Until now, the longest vacation I took was 10 days in a row, in the end of 2001 when my wife and I went to Hawaii.  Since then, I might have taken a day or two here and there, but I almost always put in several hours of work – stealing the time from my family.

I didn’t do that this time.  I basically “unplugged” – I didn’t spend a lot of time on Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn, I only checked email now and then, and there were a few nights where I went to bed late, but most of the time I focused on creating memories with my kids; even simple things like swimming in the pool or going for ice cream.  It might sound small to you, but it made a big difference to them.  And that’s what counts.

The best parts of the vacation were free, or were a very small cost – I’ll never forget my youngest daughter swimming in the pool saying “Marco” for 15 minutes with a little smile on her face, while my son & I shouted “Polo” trying to avoid her!

I also developed some ideas for my businesses that I will be releasing in the next 27 days, so stay tuned for those.

Action Step:

Leaving Footprints – how indelible will your mark be?

Why are you working?  You don’t need to do a deep psycho-analysis on yourself to come up with answers that really matter.  Just keep it simple.  At the end of the day, after I achieve my financial goals, the reason I am working is so that I can spend more time like I did this past month.

What about you?  Why are you working?  When was the last time you took a vacation, and what happened (good or bad) as a result?  Post a short-version of why you do what you do, and what you are doing that will help you get there faster, and share it with the other readers.