Committed to Vacationing.

   The last couple of days have been stressful to say the least. I talk and blog a lot on stress. It’s actually my favorite topic. Why? Because everyone can relate to it. Everyone has experienced it in some capacity. Some worse than others. I have said before that you can not avoid stress, it’s impossible. But it is how you are going to respond or react to it that makes all the difference. This week I have been thinking that I need to respond with a vacation. And it reminded me of a funny little story that Im going to tell you in a little bit. My wife and I have made vacationing a priority. You wouldn’t believe the number of people I meet that have all of these vacation stored up from work that they have not used. Vacations are essential for eliminating stress, avoiding burnout, and in maintaining healthy relationships. I often think what are you storing them up for? It doesn’t make sense to go years without a vacation. Now a vacation doesn’t have to be extravagant, it can just be a staycation. But take them! No job is as important as your family life and health.
   Now on to the story and then I will tie it all back in, or at least try. My wife and I were on a vacation a few years ago staying at a timeshare that my parents own. And like every timeshare they had a presentation that if you went to it you would get a gift for sitting through it. Now most people loathe these timeshare presentations, but I thought I had the perfect excuse on why I wasn’t buying, my parents already owned there. It didn’t go quite as smooth as I thought it would.
   I should have headed the warning that the inedible powdered eggs gave me when we first got there. But I didn’t. And once we got face to face with the closer. I went straight to my plan, my parents already own here, I can go here any time I want, yada yada… She did not like my answer though, so we went back and forth. Crossing out price after price after price. Explaining once again, it didn’t matter what price she put on the paper. Finally she went to the big guns, she went and got her manager. And I told her the same story that I had told her coworker for the last two hours. She also did not like my answer and looked over at her co worker and said “I guess the Sanford’s just aren’t committed to vacationing.” My first thought was did she really just say that? What nerve? She DON’T KNOW ME! And actually that was my thought for the rest of the trip. But we got our gift, which was a good one that we could use on the current vacation and went on our way. It took me a while, cooling off period, to think more about her rude little remark. But then I asked myself am I committed to vacationing? When my office gets busy, life gets busy, am I committed? From that point on my wife and I made a commitment to vacationing. And there have been times where we have taken vacations that were not the most “practical” time to take a vacation. But again we are committed. I know being committed to vacationing sounds funny. But you know what sounds even funnier? Having stored up vacation days from not taking a vacation for years.