Back in the saddle!

I’m back in the office after a week’s vacation, and after clearing a mini-mountain of email and other assorted work, I feel energized.

Oddly, over the past 5 years I have never actually taken all my allotted vacation time … but I intend to this year. The benefits are just too great, and the costs too high, to take less. I’m not only talking about the most important reasons to take vacations: spending time with family and friends. I’m also talking about the renewed vigor and changed perspectives that you can take back with you to the office.

Resolution: to take my vacation time in the future. (I have another 2 weeks coming up later this year.)

On a related note, a vacation-oriented quote I recently saw:

If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks’ vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days.

-Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Vacation is also a valuable time to sort out priorities and goals …