Walt Hampton, J.D.

Creating the Work & Life You LOVE

Use It or Lose It
June 13, 2013

Yeah, I’m talkin’ to you… and I’m talkin’ about your summer vacay.

Use it!

Did you know that the average American worker leaves 9.2 days of vacation “on the table” every year?

I used 13 weeks of vacation last year… and if you’ve got nine or ten more days that you’re not going to use, I’ll take them! I’m not bashful… and when it comes to vacay, I’m damn greedy.

I remember vividly my very first day at the “big firm.” Fresh out of law school, I was about to launch the career I had been working toward for so long. My mentor-to-be was reviewing the “expectations” of the firm with me. When he came to the vacation policy, he said, “You get three weeks of vacation every year… but nobody really takes them.

That seemed pretty screwed up to me. I immediately booked three weeks of vacation. vacation1

Taking time away is a fundamental tool for success.

I know this sounds paradoxical, but it’s not.

And it’s a difficult lesson to learn.

Here’s the scoop: Computers are built to keep running all-day and all-night; 24/7, 365 days a year. Humans: not so much.

We need to rest; we need to recover; we need to stop.

Of course, culturally we’re told otherwise… We’re told that in order to succeed, that in order to thrive in business, we need to put in more time; that we need to work harder and longer; that something’s wrong with us if we can’t keep the pace; that time off is for sissies.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I learned this the hard way when I started training for marathons and ultras. Being a goal-oriented, success-driven, Type-A, trial lawyer kinda guy, I presumed that the secret for optimal training was to run more miles every day.

What I discovered was that the training actually had a much different rhythm to it:

  • there was a mix of short and long runs;
  • the long runs got progressively longer;
  • after pushing out the miles, we’d dial back the distance;
  • then the big surprise: there were days that we didn’t run at all!

Rest days! Imagine that!

And not only that, but I learned that the rest days were integral parts of the training; that you’d get injured if you didn’t rest; that rest and recovery actually helped to build the strength and endurance! That you could run further and faster after you had rested!

That in order to go the distance, you actually needed to stop.

The same is true in business.

Tony Schwartz in his ground-breaking book Be Excellent At Anything, says: “We’re guided by a fatal assumption that the best way to get more done is to work longer and more continuously. But the more hours we work and the longer we go without real renewal, the more we begin to default, reflexively, into behaviors that reduce our own effectiveness – impatience, frustration, distraction, and disengagement.”

We’re designed to “pulse” Schwartz says. “We’re hardwired to make waves – to be alert during the day and to sleep at night, but also to work at high intensity for limited periods of time and then rest and refuel.”

And there’s hard science to back this up! Rest and recovery are as essential for productivity and achievement in business as they are for athletic success.

So if you really want to be a super-achiever: Schedule your vacation this summer… and take it!

(p.s. Oh, by the way: Vacations are away from snail mail, email, voicemail, texts, tweets, links in and other social media updates… otherwise they don’t really count.)

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