Redefining Vacation

Can an entrepreneur ever truly take a vacation? I don't know about you, but in our life vacations have always looked different. The friends that call to do something on a stat holiday only to have me say my husband is actually working all or part of the day, sorry. A week off somewhere local? If it has cell reception, work is likely happening. I used to fight this, even cry when he would work or want to talk about work or a new idea on our vacation, but then I learned some things that changed my perspective.

Comparison, the Thief of Joy

When a long weekend came around, and my husband was working on the extra day off, I used to throw myself a pity party, making the day miserable for him, myself and the kids.  I would find myself saying, "but this family is off hiking today," or "this family is doing this other fun thing." In other words, they would get to have fun, and we'd be missing out because of the business. The thing is, my husband wasn't stopping me from having fun with the kids; I was stopping myself because he couldn't join us.

Instead of being thankful for a husband that was working hard or the business that God was using to provide for us, I was essentially saying I wanted someone else's life, not ours. But when we compare, where does it end? We don't want to compare when that same family who took the stat holiday off isn't going somewhere warm in January like ours or when we get the opportunity to attend an exciting event through the business. We also don't see or know their priorities, bases for arguments, or needs.

When we compare, it steals our joy. But if we shift to an attitude of thankfulness, like, for example, for a hard-working husband, growing business and a God that is providing through it, we see that a different life is not bad; it's just different.

Not Wrong Just Different

Once you can accept life as entrepreneurs, specifically in regards to vacations, then you are more ready to enjoy that life. My husband may never take a full statutory holiday off, but sometimes he can take the Friday or Friday afternoon off leading up to the weekend. And I'll take it.

I have come to see that stats are some of his favourite days to work because no one from the business or any of his clients will disturb him. He can have this quiet, focused time that is so necessary for entrepreneurs but so rare during normal business hours. And you know what, it's often in those times that he has a breakthrough on ideas or strategies for the business or a client.

No matter where we choose to vacation, it's when he's rested that his creative energy gets going and ideas start flowing. So, I've learned that for us all to enjoy vacation, it comes down to expectations.

Expectations

After years of not setting expectations and expressing feelings of frustration, we made a major shift to creating daily schedules for our vacations. That schedule includes all the fun things we want to do, rest time and time for my husband to yes, work, dream, read or write. You may think, oh no, the best part about vacation is not having a schedule, but I have learned the hard way that for us, this is far from true.

When we draft a schedule, it consists of morning, afternoon, and evening. It's pretty basic, but it actually brings a sense of peace to everyone. No one is upset when the time comes for dad to spend a morning working. It means the kids and I head to the pool, and maybe even plan for him to work poolside and join the fun at lunch.

When we didn't have a schedule, it would boil down to frustration on his part, where he would then feel the need to sneak off to get some work done. No one was happy. With this simple schedule, we knew that at lunch, he is ours to have fun with for the rest of the day. This way, my husband gets the joy of uninterrupted work and vision casting while not sacrificing the dynamic of our family for the remainder of the trip.

So remember, just because your vacation looks different doesn't mean its bad. Talk with your family about what would help make those vacations or statutory holidays times of rest that can integrate work and family fun for everyone. That's how we can take back the joy that comparison tried to steal from us.

Until next time, happy vacationing to all you entrepreneur families out there and share any tips that you might have as well.