Vacation-There Are Many Possibilities
When you are looking at the keys to personal and small business success one of the most overlooked is the vacation. And, for the self-employed business owner, entrepreneur, solo professional or an individual who is extremely focused, the act of taking a vacation can be a challenge in itself.
Let’s take a look at the word “vacation”. It comes from the word “vacate” which means in an every day sense, to leave an area. Legally, vacate means to annul or void a legal decision.
Regardless when you go on vacation you are leaving or vacating your comfort zone. Vacation is a decision to chuck your familiar routine and to get recharged by focusing your mind and energy on a new routine for the time you are away.
Vacation Is About Success
In business growth coaching one of the keys is to expand your business. Running a small business or starting up your own business demands a lot of your focus and energy. But, at some point you must step away to evaluate everything. If you stay in the middle for a long period of time you become desensitized to your business, your processes and most importantly yourself.
I ask my clients to take a look around at people they consider to be successful. I would say that most of the time the people that they mention have one thing in common. They all take regular vacations.
One of the first keys to success is to make vacation a part of your business routine.
Vacation Is About Letting Go
Most self-employed business owners, who don’t take vacation once they are established, may run successful businesses but they are not full of enthusiasm and progress. A large part of my personal business coaching practice has to do with being a personal growth coach.
The only way a business can grow is for the owner to let go of an old idea. Personal growth coaching, which is a part of business coaching is about vacating old ideas and ways of doing things. After all, the business will get no bigger or better than the owner’s personal growth in his thoughts and actions.
Only when the old idea is gone, may a new idea enter and become part of the process. When the owner goes on vacation he is letting go of his routine and more importantly, trusting his employees to run his business.
This creates excitement for his employees. How come? There is nothing better for an employee to have an elevated level of trust. Trust is the foundation of teamwork. If you want to have a better team, go on vacation. Watch your employees rise to the occasion. Usually the greatest fear is that somehow the business can’t survive without you.
If it can’t then you need to rethink what you are doing and how you are doing it. Why? You have created a job, not a business.
Vacation Improves The Process
As a personal business coach a major focus is on building a process in the small business. This is a process that is written down to where it makes it easier to train people and hold them accountable. When you have a process you can start working more on your business and less in your business. And, you are now in a position to take a vacation.
Make it your goal to take a vacation. When you do, an amazing thing happens. You will accelerate the improvement in your processes and your business. For the owner, vacation creates a sense of urgency to get everything in order. Set a definite date for your vacation and punching your ticket to greater freedom and abundance.
Here’s the last way vacation improves the process. As a business owner when you take a vacation you are modeling behavior for your employees and customers that says, “ I am important. I am going to take care of myself.”
For your employees they will believe in you and your leadership even more. They will see that you believe there is a balance to life. And, when you take a vacation you should be sending a message to them that they too, will have a vacation, a break from the routine and to have a reward for their work.
