Malaysia is one of the most hardworking countries in the world where majority of the workforce work up to 9 hours or more a day. Common causes of long working hours include heavy workload, last minute tasks, fickle minded bosses and poor time management. Add-in the long and stressful commute to the workplace, most Malaysians live stressful lives.
The upcoming holiday season should give you an opportunity to have a long awaited and well deserved rest time from work to relax, regroup and spend time with your love ones or by yourself. Not taking a break from work does more harm than good and can cause mental burn out which is bad for work and life especially when you’re physically at work while mentally away.
8 Reasons Why You Should Travel & Take a Vacation Now
If you need some extra convincing to take a break over the holidays, we are glad to let you know what you are missing out on. Some new research suggests there are more benefits and good reasons than ever to travel and take a vacation.
1. Live Long and Prosper
Taking a break away for vacation from both personal and professional worries can help you manage your stress level. When stress is constant, your body tends to adjust into high gear in anticipation or anxiety-mode to meet and handle the stress head-on, for days or weeks at a time.
A study conducted by the Department of Psychology, State University of New York-Oswego as a follow-up to the famous Framingham Heart Study, involving some 13,000 middle-aged men (35 to 57 years old) concluded that by having a vacation at least once a year reduces the overall risk of death by Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) by 20% to 30%.
2. Chillax
Let’s “Chill Out” and “Relax”. Weekends may be a good time to relax and rest but most often than not, weekends are our catch-up-on-chores week where we finally got time to do things that could not be done during weekdays such as washing the car, trimming the lawn, organize a barbeque party and do more work.
When you have a solid few days or a week for a vacation, you finally have a chance to really get out of work mode. You can catch up on lost sleep, laze around doing nothing, relax on the lounge chair or even have drinks at a nice place and watch the world goes by.
3. Productivity Boost
“More, Bigger, Faster”. Many of us find ourselves unable to juggle personal and professional obligations and demands and continuously maintain the same pace. Everyone has their mental and physical limits, and pushing yourself too far and too long is counterproductive.
Various studies show that strategic renewals such as vacations lead to significant higher performance, productivity and health. The accounting firm Ernst & Young did an internal study of its employee in year 2006 and found that for each additional 10 hours of vacations employee took, their year-end performance ratings improved by 8%. A general survey conducted with about 500 resource managers, 90% believe that employees were more productive as a result of taking time off.
4. Personality Builder
Travel has an immense power to change our perspective on life. By spending some time experiencing or living in another country, your experiences will bring transformative effects on your worldview and expand your thinking.
Traveling to a third-world country without basic necessities such as electricity, water or internet can build your character to appreciate the availability of such services. Travelling to a non-globalized area such as harder-to-access World Heritage sites (e.g. Machu Pichu) will enable you to detach yourself from the modern world and reconnect with nature. Travel to old places and you might walk in the footsteps of past histories and learn something new.
Travelling with your partner, family or friends can also help you generate positive feelings, values and appreciation towards the people in your life. General studies say that these effects continue after returning home, which overall makes you a better person. Gradually work will prove to be less important than living.
5. Work Persists!
While you may be an asset to your team or company, that doesn’t mean the team cannot function without you (unless you are the cornerstone of the company). Trust your team to get things done even in your absence. Things will still get done even in your absence, and whatever doesn’t, can be done when you get back. Your team would not want to disrupt your well-earned vacation in any way (what goes around, comes around).
6. You are Valuable
If you are not using your paid leave days for vacation, you are essentially working for free and letting work take advantage of your precious time. Let your bosses know that you are important and deserve the quality time off.
7. Be Inspired
When your body is relaxed, you will be able to open up other creative parts of your mind that is not used on a day-to-day basis and be imaginative and inspired. All of a sudden, you will able to think of new ideas, innovate and spot opportunities to bring back with you, be it to enable you to work easier and better; to make new career move; to improve your personal lifestyle; to improve your relationships, all in the name to have more time to travel in the future.
8. Because You only Live Once
Maybe taking time off is a chore, with all the planning and preparations involved but unless you are actually James Bond in disguise, you can’t just delay doing so forever. So cancel whatever “urgent” plans or work you may have and start packing. Having a vacation is not a luxury, it’s essential to your overall well-being.
Think of the bright side of a vacation, you will have the freedom of just having fun again at theme parks, Disneylands, the beach, a walk by the canals, riding on the quad-bike, bungee jumping, parachuting and not having to wake-up at a certain time or to follow a strict schedule. Just relax and do whatever you please.
It’s Time to Plan for a Vacation!
Now you know the essential benefits and reasons for taking a break and go for a vacation, where do you plan to go this coming holidays? Let us inspire you with our short day trip in Selangor for starters or go pamper yourself at the best 5 spas in Malaysia.
Stay tuned to find out more on the best places to Chillax and Have Fun!
– Cover image: Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment
