In the News: Workers in Need of a Vacation

Last week I was interviewed by Kavita Gosyne of Metro News regarding vacation deprivation in Canadian working professionals. Her article "Workers in Need of a Vacation" appeared on June 14th. You can read a copy of the article at http://www.metronews.ca/column_the_graduate.asp?id=16788.

What's the state of vacation time in your life and work right now? Will you be taking a break this summer, or are you pushing through, finding it difficult to fit it in?

You are not alone if you can't manage to take all of your vacation. Last year, Canadian businesses saved $5 Billion on holiday time that was not taken by their workers (an average of 2 vacation day per Canadian worker). The full results of the Expedia Vacation Deprivation study that this is based on can be found at www.vacationdeprivation.com. Take a look - it's very interesting. Surveys were held with employed workers in the US, Canada, Germany, France and Australia.

As a coach working with clients on work-life balance I always like to ask, " What's the cost of not taking all of your vacation this year?". What's YOUR cost?

Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, CPCC
Potentials Realized

What's the Fire in Your Belly?

This weekend I had the opportunity to reconnect with my passion and vision for my life and work, at an extraordinary program run by Robin Sharma, the author of the Monk Who Stole His Ferrari. Every year he runs an exceptional 2.5 day public program entitled the Awakening Best Self Weekend here in Toronto. For more information on the work that Robin does, please visit his website: www.robinsharma.com. He also has a wonderful blog and podcasts regularly.

Throughout the weekend, as we moved through different exercises, I reconnected with my passion, what I also call the "fire in our belly". Passion is that driving force which keeps us moving forward with joy, energy, and zest. I feel that this was an added benefit for me in attending Robin's ABS weekend. He doesn't focus on passion explicity, but as we look at our vision for our business and work, passion for me comes hand in hand. Ask yourself....

What is your fire in your belly?

If you had unlimited resources, and knew that you would succeed, what would you do?

How do you fuel your fire? How do you keep your passion renewed?

If you are a leader or a parent, how do you support those around you in knowing and feeding their own passion?

I hope that these questions will provide you with some new places to look this week. Spend time to reconnect with your passion - where does that take you?

Jennifer
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Web: www.potentialsrealized.com