As a small business owner and volunteer for my regional professional society I work a lot of hours. Not a complaint at all since I am fortunate to do what I love and am serving associations that I believe in and that believe in me. Like many of us I typically work between 50-70hrs a week. Also like many of us I squeeze in the extra work time where I can such as early mornings, at night after my daughter goes to bed and weekends when we are not running around like crazy people for soccer, dance, school and the various other things we all need to get done. I maintain a fairly reasonable work-personal life balance and due to the flexibility in schedule have had the opportunity to coach my daughter’s travel soccer club for the past 5 years but never really stopped to think about the importance of recharging your personal battery. I had that opportunity the last week of August when my family and I took a great and stress free vacation to Ocean City, New Jersey. My family is a dog family and one of the things that has prevented us from travelling is we have three semi-large dogs (ranging from 50-100lbs). We were able to find a great condo in the center of everything that accepted larger dogs so off we went with 2 of the 3 dogs. Do not worry we did not leave the third dog alone for a week. The dog that stayed home is 14 year old and 100lbs. He has hip problems and some other issues and the trip would not have been good for him so we had a dog sitter come in 4 times a day and sit with him and I came home one night.
The week of recharging was great for many reasons but the primary reason was family and the fact that we were able to give my daughter (and a friend of hers) the week at the shore with no real schedule. We went to the beach and boardwalk when we wanted. It was a week of YES. We even took surfing lessons one day and while the 10 years old girls did great the 44 year old man did just OK (see picture) but it was a great experience and one I will treasure forever and hopefully repeat many times next year. The condo was great because I could also set up an office. I know what you are saying – “Not on vacation!!” – but I have a slightly different philosophy.
I consider my clients second to only my family and as a small business owner I think that is why I am successful. If I can work a few hrs a day in the early AM or at night and be on a few conference calls I can keep things moving forward for my clients and honestly that saves me stress when I return and that makes me a better husband, father and Executive Director. I do not think I am alone in that way of thinking. As I speak with people more of them spend some time working on vacation than did in the past and I do not think that is a bad thing. You can still recharge and be productive at the same time. For me it is about work-personal life balance. If you noticed at the top and here I do not use the term work-life balance because work is a part of life as is personal time so I prefer to use the tern work-personal life balance.
Just as recharging is important to increase your work performance – volunteer and paid – it is also important for the soul. Work gives us purpose and meaning and allows us to help others either by what we produce or by providing advice or assistance to colleagues, peers or the next generation of professionals. Recharging is not only for vacation. To be honest I get recharged when I have a Board Meeting or educational event come up since it allows me to show what I love to do and that is help not-for-profits become better organizations.
To bring this post to a close take some time to recharge yourself today. It could be a personal or a work related recharge but get recharged in some manner. It will make you a better person and a more productive worker.
Thanks for reading,
Tim
The week of recharging was great for many reasons but the primary reason was family and the fact that we were able to give my daughter (and a friend of hers) the week at the shore with no real schedule. We went to the beach and boardwalk when we wanted. It was a week of YES. We even took surfing lessons one day and while the 10 years old girls did great the 44 year old man did just OK (see picture) but it was a great experience and one I will treasure forever and hopefully repeat many times next year. The condo was great because I could also set up an office. I know what you are saying – “Not on vacation!!” – but I have a slightly different philosophy.
I consider my clients second to only my family and as a small business owner I think that is why I am successful. If I can work a few hrs a day in the early AM or at night and be on a few conference calls I can keep things moving forward for my clients and honestly that saves me stress when I return and that makes me a better husband, father and Executive Director. I do not think I am alone in that way of thinking. As I speak with people more of them spend some time working on vacation than did in the past and I do not think that is a bad thing. You can still recharge and be productive at the same time. For me it is about work-personal life balance. If you noticed at the top and here I do not use the term work-life balance because work is a part of life as is personal time so I prefer to use the tern work-personal life balance.
Just as recharging is important to increase your work performance – volunteer and paid – it is also important for the soul. Work gives us purpose and meaning and allows us to help others either by what we produce or by providing advice or assistance to colleagues, peers or the next generation of professionals. Recharging is not only for vacation. To be honest I get recharged when I have a Board Meeting or educational event come up since it allows me to show what I love to do and that is help not-for-profits become better organizations.
To bring this post to a close take some time to recharge yourself today. It could be a personal or a work related recharge but get recharged in some manner. It will make you a better person and a more productive worker.
Thanks for reading,
Tim
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