By Cory Sekine-Pettite
In the January/February issue of Cobb In Focus from this year, I wrote on this page about the importance of a proper work/life balance. I reported that Americans not only receive the fewest vacation days each year (compared with the rest of the world), averaging just 11 days, but only half of us even use all our allotted time off. I provided evidence that taking time off is good for our physical and mental health, and I declared that I would start taking more vacation days.
You see, I’m a typical “workaholic.” I find it difficult to relax or rest when I know there’s work left to be done. Deadlines get all my attention. And in publishing, the deadlines never cease. Therefore, I never fully unwind — I’m always thinking about that next article, that next issue, that next print date. And I do this for multiple publications, not just for this magazine. To be clear, my employer never has required that I keep my nose to the grindstone. In fact, they have encouraged me to escape when I can. The problem always has been that I never saw an escape route.
However, this year (Yes, I’m taking this one year at a time.) I’m escaping. By the time this issue is published, I will have returned from my first legitimate vacation since 2019. Sure, I’ve taken a day off on occasion, and availed myself of a long weekend once or twice. But I’m writing this article before leaving for a 10-day trip to see family in another country. I know that I will return quite tired from all the site-seeing (and the jet lag), but I also expect to return refreshed, renewed, and inspired to work again.
As I stated here at the start of 2025, work/life balance is not a custom with which most of us are familiar. That needs to change. I’m doing my part. How about you?
