When is the last time you took a break?

When is the last time you stepped away, if even more a few minutes? Can you even remember the last time you took an hour for yourself? How about a half day? Have you ever taken a full day or multiple days to yourself or with your spouse or a friend?

As I write…

Amy and I are in Charlotte, flying back from a week in Turks and Caicos to celebrate her 50th birthday. I will always take time away with the Fabulous Amy Recker. It is amazing to me how we continue to enjoy time together more and more as we go along on our journey together.

Spoiler alert…

The trip was amazing. If you have been to Turks, you know that the water is stunning, the pace of life is slow, and the food, while pricey, is exceptional. We ate, we rested, we recovered. In short, we loitered. This trip was truly everything we hoped it would be.

Something was different this time…

Seemingly every time I go on a vacation, I am basically coasting in on fumes. I have spent all my energy getting everything prepared before leaving, keeping long hours in advance, and having almost nothing left in the tank when we leave. It seems like it would always take two or three days to get uncorked and actually enjoy the vacation.

That was not the case this time… why?

The truth is that I have been taking better care of myself. I have been observing sabbath and using it as a time to rest, read, reflect, and slow down. I have been taking time to rest at lunch if I have a few minutes. One of the biggest changes is that I have been making a concerted effort to not be so hard on myself (that one is the hardest for me.) The truth is that I didn’t need this vacation as much as I have in the past.

Don’t get me wrong…

It was one of the best vacations I have ever had for many reasons, but one of the biggest is that I didn’t coast into it on fumes. I was super excited to go, but I had a little in the tank as we left because I have been taking better care of myself.

As I speak to numerous groups…

We talk about the benefits of a one-week vacation, and those benefits are significant and numerous. The reality is that we don’t get very many of those. What we do get is 52 Tuesdays in a year. I am much more interested in what you are doing on a Tuesday to take care of yourself vs a one-week vacation. What would it be like if you got really good at taking care of yourself so that you could enjoy the entire one-week vacation?

How would I even do that?

You have to be a little bit selfish so that you can be selfless. You have to take care of yourself, put your oxygen mask on first, so that you can help someone else with theirs. We are useless to others if we don’t take care of ourselves.

But Eric, I don’t have any time for that…

Guess what? That is an EXCUSE! How do i know? I have used them all. You do have time for self care. You just aren’t prioritizing it. So here’s my challenge for you this month.

Find 15 minutes every day…

You have 15 minutes to use for self-care. Yes you do. You have 15 minutes every. Choose each and every day to d o something that fills your bucket for 15 minutes. Over a week that is almost 2 hours and in a month that is almost 8 hours. What would your month look like if you took 8 hours to take care of yourself? What am I supposed to do for the 15 minutes?  If you don’t have any ideas, check out this list and then share the link with a friend who you think could do a better job of taking care of themselves.

Think of how amazing vacation could be…

If you really didn’t feel like you needed it? If we don’t take care of ourselves, eventually our body will shut down. We won’t have a choice. I don’t know about you, but I would rather do an amazing job taking care of myself than wait for my body to revolt. If you need some help strategizing how to find time for self care, let’s talk. There is an amazing life out there. You will only find it with intentionality.