The Value of Time Off

It’s been just over a year since my motorcycle accident on September 20, 2008. I had a tib/fib compound fracture that resulted in having a large rod placed in my tibia through my knee and 4 big ol’ screws to hold it all in place.  I had just really gotten into running. I had lost over 40 pounds and had just completed my first 5K (the Nike Human Race a few weeks before the accident). I was planning on doing a half-marathon the day after my 40th birthday in late November, but obviously that never happened.  What did happen was…

- My grandmother passed away 2 weeks after the wreck, I got very depressed
- That depression led to eating and zero motivation for much of anything
- I gained 40 pounds back after sitting around and eating

I know… poor me. Well, no longer. I’m finally coming out of the fog of this difficult past year and getting back to life. Sure, I could have gone to the gym and worked on abs and upper body, but I didn’t. I just didn’t have it in me. Finally a few weeks ago while in Phoenix for a workshop, I took out my Nike+ shoes and did 3 miles along the riverwalk in Tempe. It was hard to do. I had still been walking with a limp and doing 3 miles two mornings in a row made it worse. Those darn screws were pressing on nerves and muscles, etc.

Fortunately, I was able to have the 4 screws removed this afternoon. As I sit here on pain medication, I’m thinking this is sort of a two steps forward, one step back kind of deal. It will be worth it. I just know it. I’m going to get back in shape and get my life back. Since we don’t have cable or satellite, I watch Apple TV a lot. One of my favorite channels are the TED talks podcast (in HD of course). After sitting through a TED talk, you just seem to feel smarter. Anyway, it was perfect timing that I saw one titled The Value of Time Off.

I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while now – Time off. I’m all about Stephen Covey’s Habit #7: Sharpen the Saw. I advocate it to friends and loved ones all the time. I’ve been doing my best to incorporate and integrate lots of saw-sharpening activity into my daily and weekly life.  After watching the video embedded below, I can see it’s now time to take my saw-sharpening to a new level. This TED video may be one of my all time favorites. God bless Stefan Sagmeister for his unconventional approach to living life and taking time off. Every seven years, he closes his design studio in NYC for a whole year.

Let that sink in.

He closes his studio/livelihood/business-with-clients for a whole year every seven years.

Once you’ve let all those silly, nagging-but-seemingly-important questions come into your mind, really think about it. How cool would it be to take a year off? You’ll see how he brilliantly explains borrowing a few years from “the retirement years” and inserts them into “the working years”. I’m already formulating a plan to do something similar. I’ll start with taking a day or maybe even two each week, then hopefully move to one week a month, then a whole month a year. Since I’m married and have young children, a whole year off might not work out so well, at least for traveling abroad for the entire time.

My thinking is so much clearer after taking time off – typically doing something that has nothing to do with my work. I love what I do and the clients I work with. I’m passionate about what I do and would definitely derive pleasure out of doing creative consulting even if it didn’t pay.  This new game plan is sure to make me a better person spiritually, relationally, creatively and professionally. Check out the video below. By the way, TED stands for Technology, Education and Design. If you don’t know what TED is, this TED talk will definitely make you an instant fan.  I encourage you to get their daily question widget too.