Tom Rohrer
PhD, MFT

Mailing Address
1250-I Newell Ave., No. 225
Walnut Creek, CA 94596

925-595-6433
Email:drtom@success
workscoaching.com
Web:www.successworks
coaching.com and
www.tomrohrer.com

As a performance coach and the owner of Success Works Coaching, Tom works with individuals, groups and businesses on a range of human performance issues.

Tom will help you get clarity on your goals and provide strategies to achieve them, while keeping a balanced and healthy lifestyle. Coaching will help you increase your happiness, health and success.

Through coaching, Tom will help you uncover your cognitive, emotional and psychological obstacles, develop your best personal structure and the strategies and tools for developing your optimum performance.

Focuses:
  * Building Resilience
  * Authentic Happiness
  * Conflict Resolution
  * Public Speaking
  * Sports Performance
  * Test/Evaluation Anxiety

For more information about Success Works Coaching visit www.success
workscoaching.com and
www.tomrohrer.com

925-595-6433
Email:drtom@success
workscoaching.com

In This Issue

Are you taking a vacation this summer? If not, you're not alone. Keep reading for 10 strategies that can help you take a break and recharge. As you read through the ezine, please don't hesitate to call if I can help.

Top 10 Ways to Take a Break
Beyond the Box
Relevant Reading
Today's Quote

Top 10 Ways to Take a Break

Many business owners and employees think taking time off means squandering opportunities, losing business or wasting money. But, if it's done right, taking time off can actually provide more energy, add a new perspective to old situations and increase effectiveness.

If you're one of those people who don't take all the time off you need, you're not alone.

In 2006 Expedia reported that 36% of people polled don't plan on using all their paid vacation days, and 37% never take more than a week off at a time. The Globe and Mail reports that in Japan a whopping 92% of workers never use their full 15 days of holidays.

Why Do We Need Breaks?
Taking breaks allows you to:

• Avoid burnout
• Find a fresh perspective
• Create space to generate new ideas
• Give yourself a pat on the back with a reward
• Improve your mental health

How to Give Yourself a Break
Since it can be a challenge to take time off, here are 10 strategies that can help:

1. Delegate. People are willing to help you achieve your respite from work. If you're an employee, coworkers can cover your back -- just make sure to give them and your boss enough notice. If you are an entrepreneur you likely have a support team in place to temporarily hand the reins.

2. Plan ahead. What stops many people from taking a break is money (or, more accurately, the lack of it). It's difficult to enjoy time off when you're worried about every nickel. This is why planning is critical. Set up an automatic withdrawal from your salary that goes directly into a high-interest savings account. It may surprise you how little you miss that money every month.

3. Go local. No money? The best things in life are free and often in your own back yard. Try a "staycation": vacation at home. Visit a local farmers market, have a picnic, read your favorite author or swing in a hammock. The key here is to set boundaries around work (a closed door to your home office is an amazingly easy boundary to respect), so that you aren't tempted to fire up the computer.

4. Work ahead. Working a couple of extra hours each week leading up to taking your break can provide a head start upon your return.

5. Organize. Organizing and de-cluttering the office space is a great idea. There's nothing more discouraging than returning from your relaxing break to find a cluttered mess.

6. Use your points. Use points accumulated on your credit card or rewards program to reward yourself "free" of charge.

7. Let go. It can be tough to hear, but it's true -- most of us are not indispensable. Accepting that fact can actually be liberating and lift a weight off weary, overburdened shoulders.

8. Use a calendar. Marking off long weekends, holidays and vacation weeks for the entire year creates a road map of time off and work.

9. Plan for and take sick days. If you are your own boss, you may recall the "good ole" days of calling in sick (even if you weren't). Now that you're the boss, you never get sick, right? Of course you do. So plan for it. Decide how many sick days to give yourself and then record them, and keep track of them, on your calendar. That way you're more likely to give yourself permission to take a break when you need it. Also, whether you are the boss or an employee, if you're feeling under the weather, you are probably better off taking a sick day and staying in bed than pushing through when you're not at your best.

10. Don't rush it. Rushing off to the airport right out of the office is asking for stress. Finishing up that last bit of work before getting into rush-hour traffic shoots up anxiety levels when you should be winding down.

Whether you run a multimillion-dollar company or work for one, everyone needs regular breaks. Not taking time off is like not taking time to sleep—willpower and adrenaline only take you so far. There really is no excuse for not taking a break. In fact, it's one of the best ways to help increase your value.

The following questions are designed to broaden perspectives, to open vistas, to widen the lens. There is no one right way to approach them. You can journal about them, talk to friends, create art, ponder them while driving, work out to them--whatever helps you explore "outside the box."

1. Do you regularly take breaks? Why or why not?
   
   
2. What would have to change in order for you to take a vacation?
   
   
3. What is your favorite thing to do on vacation? Are you willing to give yourself that this year?

Relevant Reading

101 Ways to Have a Business and a Life, by Andrew Griffiths

The Secrets of CEOs: 150 Global Chief Executives Lift the Lid on Business, Life and Leadership, by Steve Tappin and Andrew Cave

Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty: The New Rules for Getting the Right Things Done in Difficult Times, by Ram Charan

Today's Quote

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."
~Albert Schweitzer

Copyright 2010 Claire Communications