Oh, my goodness. It actually works.
I took a vacation recently – 10 days away from editing, e-mails and Google.
OK, I did use one day to write a previous column and talked with my boss once on my cell phone.
But after that I adhered to a strict no-work rule, booting up a computer only to get directions to Spirit Lake, Iowa, and movie showtimes to see “The Bourne Ultimatum.”
Even folks at my church had their calls end quickly once I realized the topic wasn’t about leisure.
During the vacation, I slept for eight hours each night, read a John Grisham book and O, The Oprah Magazine and ate full meals cooked by Chef Mom and some restaurant folks, too.
And now, I can think again.
It’s utterly amazing how that happens.
For many folks, the holy grail of work-life balance indeed is quite elusive. Trips to the gym get collapsed into stretching for a few minutes in the office. Meals too often come in a paper bag. And six hours of sleep is a gift.
Ostensibly, the idea often behind such self-flagellation is to help focus one’s energies on excelling at work. That’s especially true if you have a job that you love.
Entrepreneurs particularly fall prey to the clarion of a nearly 24/7 work cycle, but the rest of us are no less susceptible.
And the famed Midwestern work ethic often doesn’t give one the option of taking a break, lest your neighbors view you as a lazy bum.
But when I heard myself tell a friend a little while back that I felt like I was on a treadmill and couldn’t get off, I knew that delusion once again had clouded my judgment.
That’s because, truthfully, I had courted that treadmill, eyeing its adventure as alluring and jumping on willingly with a mixture of giddiness and bravado.
It’s only when the relationship turned bad that I started asking myself, “How did I get here?”
The subsequent choices that stared me in the face were simple: Hit the stop button or risk becoming fodder for one of those whispered “Did you hear about so-and-so?” office water-cooler conversations.
The solution, ironically, turned out to be even simpler: Eat. Sleep. Breathe.
It’s not that this is news, of course. We’ve all heard it before, read a dozen articles about it and even made New Year’s resolutions proclaiming to do better this time.
But our behavior often betrays us, revealing the secret that we don’t always believe that taking care of ourselves is essential to success. We’re too often afraid that we might become the left-behind chump who didn’t take an extra assignment.
Along the way, we somehow forget that the real key to succeeding at one’s precious calling invariably lies in walking away from it every now and then.
Don’t believe me? Then just try it. Get away for a while for the sole purpose of engaging in long kisses with your spouse. Or playing with your kids. Or taking bubble baths.
I dare you to get a full night’s sleep. Sing in the shower. And linger among newly fallen leaves a little longer than you should.
Honestly, folks, it works.
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