What I Learned on My Vacation

I just returned from a two-week vacation.  This was a real vacation.  No email, no voicemail and no working on the business.  

This is what vacations are for, and the extent to which we can truly disconnect from our daily work, one or two times a year, we can expect to return to our customers, our colleagues and our goals with renewed energy and a fresh perspective.

I remember when, as a General Manager for a large division of a company, I sent an email out to over 500 employees in my business letting everyone know that I was leaving on vacation and would not be reading emails or listening to voicemails.  

This was a scary thing for me to do, and I wasn’t quite sure how I would manage when I returned.  I also worried that some would see my action as irresponsible.

Two things happened.  One, the business moved forward just fine for the two weeks that I was gone.  Second, I must have received over 100 emails before I departed from my employees thanking me for giving “them” permission to take a real vacation when their turn came to get away. 

My experience this time around was similar.  My able assistant and associates did an excellent job managing the business while I was away from the office, and my clients were most supportive of my taking time off to revitalize.  

Here are just some of the other things I learned while I was away:

There are 10 chickens and 5 pigs for every one person on the island of Kaua’i.  No joking. 

This really is a small world.  On a hiking/kayaking tour, I was randomly joined with three other hikers.  As we were introducing ourselves to one another, one of the individuals asked me if I had ever heard of a particular city in Michigan.  It just happened to be the city in which I live.

It is possible to save the world and still be home for dinner.  To learn how, I recommend Save The World and Still Be Home for Dinner by Will Marre.

An excessive reliance on carrots and sticks to motivate human beings can extinguish intrinsic motivation, and by neglecting the ingredients of genuine motivation — autonomy, mastery and purpose — we can limit what each of us can achieve.  To learn more, I recommend Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Dan Pink. 

And, finally, I learned that over half of the stress experienced by the average North American is directly related to our nutritional habits.  To learn more, I recommend The Thrive Diet by Brendon Brazier. 

I wish each of you a Happy Thanksgiving, and a rejuvenating break when it is your turn to get away!