As a patriotic Canuck, I’m leaving for a camping trip tomorrow to celebrate the Canada Day long weekend …
I’ll be heading to Prince Edward Island, home of Anne of Green Gables – if you’re into those books – for a few days of roughin’ it in a tent.
Full disclosure: the tent is in a campground that has all the modern day amenities, so I’m not roughing it that much.
This year, I’m doing the vacation-thing differently than in past years. Throughout my 20’s – as a stressed-out, overworked real estate guy, it was a mad rush right up until the minute I escaped out of town.
I loaded up my calendar with appointments, cramming as many in as possible, and a curveball would often hit me that delayed my departure.
It was a bad way to start a road trip vacation – in a crummy mood from whatever events popped up.
Then, once I arrived at the campground (I go to the same one on PEI every summer,) I was all work, work, work.
In my early and mid 20’s, cell reception was bad there, so I brought a pocket full of quarters to go down to the payphone at the entrance of the campground. Every two or three hours I would race down to the payphone to check my voicemail and see what was going on.
The cell reception there improved as the years went on, but that meant that I was making liberal use of my cell phone while sitting around the campsite.
My friends didn’t really understand this, and they thought I was nuts!
I’m older and somewhat wiser now. As a coach, I do things differently and didn’t book any calls for tomorrow (other than a quick one first thing in the morning.) I booked no calls for the next few days either, and I’m keeping my business stuff to a minimum.
I’ll be doing the housekeeping for the Facebook group and a few odds and ends, but I’ll mostly be “off-the-grid.”
For years, I resisted creating these boundaries. I felt guilty when I wasn’t working, even though some really smart people insisted that having time-off was better off in the long run.
The last few months I’ve been talking about boundaries that I’ve put up around my personal time, and I’ve had the best few months of my coaching business for revenues by far.
So I know there’s something to it all.
Boundaries are about giving respect to yourself and your business, and recognizing the need to recharge your batteries.
I’m not suggesting that you go MIA all summer. But take care of yourself and remember that you’re entitled to a breather to relax and recharge too.
So, what are your vacation plans for this summer?