Being reluctant to take vacations or outright avoiding them may be costing you more than you think. For many, it may also be a symptom of deeper intrapersonal contradictions. Mark Manson in an overview of the Law of Avoidance explains that “the more something threatens to change how you view yourself, how you believe yourself to be, the more you will procrastinate ever getting around to doing it.”

This includes both negative and positive things in our lives, such as uncomfortable conversations we’d rather avoid, promotions, risky career moves, or vacation days. Whether we perceive these factors to be good or bad, sometimes, avoiding them is a matter of preserving our identity or how we see ourselves. And if you’re finding many reasons why you shouldn’t take vacation days, then you might want to re-examine how you think taking vacations will affect your identity as an employee. This brings us to our first key point.

You’re setting impossible standards for yourself

It’s tempting to think that not taking advantage of allotted vacation days makes you a more productive and therefore more desirable employee in your company’s roster. While this may work for a rare handful of personalities, the opposite is true for most. Much-needed time off is an opportunity to re-energize, reset, and come back to work with a fresher mindset. For many busy folks, taking vacation days can actually help avoid burnout. If they don’t take vacations, employees are less productive, less creative, and think less outside the box,” explains director Ken Yeager of the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Stress, Trauma and Resilience program.

In short, vacation avoidance could be doing the opposite of what you want in terms of the identity and skills you want to establish as a worker. By insisting on setting and upholding the impossible standard of being an employee who can remain productive without ever needing to take a break, you’re setting yourself up for career failure. At worst, this can result in nasty and long-term health effects.

You’re endangering your own mental and physical health

It’s common knowledge that accumulating stress can lead to a host of long-term health issues. CNN writes how several scientific studies have come to the conclusion that vacation avoidance can greatly increase the risk of cardiovascular problems. Even when researchers over the years have taken into account other factors that directly affect health such as smoking, obesity, or income level, vacation avoidance stands out as a primary stressor. As president Elaine Eaker of Eaker Epidemiology Enterprises expounds, “It shows how the body reacts to a lifestyle of stress. This is real evidence that vacations are important to your physical health.”

You’re in need of a coach

This may be the greatest gift you can give yourself, as it helps you to get the heart of what it is that you really want and need which can help you feel more fulfilled in all aspects of life. If you’re always running into too many reasons and excuses for why you can’t take vacation days, our executive One-on-One Coaching program can help you get unstuck – and for many leaders this results in taking some much-needed time off to rest, reflect, and recharge.

There’s tremendous value in seeking help from a life coach or mentor. ZenBusiness’ look at the life coaching industry pegs the number of life coaches worldwide at 53,000 – an industry that’s expected to balloon to $1.34 billion by 2022. In short, more and more people are realizing the value of allowing positive mentors into their lives.

Through coaching, you can uncover crucial considerations that you might have missed before, empowering you to make more informed decisions. For instance, although you can ask your HR department about converting unspent vacation days to cash, not every employer offers this option. And if this is the case with your company – in which you’re consistently losing vacation time – this can translate to hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of vacation days lost over the years. Simply divide your annual salary by 365 days, and then multiply by the number of actual vacation days you haven’t taken. Are you comfortable with consistently losing this amount of money every year that you don’t take advantage of vacation days?

These are just some of the perspectives you may uncover during a coaching partnership. And if you open yourself up to this possibility, you just might start taking the vacations that you rightly deserve. In turn, this can lead you to start living a happier, healthier, more authentic, and more productive life.

Article written by Alice Bailey
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