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Dont' Put off Travel! Do it For Your health's Sake!

By Maria Rattray

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Published: 23Nov2009
Word count: 710
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In recent years it seems that stockpiling holiday leave has become almost a fashion. If you check with many of today's research analysts you will find that the percentage of workers not accessing their entitlements is rising year by year.

Why is this so? Why are people resisting taking holidays? After all, who doesn't look forward to a break from work? I sure do, and I know that many of my friends live from one holiday break to another! So what is the reason for this resistance?

Personally speaking, I just don't get it! It's hard to imagine that so many people appear to be so in love with their jobs that they can't bear to flex off from them from time to time. And let me just mention here, that if it's the case that they do so engage with their jobs, I would like to swap with them! Just joking!

Seriously though, could it be that people are saving up their holidays for a rainy day? What rainy day? When? Maybe they've decided it's that day when they can afford their luxury cruise, their five-star accommodation, or their ultimate escape, touring a specific part of the world, for a year or so. I have something to tell them in that case. Some of the best holidays I have ever had have been done on a shoe-string budget. I've camped and back-packed through Europe, I've lived in cheap hostel accommodation, and throughout that, have met some of the most fascinating, down-to-earth people in the world!

One thing that struck me about many of them was that in fact, they could have afforded much more salubrious accommodation. They were not financially impoverished and yet they chose to holiday and backpack, and to rub shoulders with people much less well-off than themselves.

You see when you choose to share and eat with people who thirst for adventure, people who long for new experiences, and for meeting others from all walks of life, you become utterly enriched by the knowledge that they bring to the table.

For me, some of these travelers have become lifetime friends, people I never want to lose touch with! They have a wonderful sense of what is important in life.

One couple I met many years ago ran a highly-successful transport company. They had made their fortune through the business, but after ten years of working seven days a week, long days at that, they realised that they had not had one real break in that time. Moreover, far from being enriched by their wealth, they were, in fact, feeling exhausted and burnt out.

Their solution could have been to take a month in the Bahamas, or Europe, living in five-star luxury. They could also have joined a highly-organised tour through any part of the world. They could well have afforded that. But they realised that they needed to be with people, real people, people who would be doing ordinary things at an ordinary pace. And so, much to the consternation of family, they decided to take six months backpacking through Europe, opting for budget tours, budget accommodation, and dining also, on a budget.

Through long dinner conversations well into the night, they finally came to the realization that life had all but passed them by. But to their credit, the thing that concerned them even more was that for many of their employees, life had passed them by too. And so through these conversations they came to the decision that, when they returned home, they would review their company policy regarding leave and holidays.

I hope they did so, because the reality is that if people do not factor in an annual holiday, productivity suffers, mental and physical health are affected, and job losses become prevalent. I don't think I need specify the ramifications of that!

Today, with the downturn in the economy, people fear taking leave in case they might be seen as dispensable. I believe that it is up to management, not only to ensure workers that their jobs will remain secure if they take leave, but also to highlight to them, the absolute need to have a break for health's sake!

Maria Rattray loves to travel and to experience other cultures. If you would like to be shown how to travel for nothing whilst simultaneously making a healthy income online, feel free to find out more, and "Contact Me" at:=> www.freedompursuits.com.au/getaway

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