Vacations are not for recharging

“What are you going to do on holiday?”

“Well, the first few days, I will use it to recharge my battery.”

or this one:

“You earned a vacation.”

Unfortunately, these types of conversations are standard. Maybe because they happen in an office environment and we try to be polite. Or, worse, we think that holidays are for recharging and that we must work hard to deserve it.

Holidays are there to have fun, relax, do the things you want to do more of, and go places you cannot do every day. Holidays are there for you to enjoy yourself.

Stress + Rest = Growth

If you only spend time recharging, you are not resting. You are recovering. And if you are not resting, you will not progress. Whether this is about sports or work, rest is crucial to making progress.

Balance your efforts. You can excel at work, health, friends and family. However, you can pick only three at a time. Your holiday break is not your backup plan to compensate for fitness, friends or family. Your holiday is an opportunity to spend time on health, friends, and family without compromising your work efforts.

Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets … it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done.

Cal Newport

Be kind to yourself. You need your idleness, your downtime, not because you earned it, but because you need it. The only way to grow is to include rest and take your rest. Not doing work and not having to recover from work is the best way to become better at work and stay healthy.