How Well Do You Vacation?

by

Opinion

After a long winter of farm shows, conferences and trade shows it made a lot of sense to hop back on an airplane and take the family on a vacation. It wouldn’t surprise many of you that I have a few Aeroplan points to use up. Free flights!!!

In today’s world of busy, taking time away from the daily grind is an integral way to refresh. Accomplishing the refresh doesn’t just happen because you are somewhere hot, at the lake or pulling the trailer around from campground to campground.

Inc.com published a great list of 5 scientifically based tips to enable a better vacation for the entrepreneur (or farmers and ranchers).

I have to confess. I have had to really work at vacationing. Now that sounds strange at first glance because who doesn’t like a getaway? The reality is that many of you that are busy running your farm business or agri-business have the same struggles. Getting away is not just physical, I think the biggest component is mental. To truly take a vacation many of us need to mentally commit to vacation as we do that cropping plan, budget or next sales call.

Hear Shaun talk about his list of four better vacation tips for the farm business person and enjoy the great sound effects added by Jason Stroeve. There is some great vacation music samples in this one.

For many of us there is always something to do to scratch that next task off the list.

“After seeding we will get away”

“Once spraying is over we will take the kids somewhere”

“Harvest should be over by the end of October and we should be able to find a decent flight, I promise”

Have you ever echoed any of the above phrases? Likely you have. We all have.

Being too busy is the easy part of life for many of us.  There is always something to do, something to work on, something to plan for. It’s about priorities. Entrepreneurs naturally prioritize their business over other things like health or family.  One of Mark Cuban’s (Shark Tank star) keys to business success is making sacrifices which included no vacations at all for the first 7 years after he started his business.

Does it have to be this way?

Inc.com’s Top Vacation Tips from Entrepreneurs

One of the common things I hear from readers is, “you are lucky you get to travel all the time.”  This is true, but vacation and work travel are not the same thing. Do not make your vacation a work trip. Many agricultural conferences try to attract you by marketing that you can make a vacation out of the conference by attending. Be careful of this. Making your annual meeting of choice the family vacation every year gets old after awhile.

As we head into spring and you now likely have an abundance of windshield time, it’s the perfect time to think about out that perfect get away with your family, whether it’s a weekend or two weeks in the slow time you will make a priority for family.

In 20 years you will look back and be glad you did.

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