Last week, I took a break from blogposts and emails. My team had written such wonderful testimonials about our company that I thought I’d let those stand on their own.
That’s not true.
I just told a lie.
I didn’t write a blogpost about the importance of testimonials because, honestly, life got in the way. Truly, some weeks I plan ahead and some weeks I just… I just don’t. And last week I just didn’t get to it. But truthfully, those testimonials were written so well and they were worth reading every single one if you haven’t yet (check Instagram or LinkedIn if you missed them).
So here we are in the middle of the summer. We’ve got the July 4th holiday in the middle of this week and then I’m heading on vacation. Now look, I know it’s 2024 and I own the business. I know we are all supposed to be available 24/7/365. But I just don’t subscribe to that thinking. Never have.
I remember in my early career when I had a “job” with a certain number of days or hours I could take off each year. You can be sure I did not leave any of those days sitting on the table at the end of the year. I earned them. They didn’t roll over. So to not use them would be like leaving wads of cash on my desk. Wasn’t going to happen.
I am a big believer in the brain break. I was at a conference last week and one of the speakers said “You are where your feet are” and what she meant by that was if your feet are at work and you’re missing your family, then you aren’t giving your career 100%. And the opposite is true. I don’t want to be on vacation and not fully present.
I was on a panel at this conference and one of the discussions we hit on was resilience. In general, we are all pretty resilient people. I mean.. do we have a choice? As I said from the stage, I’m a 51-year-old business owner. I have parents who need me, young adult children who need me, two furry children who need me, a husband, a book of clients, and I still need to answer the “what’s for dinner” question every night. There is just no time to dwell on one situation or another. We have no choice but to be resilient.
And I have found the best way to keep my resilience elastic is to take a break every once in a while. A complete break. The work will be here when I get back. Things will be scheduled and things are covered. But if I don’t let my brain rest the second half of 2024 is going to be extremely unproductive. And that, I cannot have.
So later this week I’m headed out and I plan to be completely checked out from life. Make sure you schedule some time to do the same.
by 
