Vacation Is Vital for Success
LIFESTYLE
Jay D. Breitlow
John Pierpont “J. P.” Morgan is roundly credited for the rise of modern finance. He also saved New York City from financial ruin, snuffed out two separate market panics, and singlehandedly saved the gold standard in 1895. The man effectively was the Federal Reserve in the United States until the government realized that this financial superman wasn’t going to be around forever.
Morgan was no model of health; he smoked dozens of cigars a day (yes, dozens). When he was saving the stock market in the early 1900s, his doctor asked him to cut down to no more than 20 cigars a day “for health reasons.” What?!
Doctors also advised him not to exercise because that excessive stress may cut into his lifespan. Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up. One can only wonder how he lived to be 75.
The man had one thing going for him, though, as he laid the groundwork for what would eventually become the world’s financial legacy. He took time off. Vacation was always a priority. Morgan was quoted as saying that he could perform 12 months of work in nine months as long as he was able to travel on vacation for three months a year. His son-in-law once noted, “He seemed to feel better traveling ... getting on board his steamer and moving to the next spot.”
When he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, his doctors got one thing right when they ordered him to take a 15-month vacation. Morgan spent the next year in Vienna, Rome, and sailing up the Nile. It turns out that when you aie working on a legacy, grinding away with lawmakers and business executives on a daily basis, you make time for yourself, or frankly, nobody will.
Today, JPMorgan Chase & Co. is traded as one of the 30 bluechip stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. His legacy lives on as part of the barometer that dictates the health of our financial markets. If this man could spend a minimum of three months a year on vacation, then why can’t chiropractors spend less than 8% of a calendar year on vacation?
That’s right. That’s just four weeks a year on vacation— recreating your soul and energizing for less than 8% of our
52-calendar weeks per year. If Morgan only spent that percentage of the year on vacation, it’s guaranteed that our financial landscape would be different today. I contend that it’s with that same mindset that you owe it to yourself to take time away from your practice.
The reality is that you will never have a week when all of your patients happen to go on vacation. You will never have everyone call at once and say, “Hey, I can’t make it this week. Why don’t you take a vacation, Doc?” You must put the “big rocks” in the jar first. If you haven’t heard the “big rocks” story before now, it goes something like this:
One day, a teacher was lecturing to his students when he pulled out an extremely large jar and set it on a table. Then he produced about a dozen big rocks and placed them into the jar one at a time. When he had filled the jaí' to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?”
Everyone replied, “Yes.”
“Really?” he asked. “Let’s see.” Then he pulled out a box of gravel and dumped that into the jar. He shook the jar, causing the pieces to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He asked the students again, “Is the jar full?”
His students were catching on quickly. “Probably not,” one of them answered.
“Very good!” he replied. He then brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand into the jar, and it filled in all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel.
“What is the point of this illustration?” asked the teacher.
One student said, “The point is that no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit more things into it!”
“No, that’s not the point,” the teacher replied. “The point is that if you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”
With this in mind, my wife and I have a savings account that we have on autopilot called “big rocks.” Every year, we plan our “big rock” vacations in December for the following year. Our reason for this is two-fold: to plan our week of vacati on every quarter and to estimate the total cost of those “rocks” to plan for saving ahead of time (and then add 10% because who knows what will happen on vacation).
We then divide by 12 and automatically transfer from our business checking into our “big rocks” account. When it’s time for vacation, we don’t have to be too thrifty, nor do we blow our budget. We learned a long time ago that by being overly thrifty or by having a small mindset about leaving the practice, we were telling the universe that we don’t deserve this and it would send obstacles our way.
Ask me how I know.
Three years ago, we foolishly said, “Hey, Colorado is great in the summer. Let’s just stay home that quarter.” So we left just one vacation in our calendar for March and then another in
“The business, like a human, is a living breathing, eating, and sleeping being that needs tender loving care, or TLC, too. ï J
late November for Thanksgiving (when half of Colorado vacates the state). This wound up being a big problem. By grinding through nearly nine months without a clean break from the practice, we quickly and effectively burned out. We needed a vacation from each other, from our staff members (whom we love), and from our loving patients.
The decision to pinch pennies, stay home, and be a servant to our business nearly killed our business. The business, like a human, is a living breathing, eating, and sleeping being that needs tender loving care, or TLC, too. This means that, just like in a marriage, some time away now and then creates polarity and drive, as well as yearning.
Ever since that disastrous half-year stretch, we have committed to taking a week away from our business each quarter. We close all business e-mails, turn on the answering service, and send the staff members away for a week (with paid time off) to get their groove back as well.
Everybody comes back jazzed. Your clients come streaming back in wondering why you didn’t take two weeks instead of one! “You deserve it, Dr. Jay,” is the response I always get. As
for those raie clients who aie upset that you left? They don’t get it and they never will. It’s time to wave goodbye to them and welcome those who want a well-rested, “big-rock-loving” doctor.
The only people I ever get flak from ai e goofy friends who see me posting photos on Facebook with my family on the beach. Most people love relaxing photos of a baby rolling in the sand on the beach. You know what I tell the small percentage who don’t? I say, “Join me! I mean that! You need a vacation, friend, so join me in [Mexico or Belize or wherever Groupon is running a special].” Nobody ever does, though. Nearly everyone has an excuse for the “small rocks” that aie overrunning their lives. Steamrolling is a better word. Don’t get run over by sand and gravel rolling down the mountain.
You know who else appreciates when you come back after time oft? Your staff They love the guaranteed month of vacation a year. This leads to what always seems like the busiest week of the year and great momentum at the end (or start) of the next quarter. However you time this, I recommend you start with the big holidays: Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s. Which of these requires you tend to family? Do you get burned out going to Aunt Cindy’s every year? Then cross it off the list! Instead of going to the freezing Midwest or East Coast, head south to Jamaica. Start a new tradition. Perhaps everyone will follow you!
Then you can look at your patient flows. When does everyone vacate the state? Everyone leaves Colorado around Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, so we plan to be gone then too. Instead of suffering through a 20% drop in services, close down and say, “Hey, spend time with your family. See you in a week!” Sometimes you just have to say, “I’m out in September for four days for a wedding in Miami,” and then stretch that to a full week.
There is an alternate ending to the “big rocks” story that I love, and it is so fitting to our story as well.
After adding all of the sand, the professor asked, “Is the glass full?”
The class was divided— half had caught on and half saw it as being full.
Then the professor grabbed a beer, opened it, and dumped it into the jar. He said, “Nope. No matter how full your life is, there is always room for a beer in the sand! ”
The point is that you need to put your “big rocks” on your calendar now, or you will end up with a bottle of sand and gravel instead of beers on the beach.
Jay D. Breitlow, DC, is a former nuclear engineer and pessimist turned optimistic Chiropractor, entrepreneur, and coach. Dr. Jay believes there are teachings that come with every challenge of being authentically human, and all that's needed is a light to show us the path we are walking is divinely perfect. www.drtompreston.com 705-495-3330
