Did I tell you I went on vacation last week?
It was a mix of enjoying my Ranch — the horses, a good book, walking through nature — and the beach — my toes in the sand, the sun on my face, and ocean waves lulling me into midday naps.
I enjoyed time with my kids and my husband.
I cooked 0 times (except for the fabulous Father’s Day meal I made for my husband. I know, who even AM I??), and journaled about my feels, dreams, and visions.
And most importantly, I turned off all notifications and completely disconnected from my devices.
I came back to work on Monday with a well-rested mind and body, a clear vision of what I want to accomplish in the coming months, and a lot of optimism about where we’re headed as a company.
Okay, pause. I can hear you thinking, “Ugh, Rachel, we get it, you went on a dope-ass vacay while I was stuck here behind my desk… where are you going with this?”
I promise, I’m not telling you about my time off just to rub it in. There’s a lesson in here.
There are probably a million reasons you want to take a vacation right now — you’re tired, stressed, cooped up in the house, you haven’t taken time off in… how long?!
There are also probably another million reasons you think you can’t take a vacation right now — you’re worried about the mountain of work that will await you upon your return, you think things will fall apart in your business without you, you don’t want to come off as lazy or uncommitted to your employees or to your boss, or maybe you insist that you simply have “too much work” to take time off, ever.
But what if I told you that taking a vacation is a GREAT move for your business?
Like it did for me, time off and away from the day-to-day grind will give you the rest you need to recharge your batteries, clarify your vision, and come back with your mind sharp as ever. You’ll roll back into work with a positive attitude and a spring in your step, coming up with new million dollar ideas every five minutes.
And this isn’t just common sense I’m blessing you with right now. These are straight up statistical FACTS.
Research consistently shows the health benefits of taking vacation time, including lower stress AND improved productivity.
In other words, taking time off has a great ROI.
Here’s some more evidence for all y’all skeptics out there:
One study showed that people who took fewer than 10 of their vacation days per year had a 34.6% likelihood of receiving a raise or bonus in a three-year period of time. Meanwhile, people who took more than 10 of their vacation days had a 65.4% chance of receiving a raise or bonus.
In other words, if you take 11 or more of your vacation days, you are more than 30% more likely to receive a raise than those who sacrifice those days off.
How is this possible? Because working more does NOT equal working better.
Vacations allow you to rest and clear your mind, and to come back to work glowing with new ideas and a contagious, motivated attitude.
And when you do that, you can get a raise, or give yourself a raise — because your company revenue has increased ever since you came back from vacay firing off money-generating ideas and enacting your Million Dollar Visions.
And with that, going on vacation is not only something you should do for yourself. If you have a team, make sure your employees take time off too.
Your employees need to be well-rested and clear-headed to do an incredible job and help grow your company’s revenue. But making sure they go on vacation goes beyond just providing them a certain number of paid days off in their contract.
Data shows that more than half of Americans are not using all the vacation time they earn.
Effectively, that means you might have employees who are working for free, literally donating their time instead of taking their earned time off.
It also means they’re probably not working as productively as they could be, because they haven’t taken a vacation in wayyy too long.
So if you want to increase your employees’ happiness, productivity, and basically be the dopest boss who ever lived, create a work culture that doesn’t stigmatize taking time off, and create processes that make it easy for folks to leave office without having to come back to a treacherous mountain of work.
And of course, don’t just create the culture — model the behavior you’re trying to encourage. AKA, go take a vacation!
So… go check your schedule. Book yourself a week. Pick a destination to travel to, or research fun and relaxing activities you can do in your area.
Envision your vacation, plan it, enjoy it, and then come back to work feeling better than you’ve felt in a loooong time.
I promise, you will see the benefits to your business when you do.
And by the way — if you’re looking for an incredible opportunity to get away, soaked in luxury and surrounded by industry insiders who can make your big post-pandemic business moves and dreams a reality, you need to apply for The Most Retreat.
It’s happening July 30th- August 1st in West Hollywood, hosted by me and my besties, Robert Hartwell and Susan Hyatt, and featuring some MAJOR guests (hint: my talent agent and our publicity experts will be there!).
You do NOT wanna miss this opportunity to eat, drink, be merry, and network with the amazing, intelligent, powerful people who will be at this retreat.
Applications close tomorrow, so get your name in for consideration right here, right now.
Oh yeah, and there’s one more, really really, super incredibly important reason why you should take a vacation…
Because you deserve it, boo.
xo,
Rachel
PS. Here’s that link again to apply for The Most retreat. Want even more drool-worthy, exclusive details? Listen to this!
