Talane’s Blog of the Week, July 31, 2006

The heat is on!

It is August and it is hot! Heat waves have even hit England –we haven’t had rain in three weeks and the grass has gone brown. (In England, it is socially unacceptable to water the grass in the summer as it is considered a complete waste of water. They are right, but being American I hanker after a green lawn, especially in the summer.)

I take the month of August off completely. This is something I learned years ago when I first started my coaching business. Many of my clients were taking two weeks off at some point in August. I ended up working the whole month for only half the money. I decided this was a poor return on my investment. Rather than fight it, I go with the flow and take the entire month off. This turned out to be an excellent decision. No one really wants to overhaul their life in August as it is the lowest energy month of the year. Must be the heat and humidity. Most people feel like sitting on a beach somewhere drinking a margarita and reading a trashy novel. And you know what, that is actually an excellent plan. We need time to decompress and do nothing. And, the more creative you are, the more time you need to do nothing. Ideas need to bake! As Cicero said, “Only the person who is relaxed can create, and to that mind ideas flow like lightning.” Take as much time off as you can. The Europeans typically take a full month off in the summer and the French take all of August off. This has not destroyed their economy—they are doing just fine. I’d love to see Americans demanding more time off. Two weeks a year just isn’t enough.

So if I’m off, who is writing this blog? I wrote the whole month in advance so I really could take time completely off from work. If a client tells me they are on vacation and I find out they brought their laptop and cell phones with them, that doesn’t count as a vacation. The whole point of a vacation is to VACATE your premises and take off. If you bring your cell phone and computer, you are bringing work with you and you aren’t really taking off. If you are checking your text and email every day, even just once, you aren’t on vacation. I dare you to try it. This summer, leave your phone behind, leave your emails behind and whatever you do, do NOT check your messages. Forward your emails to a colleague and/or put on a vacation message. Don’t bring your work with you no matter what! You will discover that the world carries on just fine without you. Or, you’ll discover where you need to delegate and train others better because they couldn’t carry on without you.

Above all, take the time to rest, rejuvenate and goof around. You need it!

Best,
Talane