people, it’s much easier to fire off an email instead of picking up the phone. Some people will be afraid of calling, since they know they’ll be interrupting your vacation. By leaving your phone number instead, you’ll ensure that only the really urgent messages will come through.

Once you’re at your vacation spot, make sure to schedule some time to isolate yourself and do some thinking. Sit down in front of a beautiful sunset at the beach or in front of a fireplace in a remote cabin (depending on where you vacation) and ask the question: am I happy with where I am in life? And if your answer is “no,” then make a decision to use the rest of your vacation time to explore why you are unhappy with your life.

I recommend making two lists: a “goals” list and a “things that get in the way of my goals” list. Sit down with a pad of paper and list the things that you want to accomplish in your life. Ask yourself, “Before I leave this world, what things do I want to do?” Make sure that you are specific in your goals so that you can later decide if you’ve succeeded. For example, “change the world” is too vague. It’s a good start, but you need to ask how you want to change the world. What can you do that will further your goal of “changing the world”? Maybe it’s starting a non-profit or getting a PhD. Whatever it is, make sure it’s actually doable.

Do this for as long as you can stand to sit in one place. And don’t be too quick to judge an idea before writing it down. If it pops into you head, write it down and keep going. There’s a reason you thought of it, and often what starts out as a seemingly bad idea can blossom into something great. Once you’ve brainstormed for a while, put that paper in a safe place, and leave it alone for 24 hours. In the meantime, go and have fun at your vacation spot. Just make sure that you come back later so you can see if you still feel the same way about the goals on your list.

Once you make a list of goals and pare it down to a list of things that accurately represent your true goals, start a second list – the list of things that get in the way of your goals. Cycle through all the events of a typical day in your life and ask whether anything sticks out as being a real roadblock for your goals. Think of your responsibilities and roles that take time away from doing the things that are truly meaningful to you – list these things. It’s possible that specific people get in the way of your goals too. Maybe you know people that use you as a crutch to the point where you aren’t able to carry on your own life – list them too.

Once you’ve crafted this list, go ahead and plan how to phase these things out of your life. If they’re keeping you from your life goals, they’re not worth keeping in your life. Take this list and leave it for 24 hours too. Go play and have fun and then come back to the list to see if you feel the same way. Refine the list as necessary and soon you’ll have two lists that can become the blueprint for the rest of your life. Once you return to normal life, you can use these lists to remind you of what is really important to you and help eliminate the things aren’t as important.

You might be asking why you need to go on vacation to do this exercise. Well, once we get entrenched in our everyday lives, it’s really hard to see the big picture. We force ourselves to believe that the immediacy of our commitments means that they’re important. In other words, we equate deadlines with importance. Going on vacation pulls you away from that trap. You have nothing around to trick you into thinking something is important when it’s not. You are freely able to focus on having fun and exploring what really matters to you.

Energize Your Life

Taking a vacation is great because it gets you out of the sedentary lifestyle that office life fosters. It energizes your body by making your body work. For example, I went skiing recently, which involves racing down the side of a mountain with snow flying in your face while dodging snow boarders that like to sit in the snow. It was great fun, and I just felt so alive because I was working out my body. But you don’t need to go skiing to get that same feeling. Backpacking, swimming in the ocean, strolling along a countryside, or even fishing can all force you to engage your body in a healthy way.

Pick an activity that you will be comfortable doing. You don’t want to be bogged down by learning something so difficult that you get frustrated. At the same time, don’t be afraid of trying something new. Be adventurous. If you’re a busy person, you probably don’t have many opportunities to take a break and try something new, so take advantage of the vacation. Camping is relatively easy to do and can be great fun. Fishing in a lake is pretty relaxing without requiring too much physical exertion. Even going sightseeing in a city you’ve never been to can be enough to wake up your senses. Walking around, breathing fresh air, and interacting with new people that you’ve never met can be a lot of fun.

I recommend doing something physically involving, even if it’s just walking around, because it will shift your mind and body from the sedentary office-mode to an exploring-mode. Since you’re using the vacation as a way of “recalibrating” your life, you want to take a break from any habits that might prevent you from objectively assessing your life. However, if you’re in a line of work that is physically demanding, then maybe something that is less strenuous would be more useful to you. Something like fishing or a trip to a secluded cabin in the mountains might be more beneficial.

Wherever you end up heading for vacation, pick something that involves some physical activity to pull you away from your routine mindset. It’ll invigorate your senses and prepare your mind for some thoughtful soul searching. Don’t be afraid to try something fun and new. You might like it

How to Go on Vacation

We all have a long list of responsibilities that we feel like we can’t leave. But if we’re walking through life with no idea about where we’re heading, then really, you lose nothing by putting those responsibilities on hold. What important purpose can they serve if you’re not sure where you want life to take you? It’s like having pieces of a puzzle but no idea what the final picture should look like. Going on vacation and assessing your own life helps you determine how the final picture should look and what pieces you don’t need. You only get one shot to live this life, so don’t waste it by filling it with unimportant things.

The first step to taking a vacation involves picking the days to leave your routine life behind and go on vacation. You might think you’re too busy, but we can all make time. For example, it’s usually easy to take a vacation when you have an emergency, right? Well, being stuck and spinning your wheels in life is an emergency too. Make it a priority and tell youself that it’s something that you need to do. Depending on your line of work, taking a weekend off shouldn’t be a big deal. The longer, the better, but realistically, we know we can’t put life on hold indefinitely. So pick a weekend/week and commit to taking a vacation. I find it’s easier to pick a date far in the future. It gives me something to look forward to, and I’m more productive at work since I try to finish things up before going on vacation.

As I said before, go on vacation in a “disconnected” state. Leave your work behind. Turn off your Blackberry and iPhone. Leave your computer at home. You’ll be glad that you did. It’s not really a vacation if you have the nagging feeling that you need to constantly check on things. A vacation isn’t just an escape for your body, it’s an escape for your mind too.

Because vacation is an escape for your body and mind, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to go on vacation. Maybe you have a relative with a summer or winter home who won’t mind lending it to you for a few days. You can drive to a nearby city and rent a cheap motel room for a few days, or you can go camping. There are many ways to inexpensively escape normal life to give yourself some time to reflect upon you life and decide where you want to head.

Once you come back from vacation, you’ll realize that you either 1) love your life the way it is or 2) need to make changes because your day-to-day actions don’t further your lifelong goals. Both are great outcomes. In the former, you’ll gain newfound appreciation for what you have, and in the latter, you’ll have a renewed motivation for making meaningful change in your life.