I am really bad at vacation. It isn’t fun for me to take. I have trouble leaving work behind.

There are several reasons for this. I enjoy my work. My work is spiritually and intellectually challenging and I get a lot out of it. I also feel that there is always more to do. And this leads me to believe that I can’t ever leave it.

This sense of needing to work means that I also plan for my departure and rush back in, trying to solve any problems that may have arisen while I was gone (they rarely do).

The only way to get better at leaving work for vacation is by making some very practical and intentional decisions:

1. I don’t double up my work – No newsletter for the week I’m gone or extra bulletins. The congregation has to sense my absence as much as I must be absent. I must be able to work a normal week and then leave.
2. The day I return is not a catch up day – I go back to work as if it were any other Monday or Tuesday. It is not a day to tackle stacks of papers and hear about how the place almost fell apart without me. Because there is a 0.17% likelihood of that actually happening.
3. I must feel confident enough to not fear email – Emergencies are emergencies. However, I should feel confident that when I open up my email during vacation, what I find there won’t bring the stress back. And the world shouldn’t collapse if I never check it.
4. To love my family, I must be loving them – I can’t love my family if I’m busy with your stuff or with my own stuff. I can’t be with them if my brain is somewhere else, dealing with things that really can and must wait until I get back.
5. Getting out of town – Staycations don’t work for leaders, particularly clergy. Especially those of us with children. We have to get our butts out of town to separate from the temptation of work.
6. Putting ourselves first (sort of) – Many leaders need to be able to say no. But we also need to be reminded that putting GOD first actually means maintaining our health. We need to be able to take a stand for our own health and make that a priority. Otherwise, we aren’t good for anyone.

I intentionally decide to do these things because the pressure to make vacation the villain in my mind’s comic book is too great. It is so easy to believe that if I just keep working all the time, I am actually choosing the best option. It isn’t.

To summarize, the key is to treat the time around vacation time as normal and the vacation is true time away. Don’t make work harder to leave, just leave it. Our need for leaving things as they are is an essential part of vacation. To go away without exhausting yourself before you go or dreading the return to the grind. To just take the time off and go. We are called to work, not to perfect.