Take The Time

“If you need me while I am on vacation, I have to ask myself if I need you when I come back.”

–     Dennis, a mentor, friend and role model, key to my career

Last year, according to Bloomberg Business Week, American workers left 658 million vacation days unused.  Um, dopey!  Hello?

These days, it seems like we’re never really “off.”  Too much connectivity, too intrusive notifications, bad decisions — they all contribute to ruining a night out for dinner, an excellent 8th grade basketball, 5th grade volleyball or varsity soccer game.  Too much, “I’ll be in Africa on a mission trip, but I will still check e-mail every night.”  “Yes, it is our ____th anniversary, but I am sure my spouse won’t mind if I take that call.”

They should.  And so should you.  Yes, all the connections, interruptions, diversions and addictions-to-them all can mess up our balance.

But only if we let them.

Difference makers decide.  They decide to act.  To think.  To speak.  To remain silent.  And, they decide to take — and honor — their time off, which makes their time “on,” even more likely to matter.

PS  Dennis wasn’t being a jerk.  He doesn’t even have any jerk wiring.  He was simply reminding us that he hired us to do a job, paid us handsomely to do a job, and that we ought to do our jobs whether he was in the office or not.  “Decide.  Act.  Make something happen,” he would say.  It wasn’t that he was a hard case, not at all.  What he was, and is, and taught us to be, is a person who understands the value of being away, recharging, clearing the mind and resting the noggin.