Take a well timed vacation. It can be incredibly powerful. Vacations can be surprisingly helpful for several reasons:
1. Energizing: You get to recharge your batteries.
2. Encouraging: It reminds you of one of the reasons why you work so hard.
3. Enlightening: Vacations expand your vision of what is possible.
4. Emotionally Healthy: Enjoying the prosperity you have been blessed with is healthy.
5. Efficiency Accelerator: You are capable of incredible levels of productivity, such as the day before a vacation.
6. Educational: You are often forced to get things done without your physical presence which is a great way to improve your delegation skills
But with all that power comes responsibility. You have to time your vacations well or else you may end up further behind then when you started. But when you time it right, the results can be spectacular. As Paul Orfalea once said, "Don't underestimate the power of a well timed vacation."
I'm coming to you from a vacation in Islamorado, Florida. I've been fishing on the flats here behind me and I want to share with you something that actually my mentor shared with me on the power of vacations. That's right, vacations can be powerful. We're going to talk about those.
Six Ways That a Vacation Can Be Extremely Helpful to You:
Energizing
The first and the most obvious is that it's energizing. Meaning that it recharges your batteries. You know if you are stressed for a very long period of time, that has all kinds of negative consequences. First of all, it's bad from a health standpoint, but it's also bad in that over time as you get warned down from all that stress ... You know what it can do? It can force you to make bad decisions. Have you ever noticed that one bad decision can have all kinds of repercussions, so vacations help you recharge your battery. They're energizing and when you get done with a vacation, if it's been done right, hopefully you're more relaxed and then you can make better decisions.
Encouraging
It's also encouraging. Because it reminds you of what you're working so hard for. It reminds you and it rewards you. Just like you do with your kids. That's the way humans and our brains work, is we need to be rewarded when we work really hard. Definitely reward yourself.
Enlightening
My mentor was really big on vacations and one of the reasons was not only the two I just gave you but this is a big one, number three it's enlightening. What do you see when you're on a great vacation? You see wealthy people. You see big boats and you see just the beauty of nature and you see so many things that can help expand your vision of what's truly possible and what you can actually do in your life.
Example
I got a great story for you. My first real big vacation as a young adult was in college at spring break. A friend of mine had invited several of us to her, get this, her dad's six million dollar home in Naples. They had a two million dollar yacht sitting there. Here was the plan. All we had to do was get our butts to Naples and then we would then board their private yacht they had and we'd go all the way to Key West. Hang out in Key West for a week and come back. We get to Naples. This was the first time I'd ever really seen wealth before and there's this enormous home on the water in Naples and I remember being just awestruck.
Well at dinner the night before we were to leave on the yacht, I remember asking a question like, "Well have y'all had this house a long time and did y'all grow up here?" That sort of thing and they looked at me crazy. They said well ... This was the father, he said, "You know when my wife and I first got married we were living in a trailer." A trailer! I mean it just took me completely by surprise. Throughout dinner he shared with me how they got to where they were. Literally in the span of twenty years this person had become extremely wealthy. It was a game changer for me. Because it showed me what was possible. It enlarged my vision. It showed me that it could be done. I remember that was really the catalyst to really get it started for me in my life as far as wanting to be wealthy. I said, "Well if that guy can do it, I can certainty do it." So a vacation can be enlightening, because it can expand your vision.
Emotional
It can also be emotionally healthy. Because I have met some people that they feel bad about going on a vacation because maybe their friends or their family don't have the same kind of financial situations so they can't do it. They feel bad and they feel guilty. Maybe just because on a larger scale, there's billions of people in this world that don't have the kind of finances that could swing some exotic vacation. You know that's an unhealthy relationship with money. Yes, give, donate, give back, but also have the ability to enjoy the blessings that you've been bestowed upon. Take a vacation because it's emotionally healthy.
Efficiency
It's also, and get this it's an interesting one, it's an efficiency accelerator. It can speed up or accelerate your ability to be more efficient. How so? Have you ever noticed right before a vacation you get incredibly efficient? You prioritize, you get things done quickly, the things that shouldn't get done you put those off to the side, you get everything packed and you get everything organized, and you get everything done. That needs to get done in order for you to get onto that airplane or for you to take off on that trip.
Tip:
Well it was Zig Ziglar, one of his great time management tips was this. He said that you should treat every day as if it's the day before you're going on a vacation. Why? Because you're so efficient then. What I want you to do next time you're going on a vacation is the day before take a mental note of what you're doing differently and bring that into other parts of your life and in fact almost everyday. Now obviously it can't be everyday, because you can't always be just on totally efficient. Because sometimes you need to read and you need to educate, but by and large you can learn so much from yourself and your ability to get so much done the day before a vacation.
Educational
That brings up the last one. Which is a vacation can be extremely educational. This is an interesting phenomenon that real estate investors can attest to and that's this. When you go on a vacation it's usually like as soon as you get to the hotel and what not. All the sudden you get a text, an email, a phone call and the greatest opportunity ever has just dropped in your lap. Has that ever happened to you? It's definitely happened to me before.
Example
When I first started taking vacations I had a real problem because I didn't know how to manage that opportunity. How to take advantage of it. Well over time I learned, I was forced to learn how to delegate and get other people to do things for me because I wasn't there and that is how it can be so educational for you. It can help you, it can force you to be a better delegator. I'm not just saying that you go hire a bunch of staff. I mean in a real estate deal being able to push off work on the closing company, on the mortgage broker, on these different parties that play a role, that way you become a better delegator. Because we all know this to be true and that is the people that are the most wealthy have the most delegation skills and are getting a lot of other people to get things done for them. It can be extremely educational.
Time it Right
Let's go back over the big six there. Six reasons why a vacation can be so powerful and so helpful for you. It can be energizing, it can be encouraging, it can be enlightening, it can be an efficient accelerator, it can be emotionally healthy and it can be educational. But with all that power comes responsibility. Because you've got to time it well. Paul Orfalea he was the founder of Kinko's which is now Fed Ex Office and he said, "Do not underestimate the power of a well timed vacation." Well timed. You've got to be strategic of when you take that vacation. Because it could go the other way.
Bad Timed Vacation
I mean if you take a vacation and you do it at the wrong time it can cause all kinds of problems. Not to mention the fact that you've lost a ton of money from going on vacation at the wrong time, but also maybe you left a lot of things hanging and then all the sudden they're worse off than when you left and so now all the sudden you've got this big mess when you get home. Well you're more stressed than when you left, so you've got to time it well.
Helpful Suggestions
- For me, I like to only go on vacations during the middle of the month in most cases. Not the beginning or the end.
- Because in real estate that's when the closings occur.
- Although you can be a great delegator, it's still a very good idea to be on the ground when a deal is closing in most cases.
- I like to go the locations during their down times, not their peak times.
- That way I've got more hotel options, more flight options, those sorts of things.
- You may not have that luxury just yet. Because you may have kids in school and you may have a nine to five job and you may have to go on vacation at the same time everybody else does.
Again this is really enlightened common sense. I mean you know when it's the right time to go and when it's not. You need to just exhibit some discipline and go when it's a good time. Which also means it needs to be something you can financially swing.
Tip
I've got a quick tip for you. Credit cards can be a great way to solve this problem. That is if you put all your personal and your business expenses through a credit card. Assuming you do it responsibly and you pay that off, you build up points or you get cash back. I want to bring up this quick tip because you've probably never heard this tip before. I am a huge fan of points, not cash back. Why is that? Well cash back, if you get enough, the credit card company is going to send you a 1099 because it's income, whereas points they won't. So in other words points are like a pre tax vacation. Cash back is like a post tax vacation. Does that make since? The Capital One Quick Silver when they talk about this big cash back stuff, much bigger fan of points. Now you may not be in the same tax bracket as me and that may not be a thing of concern to you, but I'm a much bigger fan of points.
So strategic in your choice of when you take the vacation. That's critical. You can also grab my book how to be a real estate investor and if you're jealous of the scene behind you, where I am is Islamorado, Florida. If you want to go fishing and catch a lot of fish out here. The guy that I was working with and I've worked with him for years and years, his name is Steve Lavoie and he has a website Captain Lavoie. C-A-P-T, so the shortened version of Captain.
Great advice!
Phil I love your book, and the best
Part of it all. you gave it to me for free, and its the best book I ever had the chance to read, and I read a lot, and I love your videos. you do a fantastic job helping people like me that need your help so again thank you, for all that you are doing for me,and people like me I’m gonna say thank you for all of us, phil please keep doing a job
Hey Phil do you ever look at real estate when you are on vacation in the areas you invest? Also when downtime on vacation do you ever close any virtual real estate deals?
Yes.
It is nice to see joy and happiness in a person while doing exactly what they love to do.
Good advice it is time for me to re charge.
Phil I love ur candid straight line approach and off angles as well. U have tons of experience n I am happy to absorb it n help get me going in real estate. BTW videos are for me I can read but I like visual. Keep up the great work
I thoroughly enjoyed this video! You reinforced all the things we are aware of but never think about and appreciate. We all live and operate in the normalcy bias, but never deliberately ask ourselves, each day, “What if” or “Could I” or “When will I”; or maybe we do, but never act.
Just something that popped into my head while watching your video.
Thank you
Thanks for the video. I enjoy listening to the advice and knowledge you share.
Thank You
Phil, I’m from the motion-picture industry, so I appreciate a well-produced video. However, you are missing the best modality for reaching 3/4th of your audience. Vides, although entertaining, have a very fast “burn” rate, meaning that people lose interest in them quickly. To sustain interest, use a mixture of videos and transcripts, especially to relay a lot of information. 75% of people are visually oriented, thus, are totally turned off by videos. Do you really want to do that? Videos may be entertaining, but they are a very slow wasteful way to impart volumes of information. Well-hyped and budgeted movies fail at the box office every weekend – and movie studios are the consummate pros at this. Listen to them. The recent movie, even with a name director, “Tree of Life”, starring Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain, bombed. Phil, your presentation style could lead the weekend’s box office, but well-presented transcripts save a lot of people’s time and would be much appreciated by your audience.
I discovered over time that the majority would rather watch a video over reading a blog post. So I write a brief summary above the video these days. But I will take your thoughts into consideration for the minority that want to read rather than watch.
I been watching you for weeks and really enjoy listening to you. I love the vacation idea and would love to grow my business to the point that I am doing my business while on the beach. So good for you! I hope you and your family have a fantastic time.
FUN IN THE SUN AND MANY FISH IN THE SEA,,,
THANKS FOR THE INFO PHIL. MIKE S.
Hi Phil,
I have asked you about investment in countries that even when you buy a house you still pay so much taxes like you are hiring a house.
How do you invest in such countries like Sweden?
Here if you buy an apartment you can’t just lock it and wait for a customer, every month it cost minimum 800 USD even after you bought it.
What to do?
Thanks
Sam
I invest in the US, Canada and some parts of the Caribbean. I’m not your guy for other parts of the world.