Taking Time Off & The Rewards Of Achieving Your Goals

Bounjour!

I'm currently in Paris, France and enjoying a fun vacation.  I'm here with my girlfriend, also celebrating our 1-year anniversary.

It's been a fun month of traveling, with early in the month also visiting Montreal for a few days.  We're heading to the south of France soon, to visit Nice, Cannes and Monte Carlo in Monaco.

Some of the many benefits to living the “internet lifestyle” and making passive income that I feel very fortunate and blessed to take advantage of!

I took out the camera on an early morning, while visiting the Eiffel tower and decided to record a few videos with the beautiful background.  I answered a few questions from subscribers and will likely do some more filming while I'm here.

In this video blog, I talk about the importance of taking time off and how I structure “vacation time” in my life.

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

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Vacation Is The Reward For Achieving Your Goals!

I'm a firm believer that any break, time off or vacation is best used as a “reward” for achieving your goals. Throughout the year, when I set my yearly goals, I usually have many goals for travel and fun. I plan these fun trips usually as a reward, set sometime after a deadline that I've set for myself for a goal that I'm working hard to achieve.

When I set a goal, I aim to achieve it.  I work hard, make sacrifices, am determined and do whatever it takes to make it happen. Sometimes the process of achieving a goal isn't fun.  It can be a challenge, frustrating and even sometimes feel like giving up on it. What pulls me through is the reward and pleasure that I give myself afterwards.

“If I achieve this goal, then I'm going to take a week off and reward myself by going to XYZ”.

Sometimes I might even set up a consequence for not achieving my goal.  I might say to myself “If I don't achieve this goal, then I have to skip out on the trip and lose the money that I paid on the flight”.

Painful?

Harsh?

Yes, but often necessary leverage to get myself to follow through and make it happen. This leverage is what makes it a “MUST” for me to follow through and take action. And sure enough, as you can tell, I achieve most of my goals. Here's the best part…

When I take my vacations, breaks, time off, or “fun time”… I really ENJOY it! There's an amazing level of pleasure and fulfillment I get knowing that I EARNED this vacation! I celebrate my goals being achieved and really acknowledge myself for it. I'm not thinking, worrying or stressing about work on my vacation.  I have total peace of mind.

This is the best kind of vacation there is. Here's another tip, another useful way that I use this: every evening. You see, I love sports. Especially right now, the NBA playoffs are going on.  I'm a huge LeBron James fan and so I've been following the Cleveland Cavaliers this year in the playoffs. I love watching their games in the evening, however I don't allow myself to unless I got done what I wanted to for that day.

Watching the game, TV, movies and relaxing are the REWARDS that I give myself every evening after a productive days work. Again, it feels great taking that time off knowing you had a productive day. On the other hand, if I had a lazy day, then it doesn't feel good taking that time off.  I will be thinking about work in the back of my mind, not able to enjoy myself fully.

And like I said earlier, often times I will sometimes use NOT watching the game as a consequence for not taking action. This might sound a bit crazy to some of you, but give it a try. I use these little tricks and mind games all the time, to push myself to be more productive and achieve my goals.

Au revoir for now!

Please leave a comment below or let me know any questions you have.  I'd love to hear what you think!