Vacation Is Hard Work, Pt. 4

Why in the world post about vacation in August?

Great question. The reason is simple: You have to start now preparing, scheduling, and planning for an extended vacation NOW. It takes months to plan where to go, how long to go, and who not to go with (VERY important criterion, by the way--more in a minute). We're just back from our trip and already I'm saving my milk money for next year's trip, fishing, and unknown-at-this-point opportunities to unwind.

The first thing that has to happen is that you decide and declare that time away is a priority. Making that time to get away and sharpen the saw as Stephen Covey calls it has to be a priority in your year and on your calendar or it will not happen. Remember, it's not just "time off:" this is a mission-critical strategic decision to be better at everything you do.

Second, travel companions determine how restful and replenishing this time will be. Family reunions are not vacation. They can be great. They can be fun. They can be important. (They can also be none of those, but that's for another time.) But they are not vacation. Bill Hybels has long encouraged people to pay attention to their gauges: Emotional, spiritual, relational, physical--just like a car has a dashboard that registers engine performance, fuel levels, oil pressure, etc., we have gauges that we can often ignore always at our peril.

Vacation travel should only happen with people who fill your tanks. If it's an obligation, it's not a vacation. If it's a whip relationally, conversationally, or in any other way--it doesn't count as vacation. And, because we all have a limited number of vacation days, this means that we have to be very discerning and shrewd about how we spend our time away. Kindof like we should be shrewd about how we spend our time not away.