One Million and Beyond

The Value of a Vacation

By Matt - Monday, July 23rd, 2007

Taking time off or even going away for a vacation is something that most people look forward to, even if you don’t get away. The reason that most people enjoy taking time off is for the change in pace, in the ability to take a step back and take stock and of course the ability to just relax. So how valuable is that time off?

Well I would have to say main value of a vacation is non-monetary (though I’m sure it’s possible to attach money to this), but more valuable than money. A couple reasons why I personally value time off and vacations specifically are:

• Rest and relaxation (recharging the batteries)
• Finding the focus you lost
• Taking stock of life, work, etc.
• Getting caught up on life (summer vacation with the kids)
• Increased productivity
• A different perspective

One of the things I remember most from when I was a kid wasn’t going to school, or any of the cool toys I got, it was the summer vacations with my parents and vacations in general. The reason I remember them is it wasn’t the daily grind of going to school or even during the summer having my parents out all day long. It was a time to chill out and go somewhere. The change of pace was awesome and even welcome to me as a kid.

Now when I take a vacation I get inspired and get a new perspective on life more than just taking the time to relax. Having that time to take stock and look around you and question why and how you got to where you are is now important to me and extremely valuable. If I had children making sure to spend time with them would have a similar value to it. But how valuable is it? Its hard to assign a dollar figure to any of this and I could invent some numbers like being X% more effective translates to X$ but that means nothing in the long run.

The value of a vacation is in the memories, the moments of clarity and the experiences we have.

About the only thing that we need to keep in mind is to not go into debt for a vacation, they have the ability to cost an exceptional amount of money if we’re not careful. I know part of my initially getting into debt was because I traveled around in an inefficient manner. I can only imagine how fast the cost can increase when it’s a whole family of people.

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