The importance of taking a break

What's up you guys, it's Graham here. So let's talk about a topic that seems taboo for a lot of these business motivation mindset channels, and that's the topic of vacation and taking a break. That's almost like shunned upon in all of these channels that I like to watch. It's almost like a rite of passage to just work 24/7, grind 24/7, every single day, every single year. You just have to keep trying and grinding bread.

Like even Gary Vaynerchuk is just like, "You've got to hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle." And Grant Cardone, I watch both of those guys. Look at these people by the pool. No, man, they want to work—instead, they're wasting their time getting drunk by the pool. That's a terrible impression, and I hope he never sees that. If you do, Grant, I'm sorry.

But my whole point being is that it's almost like it's frowned upon to take a break. It seems like a weakness, like, "Ah, you can't even hustle all the time 24/7? You’ve got to take a break." It's something that I feel like a lot of people just discourage each other from taking a vacation. Even if you go on Facebook, I guarantee you have these people that are like, "I just worked 20 hours this last day, and I only got two hours of sleep. I know I'm back at it, I'm grinding away, and I'm working every single hour without a break."

Listen, I've been that person multiple times in my life. I've been there, so I know what it's like. It gets to a point where you start to feel burnt out; your time has diminishing returns, and you just lose that creative, energetic spark that you had from the very beginning. When that happens, it's your cue to just say, "I've had enough, I need a bit of a break." And then you come back at it with a new, fresh, energetic perspective.

For every single person, that point is different. For some people, they're totally fine working an entire year 16, 18, or 20 hours a day without a break, and they still have that spark. It's just when you get to the point where you feel like you're not looking forward to it, when it's something that's draining to you, when it's something that you just feel like you've had enough—that's your point.

It's really important to know yourself, to recognize when you get to that point, and to know it's okay to take that break when you need to. Because I know for me, when I get into something, it's all I want to do. It's like I have these blinders on, and it's like I've just got to do that one thing as hard as I can for as long as I can. And you have the energy for it. So I know myself to the point where if I feel that way, I'm just going to work my ass off. Because I know as soon as that disappears, as soon as I'm not looking forward to it, it becomes draining to me, and it becomes like something I dread doing and don't want to do.

So I know when I want to do something, I just have to run with it and do it as much as I can. But it's also important to recognize, like I said, when it gets to the point where it starts feeling like too much. You start getting those diminishing returns; you start feeling less creative. It's so important to take a break, and it doesn't matter how long it is for everybody. It's different.

For some people, it could be like a few days off; for some people, it could be a week. I usually like to take 1 to 2 weeks off, you know, every few months, and that helps keep me energetic, creative, and enthusiastic about what I'm doing. Because I found that when you take a vacation and when you take a break, you come back so much more energized, creative, passionate, and enthusiastic about whatever it is that you're doing. That just helps you seed even further.

So I'm not saying don't hustle all the time. I'm not saying that's a bad thing to be like working all the time. It's just knowing yourself when you get to that point of exhaustion where you start feeling less productive, when you start feeling less creative. It almost feels like you get like a fog in your mind, and it's like everything starts to go a little bit slower, and you're not on point like you once were. That's your cue: take that break, take that vacation; that's okay. Then come back to it with a new, clear, fresh perspective.

That's what I'm talking about here, and that's the thing. I'd say for the majority of people, it's unsustainable to be that person who's just like 24/7, every single day. It's almost the same as running a marathon; you don't want to put all your energy in like the first 50 meters, and then after that, you're totally exhausted and can't do anything. It's really important to know yourself and to work at a pace that you feel comfortable with, that you know you can do long-term.

Whenever you reach that point of exhaustion, take the break and then come back to it and just crush it like you've never crushed it before. Otherwise, you just end up running yourself into the ground, and that's not a good thing to do.

So, as always, you guys, thank you so much for watching. If you haven't already, make sure to click Subscribe and also hit that notification bell so you know when I post. You don't want to miss out on anything like that, so click both of those if you haven't. Also, feel free to add me on Snapchat and Instagram; I post pretty much daily. So if you want to be a part of it there, feel free to add me. Thank you again for watching, and until next time!