Holiday weekends are supposed to be time for relaxation, downtime with family and friends. But not everyone is excited about taking time off. In fact, most entrepreneurs aren’t thinking about their vacation plans, they’re trying to cope with an additional load of stress. Kids are not in school and need extra attention. Investment deals slow down. Customer deals die. Employees go on vacation. Vendors take a break. Family obligations and events proliferate. For the entrepreneur, this can be torture. The entrepreneur’s calendar is put on hold until the rest of the normal world comes back from recess.

We don’t understand how the world could be so insensitive to our efforts by taking time off when we need to get shit done. Don’t they understand how important it is to keep the ball moving forward?

 There are no days off. Even when the rest of the world has the day off, we do not say to ourselves “No one is working anyway so it would be a good day to take a break.” Quite the contrary. We say to ourselves (because no one else is around), “This is the perfect time to get work done. The phone won’t be ringing and there will be no distractions.”

I used to say that my next venture would be to extend the twenty four hour day. If we can’t do that, we could try to eliminate all holidays—or at least Christmas and August—and get back to work. After all, we have a business to build! It’s difficult to let this perspective go—working harder than everyone else is part of our job, part of who we are. But think of a little time off as accomplishing something else: a change in perspective and environment can boost your creativity and energy, present a new solution to that unsolvable problem you’ve been battling, and give you the chance to do some very important work—strengthening relationships with the people who are supporting you the most.

Join our community here to receive daily The Lonely Entrepreneur Blog that helps with the struggle and empowers you to thrive.

[tell-a-friend id=”1″ title=”Tell a friend”]