You Shouldn't Take PTO

I hate the question “So are you traveling anywhere cool?” The problem is, I use it all the time. At some point, usually after college, we all forget how to talk to new people and default to asking about traveling. Vacations are the one thing that anyone loves to talk about. It is often talked about with people pulling up their phones with poorly taken shots of their trip. We all dream about the vacation we can take, the foreign country that we’ll visit and the food that we’ll eat. But a few weeks later, we end up right back in our home, waiting for the next vacation. So here’s my case against vacationing and how to do it smarter.

Focus on the 92%

In the US, most people get approximately 4 weeks off a year. Those 4 weeks off are comprised of Federal Holidays, sick days and sweet, sweet PTO. So what do we do the remaining 48 weeks of the year? We spend that time thinking about vacationing: where we’re going to go, what we’re going to do and who we’re going to spend time with. It seems completely backwards to spend the majority of our lives thinking about the 7.5% of time we have off. Yet, we spend >90% of our lives pushing ourselves through our miserable jobs to reach the weekend before we can sleep in, spend time with friends and dread Monday morning. Visions of traveling seem to be at the end of the tunnel, looking to be our saving grace. However, travel, like anything else, is a poor balm for the soul.

The desire for vacations can be boiled down to a desire for something that we don’t currently have. Desire can be simply defined as wanting something we don’t currently possess, status, security or something else entirely. Vacations can represent a chance to slow down, disconnect and explore something wondrous. Instead of seeking to implement these qualities into our everyday lives, we turn a blind eye to them and count the days until our next great trip. This draw for an external solution to solve an internal problem is insufficient. Vacations gives us a window to ignore the deeper issues lying beneath, strained relationships with family, unsatisfying work or an unsteady mental health. This isn’t to say that traveling is pointless or useless, far from it. Traveling is amazing to explore new experiences, but let’s make sure we are looking for the correct expectations.

Can You Retire Today?

Part of working long hours is the joke that “I can’t wait until retirement.” A rather depressing joke under the surface lies the truth, “I can’t stand my job.” There seems to be a sentiment or growing consensus that work sucks, but don’t worry, you’ll be able to enjoy life once you’re 65 and able to retire. Yet, there’s a strong voice in the back of your head whispering “It’s got to be better than this.” Finding work that you love is going to be different from quitting your job to start your own restaurant or yoga studio. To find fulfilling work requires intentionality.

The truth is you’ll never know what you want to do with your life. It seems completely backwards to ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, what they want to major in college and what they want to do after they graduate. Having gone through all those steps, coming out the other side has made it very clear. You’ll never know what you want to do, but that’s ok. You’ll have to try a lot of different things before you can figure out what you like, what you’re good at and what you hate. I remember talking to my cousin about if he likes his job as a doctor. The response, immediate and certain, “No, absolutely not. I can’t wait for retirement.” Working a prestigious career with high paying salaries doesn’t seem to worth it if you are going to be miserable every day. Yet we dismiss this notion and look forward to our next trip to Europe or Asia and get jealous of those who get to travel more often than we do.

So What Now?

Hopefully I’ve changed your mind on vacationing, but what now? You’ll finish reading this post and then close your email or browser and go back to your life before. What can you do?

• Take a step back and breathe. Give yourself some space to think clearly. Take a walk without your phone and let your mind wander. Giving your mind time to wander does great wonders.

• Figure out what you want your life to look like. Maybe you want to be a big time Hollywood executive, working on all the latest movies and TV shows. Maybe you want to be a digital nomad as you travel the world. Maybe you want to be working for a non-profit on a cause you really care about. Start there and work backwards.

• Build the skills to get towards that point. No one is going to hand you a dream occupation and lifestyle. The people who think that it works like that are going to be rudely awakened. Until you build the “career capital” to create the work-life that you want, you will be frustrated at figuring out how to build these lifestyles.

Before you book your next ticket for Bora Bora, figure out why you’re going. You’ll find it much more fulfilling then.

-Derek

Jack has a great post about traveling more. Highly recommended