There are many reasons why vacation is helpful to us all, but if you are a small business owner, you probably worry about your business when you leave.
You can rationalize away the need for rest and relaxation. You claim that your relationships will be fine when things are running smoother anyway.
Don’t worry, I am not going to go on about the obvious misconceptions you have about waiting for some day to really relax and enjoy your time of leisure now and not later.
Instead I will appeal to your current concern…how to improve your business performance!
So here it goes….
The #1 reason that vacation will help your small business is because it regenerates your CREATIVITY.
Even if you are a totally left-brained, detailed-oriented, list-generating, bullet-point engineer or accountant, you are still creative.
And to much busy-ness stifles our creativity.
Creativity is something that has to be nurtured and explored. The whole concept of an idea morphing into something new is what is behind creativity.
Without time to incubate and transform, the new creation is never birthed.
I left on Friday for the beach with my kids. It’s been awhile since I have been so busy that my creativity has withered. Instead of planning my vacation on the ride down, I was on the phone finishing with business.
Of course it takes a day to fully unwind before you can get your creative juices flowing again. However, I have found that many things about vacation rejuvenates our creativity:
- Seeing God’s artistic flair through nature.
- Conversations about stuff other than business. Sitting with my kids and hearing how their ideas flow, reminds me that growing up can sometimes repress our creative thought. We are inhibited to say some of the things that cross our mind as they seem random and disconnected at the time. Listen to a couple of sixteen year olds connect the dots to their thought patterns and you may just unbridle your latent problem-solving gifts. The teen years is the starting point to what we in business call “brainstorming”!
- Distraction from our business helps us reconnect with a blank slate. After you have walked the beach and felt the power of the ocean…..while hiking up the mountain aware only of the birds chirp and the sound of your own breathing….or even gazing at the amazing hustle and bustle of a New York street corner….you are given a burst of the breadth and depth of what goes on in the rest of the world. Our box immediately expands. And seeing the results of God’s creation or man’s, it gives us the slight nudge we may need to get our of our comfort zone.
- Rest and relaxation (okay I couldn’t help adding it in!) do help us to rejuvenate and approach things in a fresh and new way. Sorry but it does. I only came to the beach for a long weekend and the ideas are flowing. I believe the right side of our brain (the creative side) shuts down when it gets to tired or busy. We all need to re-charge our batteries, even if it is only for a long weekend.
Unfortunately, vacations do come to an end. So I have to get up from my gorgeous balcony view and begin the “not fun” part of vacation that includes waking four teenagers, cleaning up the cyclone that descended on this condo, and pack everything up to go back home to my wonderful husband and two dogs waiting patiently for our return.
Oh, and one last stop at the outlet mall on our way home.
Did I also mention that shopping helps our creativity too!
How about you? Do you see a benefit in your business after you have a few days off? How does vacation help your creativity?
Sue,
Beautiful pictures! I agree that getting away and doing something different can really help with creativity. I know the times I sit and go crazy over something, then finally go and do something else, then the ideas start coming. So, good advice!
And how could you leave that adorable little pooch home?
I agree Laurie, just getting away from the details can help! I usually bring my puppies everywhere, but my husband stayed home with them – still not as fun without them!