Derek Peterson says:

Now that I know what it is, I will take a “vacation” from my duties to consider your question. And, I am off to mow the yard…

I am back… That was a great “vacation,” in and of itself. I had a “vacation” inside of my “vacation.” And I think that is what I discovered.

If I think of the media’s portrayal of “vacation,” where one sits around the pool, drink too much alcohol, gets a sunburn, spends too much money, and then takes 20 weeks to pay off the bills that were accumulated from the “time off,” then I have never had a vacation in my life, nor do I know of anyone who has ever had a vacation. Frankly, I have no role models for it.

Now, if it is rest I get 7.5-10 hours a sleep a night, depending on where I am, and what I am doing. When I am in the wilderness for extended periods of time, I can often sleep for 12 hours of deep, deep sleep.

If it is recreation, well that comes in the form of being with family, being with clients “off the clock” and connecting, being active and alive in the world – re creating my thinking, recreating my family and friendship ties, re creating my physical body, re creating my belief in God and what She/He expects of me, etc.

If it is travel, that could come from listening to some great music that carries me to a different time in my life, or a new perspective on things. It could be riding my bike in a new location, or goig for a drive in a new neighborhood in my own town – I call that “pioneering.” (My grandpa used to call it that. He was a farmer, born and died in the same house, and he’d take me “pioneering” – sometimes just 30 minutes from the farm, and we’d see learn more about our own backyard, or see what we’d seen before, through new eyes.

When my life is viewed through the eyes of those who are “employed” and have a promised and expected paycheck, my life can look either frantic or totally free, depending on the beholder. (I have heard both descriptions of my life – and I figure that I am balanced because the judgeship is coming in at about 50% frantic and 50% totally free.)

Some tricks I use.
Because I think people want and should respect a feedback loop when reaching out to me, I often use auto reply on my email, letting people know that it will be a certain amount of time before I can get back to them. I use voice mail to do the same. I let my customers and clients know, sometimes 6 months in advance, when I will be “on the dark side of the moon.” (Baby boomers like me will remember that from Apollo mission days, when the astronauts could not communicate with Mission Control as they circled the backside of the moon.)

I do my best to combine “vacations” wherever I go. The Opera when working in Saint Paul, snowboarding when working in Salt Lake City, a night at the Bluebird Cafe when working in Nashville, SCUBA diving in the Georgia Aquarium, when working in Atlanta, dog mushing when working in northern Alaska, and building an adobe home when working in northern Mexico.

freedom or release… for me a vacation is freedom from any expectations from others that “limit me and my potential.” It is also a release of the tiny little silly noisy voices inside my own head, that tell me that I should be someone other than the person I am becoming.

I have been an entrepreneur, not because I saw it as a way to acquire the things that money could buy. I am an entrepreneur because it allows me 500 “vacations” or more a year, to become a better man than I am. Allowing me to move onward… forever and always onward… the only direction there is to go.

Naomi Niles says:

For me, the thought of leaving business for an extended amount of time is terrifying. Probably it’s because I don’t have a person to take care of things when I’m gone and when I get back, I’ll be running behind for a very long time.

However, I like what Derek says. Perhaps it’s the little “vacations” that count. For example, if I want to take off early at 3:30pm to go have a walk with my husband, I can.