Sometime during our first year of marriage my wife and I made a decision to take a vacation each year. We realized that it was going to be important to get away from our routine to relax and recharge. In that decision we also realized that it would be important to get away from our home, this would help break the routine. For us this meant not visiting relatives. Family is welcomed to travel with us and that has often been the case but for us it really it is not vacation spending any length of time in someone's home. In 29 years of marriage we have been fortunate to be able to take a vacation 28 of those years. (There was the one year in graduate school that we couldn't afford a vacation.)
Here are some things we have learned:
1. vacations are important
2. making vacations a priority mean putting them in your yearly budget
3. vacations allow you to disconnect from the routine
4. vacations allow you to spend dedicated time with your spouse and children
5. vacations give you energy for the rest of the year
6. the new setting of vacation often help generate new ideas for your job and/or leadership position
If taking a vacation and getting away from the routine is not part of your yearly plan I challenge you to consider adding it to your calendar.
My friend David Jones recently posted some more thoughts about taking a vacation. You can find them here.
Do you regularly take a vacation? If not why? If so, how do you make it a priority?