Starting next week, I’m off to Mexico with a good friend for a vacation.  Not a working vacation.  A REAL EFFING VACATION for the first time in a decade.

I’ve written about hustle culture here before and its insidious way of glamorizing too-little-sleep, never-getting-away, over-working, and never, ever stepping away from the grind.  It’s easy to write about it, but not so easy to recognize the ways this kind of culture has crept into my own life and approach to work/success.

That’s why I’m writing about this now. In full transparency, realizing that not only have I been guilty of this type of hustle-to-win approach, but also feeling the full effects of what this is doing to both my body and spirit (and it’s why I recently stepped away from a 6-figure contract but I’ll tell that story another time).

Time for some recreation.

RE-CREATION.

Earl Nightingale, the early personal development pioneer, had an interesting and valuable take on recreation.  He said that it, in its purest sense, is a true period of necessary re-creation, of re-evaluating our values, work, areas of service, goals, education, and our areas of enjoyment of ourselves and those around us.  He also said a few games of tennis wouldn’t cut it.

To reap the benefits of true re-creation, we need TIME.  More than an hour.  More than a day.

He compares it to a journey to Mars, where once you arrive, you are able to look back and view the Earth from so very far away… you are then able to see the areas of lack in your own life, as well as the areas of new opportunities that you may have overlooked while unable to see the forest for the trees, so to speak.

When we’re IN IT – in the thick of the day-to-day with our to-do lists and our agendas and our constantly-pinging email/Slack/text notifications – we’re unable to let our minds wander into possibility.  The inevitable sense of staleness that comes into our lives when the mundane MUST-DO’S take over can only be lifted with some true re-creation.

Listen, as a culture, we suck at this.  The Center for Economic and Policy Research has gone so far as to call the U.S. the “No Vacation Nation.”  And if all this re-creation talk seems a little too “woo” for you, consider the science: a recent study by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that 745,000 people died in 2019 from heart disease and stroke due to long hours and said the trend might worsen due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The research found that working 55 hours or more a week was associated with a 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease than a workweek of 35 to 40 hours.

Taking time away is essential to employee survival. That’s because time off from work is integral to well-being, sustained productivity and high performance. 

Here are some additional reasons to start planning your next re-creational getaway today:

1. More Mindfulness. Going away makes you feel more present and stimulated. Breaking your normal routine makes it almost impossible to go through your day on autopilot.  Much of what we do every day puts us into a zombie-like state of peat-and-repeat where we simply DO without THINKING.  According to a research study in The Journal of Positive Psychology, mindfulness and vacations appear to have overlapping effects. The report found that both meditation exercises and vacationing were associated with higher levels of well-being and an increased ability to BE PRESENT in the moment.
   
   

2. Brainpower Boosts. Taking time off improves our capacity to learn. When your brain is completely relaxed, it consolidates knowledge and brainpower. “Neuroscience is so clear, through PET scans and MRIs, that the ‘aha’ moment comes when you’re in a relaxed state of mind,” says Brigid Schulte, author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time. That's why you have your best ideas on a walk, in the shower or on vacation.
   
   

3. Less Stress.  This one seems like a no-brainer, but sometimes STRESS IS NECESSARY. Stress raises levels of certain hormones, associated with catabolic energy, such as cortisol and adrenaline. In the short term, this can be helpful, triggering the “fight or flight” response that helps you deal with immediate threats. But over time, chronic stress can increase your risk for health issues, including heart disease. A study released by the American Psychological Association concluded that time off helps to reduce stress by removing people from the activities and environments that they associate with anxiety. But you didn’t really need that data to know that getting away makes you less stressed out.

That’s the bottom line: our bodies know this.  We already know we need to GET AWAY, to RE-CREATE ourselves.  Not for an hour, or a workout, or a mindless Netflix binge, but a true period of removing ourselves from the hustle of the day-to-day so we can see the new opportunities we’ve been sleep-walking right by.

When do you plan to re-create yourself again?  Let me know in the comments (I’m always looking for good destinations, y’all, so don’t be shy).