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Give Me a BreakSurvey after survey shows that people today are giving short shrift to the time-honored
tradition of summer vacation, choosing instead to forfeit their hard-earned paid vacation days. For a few, it’s due to an overactive ego – they really think the company can’t manage without them. For some, it’s the fear that others will get a jump on them in a hypercompetitive workplace. But for most, it’s the belief that taking time away from work will only dig them farther into the hole they can never seem to get out of – buried
beneath piles of papers and inboxes stuffed with unread emails. You would think that we self-employed folks would be immune to this craziness – but alas, we are not. So the realization was slow in dawning on me this summer: I haven’t taken a real vacation from work in four years! Somehow, though, my “innate mind” was telling me I needed a break, and without really making a conscious choice, I had slowed
way down as the temperatures rose. By the Fourth of July, I had to declare it: it’s summer, and dammit, I’m on vacation. Well, sort of. I’m taking time in the cool early mornings to work in my garden, and going down to the beach with my dog in the sultry late afternoons (she swims and digs while I chat with neighbors.) There are long evenings on a neighbor’s front porch and
Wednesday nights down on the dock watching the sailboat races. I’m doing what we all used to do before air-conditioning: slowing down for the summer. The funny thing is, when I do that, work doesn’t feel like “work,” probably because I have given myself permission to take it easy. I’m still working, but I’m being much more selective in what I do and how I do it – my work and all the activities that comprise running even a small professional practice.
Sure, I can still do everything I want to – I just don’t have to do it all at the same time. And if I don’t get around to everything…oh well. September will be here soon enough. What I have lost is the anxiety and the busyness. What I have gained is a renewal of my noticing powers and my reflective capacities. As the commercial says, “priceless.” I realize this is hard to do in an organizational setting, but then again, remember when
Fridays in summer were short workdays so everyone could leave early for the beach? Or when there was a regular executive golf day once a week? Even today, if you want to get something done on a Wednesday afternoon in summer in my town, you can forget it – everyone’s rounding up crew for the Wednesday night sailing races. And why are there all those well-publicized lists for “summer reading” if nobody’s doing any
reading anymore? I suspect there are more than a few closet “summer slackers” out there still. I think we can go back to a simpler time, but only if we choose what we attend to – or don’t. So instead of packing my bags and heading for a far-off vacation destination, I’ll be taking my vacation right here at home this summer. I invite you to try it yourself – slow down, take a break, and enjoy the pleasures of your own garden, whatever may grow in it.
Coaching is a great way of giving yourself the gift of reflection and insight, commodities that are hard to come by in the midst of all that busyness. If you’re tired of feeling overwhelmed by deadlines or a punishing workload, let’s talk about how coaching can work for you. Call (410)626-6008, or email info@bloomfieldassociates.com. 
Even if you’re stuck at the office for the rest of the summer, you can always find a way to take a little break. Here are some ideas for pausing to enjoy the season, however briefly: - Go outside at lunch or sometime during the day and find a quiet, shaded spot to sit for a few minutes. Clear your mind and listen to the birds. If your attention wanders, bring it back to the sounds the birds are making.
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Plan your out-of-office meetings for mid-afternoon, and then head straight home afterwards; DO NOT go back to the office to check your email.
- When you get home in the evening, take off your shoes and walk barefoot in the grass…without your cell phone.
- Instead of grabbing a latte and a muffin on the way to work, stay home and eat breakfast on the patio once or twice a week. Wait until the tail end of rush hour to start your commute...you might even
find you get there at the same time you always do.
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The stock prices of companies with high morale outperformed the stocks of other companies in the same industries by more than 2.5-to-1 during 2004, according to a recent study. The volume of e-mail sent annually worldwide exceeded one billion gigabytes for the first
time last year. Fully 56% of online teens in the US have more than one email address or screen name and most use different screen names or email addresses to compartmentalize different parts of their lives online, or so that they can experiment with different personas. Boys report having multiple email addresses or screen names more often than girls. 
Generation We In a recent Fast Company online column, trend-spotter Mary Meehan writes about “Gen We” -- the 0-10 age group -- who have over $18 billion in spending power today. She sees them as “tech-native, media-smart, artistically inclined, spiritual, pancultural, and culturally identified.” The children of Gen-Xers and Millenials, they are the first
generation to be born into a truly global marketplace, where diversity rules and there’s no such thing as “mainstream” or “alternative” – they’re all just choices. 
 Mad Hot Ballroom, directed by Marilyn Agrelo. What I like about it: The music! The dancing! The kids! This documentary film, about the fifth graders in New York City public schools who participate in a ballroom dancing program and city-wide competition, is hot! Look for it
at an arthouse theater near you, it’s this year’s sleeper. It’s a terrific coaching movie, focused on self-awareness, self-discipline, and great teamwork. For Newfield grads: yes, there’s plenty of Latin dancing.
Beth Bloomfield
Executive Coach, Strategy Consultant
Principal, Bloomfield Associates  Freakonomics, A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of
Everything, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. What I like about it: It’s about an economist who does not accept the “conventional wisdom” – he asks questions and thinks about what else is possible. He contrasts morality (representing how we would like the world to work) and economics (how the world actually works). With great anecdotes, research and some new thinking he talks about how incentives really shape human behavior.
Nancy K. Eberhardt
Executive Coach & Consultant
Pathwise Partners, LLC Share what you’re into — books, articles, movies, music, websites — with others on the list! Send us the title and author or other pertinent information, along with a sentence or two on what you like about it, and if we use it in A Different Optic we’ll not only quote you, we’ll provide a link to you or your website. |
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“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”
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After receiving many inquiries from students and new coaches about her popular teleclinic “Build Your Executive Coaching Practice,” Beth Bloomfield is offering another running after all, provided there is enough interest to fill the group. If you think you may want to participate, please contact Beth at (410) 626-6008. |
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