What is a vacation pill, you ask?

It’s the time that you earned from your job to step away from your job, to spend time doing the things you don’t give enough time to (yourself, your family, your interests), and totally disconnect from anything that resembles your career. 

According to the 2015 U.S. Travel Association’s Project: Time Off, a whopping 658 million days were unused, which translates to $223 billion in direct spending in the U.S. economy. Translated into jobs, this is the equivalent to 1.6 million jobs! (Wow!)

We all know that vacations are good for health reasons and so it’s worth mentioning again.

–  Reducing heart disease

–  Improving sleep

–  Improving diet (so long as you don’t over-indulge on vacation food)

–  Reduced muscle tension

–  Alleviate headaches

But why is this so? Contrasted to your job, being on vacation satisfies the core needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. These are the elements of our need to be happy as human beings.

If this isn’t reason enough, let me give you one more very compelling reason to take your vacation:

*** Your children are watching you.***

In the same study, kids between the ages of 8 and 14 were interviewed and most noted that they very much notice the stress that their parents are under. When asked how they’d like to spend quality time with their parents, they said:

On vacation…when they can get more of their parents’ dedicated attention.

This is not to make you feel guilty. Instead, I hope that this motivates you to take charge of your career, your free time, and your family time. You earned that precious time off.

Now – Go Take Your Medicine!