What a Difference a Day Makes, But How About Two Weeks?

"Look at things not as they are, but as they can be. Visualization adds value to everything. A big thinker always visualizes what can be done in the future. You aren't stuck with the present."
- David Schwartz

I recently took a two-week vacation for the first time in my life. When planning the vacation, I realized that after ten years of running BannerView.com I had never taken a real vacation! Don't get me wrong, I've taken advantage of a few extended weekends to go to the beach and a Dodgers game from time to time and I've made the most of holidays going up to my dad's cabin. I even had strung together seven days out of the office to visit my mom in Kentucky, but even then I had only missed three days of business. Not this time. This time I took a full two weeks off, including ten full business days away from the office and I didn't even leave the city!

There were a couple of things I expected to get from taking this vacation. First and foremost, how would the business handle me being gone for 10 days? We have 13 employees, all very capable individuals, however, the way the business has evolved, I found myself performing many of the day to day tasks that others on my staff could handle. This meant that rather than helping be a visionary for our business and helping push our company to the next level, I was stuck "keeping up" with everything that was coming in, rather than delegating to my capable employees. While I was gone, the business was forced to run in my absence and guess what, we're still here... big surprise, right? Well, although it wasn't a big surprise, it was a bit of a relief to know that I can choose to spend my time in a more effective area of our company and that the company can continue to operate without me trying to handle everything. After coming back, my role is now more in line with what it was intended to be, which is being the COO of the company and handling the day-to-day operations, with a focus on the future.

Another thought going into the vacation was how was I going to operate without the business? When you go ten years without really getting away from a business you started, you almost don't know how to live without it. Long weekends and holidays don't really count because they are short-term and you instinctively make accommodations to still be available, or are still thinking about what happened at work yesterday and what you're going to need to do when you get back to the office. With one full week, you may be able to put it out of your mind for a day or two, especially if you travel and can be "distracted" by your adventure, but two weeks seems to be the sweet spot. It's enough time to really let go, but not quite enough time to move on (which is a good thing if you like your job).

I'm a pretty motivated individual, so even with two weeks I didn't do all the things I hoped to accomplish on my vacation, but I can't express how much good it did for me. There's the usual "reenergizing your batteries" factor, as well as the time to reflect on what mattes most in your life. Not to mention that I'm already thinking about my next two week vacation, which not only gives me something to look forward to, but also something to keep in mind as I carry out my day to day responsibilities in my personal and professional lives.

All of the executives here at BannerView.com have decided to schedule this time off for ourselves and I would recommend you do the same. It certainly helps you realize that you are not stuck with the present.