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Break-ations Are Essential By James Martell I've got to thank Hubert Humphrey for this one. Hubert was one of my early business mentors who always urged his business builders to reward themselves frequently with mini-vacations, he called "breakations". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primerica_Financial_Services
Now we take plenty of breaks as a reward for reaching milestones. Hubert was very big on setting goals as you can see from his photo to the left. It was his theory that by rewarding ourselves for goals achieved we'd be more productive. And I couldn't agree more. As typical working people in most western societies most get only the weekends off. And a huge segment of the population gets a pitiful 2-3 weeks a year for vacation. Of course, executive staff and senior people usually get more. But come on! Weekends are not vacations because usually your "work" shifts only from the workplace to the home, where a multitude of things require attention. Often the weekends can be as exhausting as weekdays! No, what I'm suggesting is a 3-4 day vacation every 2 months where no work is done, -- just play. Now this does not mean that longer vacations are out of the question. For if you can afford them, why not. In fact, over the years we've been fortunate enough to have both the time and the money to haul the kids off on a 10 day cruise, trips to Disney World in Florida as well as Disneyland in California.
And it can cost as little as $500 with a little ingenuity and planning. Just imagine for a minute what it would be like to simply drive two hours from home and stay at a hotel for even two nights, eating in restaurants and lounging by the pool. The key, of course, is to make it a reward to offset tendencies towards guilt of any kind. This can be tricky. You certainly won't get much benefit if you spend money you can't afford and avoid work that needs doing.
I personally find I get very motivated to complete tasks prior to any lengthy break. It pumps me up to finish up things I've been neglecting whenever a trip is coming up. Then when I'm away I feel at ease. And I usually find that upon arriving back home I've got ton's of energy and creative ideas for new projects. I highly suggest you find ways to use "breakations" in this way. You might be surprised at the results. And it might become a habit you won't want to "break"! All the best,
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So as Arlene and I have
gained financial success
with our Internet business
we've never forgotten
Hubert's admonition. 


