JJ's (June 2012) Tips in this issue: 1. Breaks & Life/Work Balance ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Use the following tips as training tools. Present this situation to your group and brainstorm solutions together, or submit your own situation question to be answered in an upcoming newsletter. ------------------------------------- With the workload that so many of us have now, how can we have any kind of life/work balance? --------------------- It is not uncommon to see people performing two jobs instead of one now. If you survived layoffs and company downsizing in the past few years during the down economy, you are probably one of them. Many of my clients, friends and family have found themselves working around the clock and even on weekends. They are exhausted and stressed! They have been relying on massages, doctor visits and quick trips to the gym to keep themselves functioning. Last month's e-letter was on "Taking A Break" from work. A number of readers wrote that they liked what was said. One was from Connie Stickney and she said it so well I asked if I could quote her. With her permission, she wrote: "JJ –
Thanks for the newsletter. I read it each time it comes out and have to say Amen! to the vacation piece. I just got back from a week long vacation with my daughters and have not felt this relaxed and focused in years. It has been a tough few years at work and personally, and you could almost hear the springs getting wound tighter and tighter. We all needed the break and so glad we took it! I also left work at home and didn't take any with me. It was great. You're right in that those long weekends might help, but they are just a bandaid. If you don't take time for yourself – I mean truly find the time – your health, emotional status and everything around you suffers.
Thanks for sharing. Everyone who wrote had something similar to say and they too were finding the tremendous benefits of making time for breaks. My husband and I just returned from a long weekend break. We were invited to a surprise 50th birthday party of a close friend. It was to start with thirty of us traveling a couple of hours to go on a safari to see wild animals and then on to a timeshare a few miles away for a potluck birthday party. This was the second time we had been invited to go on this northern California safari, but had declined the first time because I feared it would trigger my dust allergy. Sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind and go…..and that's what we did. As our group loaded into three open trucks, some people sat on the top and the rest sat on elevated seats inside the truck. We were instructed to stay in the trucks and not extend our arms or heads outside of it. We were told we would be driving right up to the wild animals and they would not charge the truck. Needless to say, we followed their instructions! The ostriches and the giraffes were so close that I thought they were going to climb onboard with us. Many of the other big animals with their huge horns were not so friendly so our drivers cautiously drove through their areas. Talk about changing your scenery when you take a break, this seemed like a different world and so far away from work or home. At the party we decorated for the birthday and put out lots of great food. Then we danced, showed pictures of the birthday girl with many of us in them from past dances and picnics. We made her and everyone there feel very special as we laughed and joked around with each other. We couldn't stay over night as we had a family birthday party to attend back in San Jose the next day. We celebrated our grandson's 13th birthday around a pool with kids diving and splashing water everywhere. Then the adults and kids danced together on the lawn and around the pool. There was no doubt that everyone felt very special to be apart of the celebration. When we finally returned home, I said to Scott, "It's sure good to be home!" and he said, "If you don't get away, you don't appreciate your home and work as much." Taking a break can make you physically tired, but it does recharge you in other ways. It gives you a new perspective. It makes you feel special and ultimately more thankful for your life and work. After a good nights rest, you have new energy at work. Show your internal and external customers how special they are too. You can have your turn over a weekend and then make it theirs. Treat them the way your friends and family treated you! Make them feel special! Don't be a workaholic…take your breaks! Then you'll find better work/life balance! "The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs." "The time to relax is when you don't have time for it." "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EVALUATION OF YOUR ENVIRONMENT Have you had an Evaluation of Your Environment lately so you could receive suggestions on improving it? (It's like the doctor's check up, you often don't know you need it, until after you've had it.) http://www.jjlauderbaugh.com/about.html **************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------- |