The ROI of R&R
by Peter McLaughlin and Peter McLaughlin, Jr.

I spend a huge amount of time teaching people how to create more personal energy so they can invent exciting products, build high-performing teams, and drive great results. One essential facet to the high-energy equation is practicing recovery mechanisms such as sleep, recreation, and vacation – which is a particularly relevant theme for the holiday season.

Holidays and vacations help you maintain a fresh and balanced outlook in your life. They offer an ideal opportunity to relax, reflect, and renew your sense of vitality. And while the number one reason to celebrate the holidays is for the sake of celebration and communion, a good vacation will also clear out the dust and cobwebs collecting in your brain, and engender a clear and sparkling psyche. Properly spent, your holiday time will recharge your batteries and allow you to explode into 2003 with renewed energy and creativity – a benefit we call the “ROI of R&R.”

One of the more insightful people I’ve interviewed on this subject was Brian Fugere, Global Marketing Director for Deloitte Consulting. “We have a demanding job, and so I really think it’s important to take vacations,” Fugere told me. For Fugere, vacations offer a perfect chance to hike, ski, and spend time with his wife and four kids. His vacations liberate his mind from the day-to-day grind, and rekindle a sense of balance that improves his overall commerce with life. “I’m just better at everything,” says Fugere. “I mean every aspect of my life is better. My work, my relationship with my wife, my relationship with my kids, my own feeling of self – everything’s better. When you have this sense of balance in your life, you feel much more confident about doing anything. It kind of clicks.”

As powerful as this sense of balance is, the ROI of good vacations doesn’t end there for Fugere. He finds that taking time off affords him insight into his challenges and opportunities at work. “I do some of my best thinking during or right after vacation, because my mind gets uncluttered and I’m able to think a lot more clearly about what’s really important and what I really ought to be doing,” says Fugere. “I think I’ve had more truly innovative ideas in and around vacation than any other time.”

Years ago I played the role of “Dr. Christmas” on a series of radio broadcasts. I used to point out that many traditions don’t celebrate the winter solstice ceremony with a single day, but with a string of days devoted to relaxation and revelry in anticipation of the coming days of greater light and warmth. The twelve days of Christmas, the eight days of Hanukkah, the seven-day celebration of Kwanzaa, the month of Ramadan, the nine nights of Los Posados in Mexico all follow this multi-day agenda. My advice, as your peak performance expert, is to tap into this traditional wisdom, take several days off, and have yourself some serious fun. Ski, dine, read, drink, sleep, relax, play with your kids, exercise, dance, play chess, go to the movies.

Don’t let yourself get caught up in a shopping frenzy, or roped into attending a series of boring holiday events. Sure, you may have to attend some gatherings that you aren’t crazy about, because it’s your duty and you’ll face excommunication if you don’t. But carve out time for activities you relish, and ruthlessly hold yourself to an aggressive quota of relaxation and fun.

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