This summer I was blessed by the Rescue Mission Board of Directors with a Summer Study Break to celebrate the completion of my 7th year of service. As described in a previous blog I divided my time up in three areas: Study, Service and Rest. Having never had a study break I wasn’t sure what to expect. Here are a few lessons I learned during my Study Break:
1. Power of environment: One of the blessings of my study break was the Executive Leadership course I took at Harvard Business School. It was certainly the highlight as I was surrounded by smart people, brilliant professors and a beautiful campus next to the Charles River. The experience at HBS underscored for me the importance of environment. Not only in the sense of your location, but also in terms of your emotional and mental surroundings. Every once in a while it’s important to step outside your normal confines and get into beautiful, inspiring, unusual settings. The change alone will do you good, but if it’s educationally beneficial it’s exponentially powerful.
2. Activity is refreshing. I was a little worried that I wasn’t scheduling enough rest in break- I only had 3 days of what might be called vacation- but I found that motion itself isn’t the problem. Often what wears us down is the daily grind and getting outside your daily routine to do something different is refreshing itself. On my break I served in volunteer projects, painted, gardened, and various other stuff. It was all good.
3. Study Breaks are great for you team. Leaders, when you leave, it’s a blessing to your team. It allows them to spread their wings and have a little room to breath. I was happy to see that my team thrived while I was on my break. That was part of the point after all, to allow room for growth in those that are expanding their leadership. I am blessed to be a part of a great leadership team here at the Rescue Mission. It’s not an accident, I have worked hard to find the best possible group and it’s taken lots of time and hard decisions. When I am around the natural default is to ask me. This means that other leaders don’t get the opportunity to make as many “high quality” decisions as they need for their development.
4. I love what I do. I was blessed to take a study break, but I am REALLY glad to be back at the Rescue Mission. Thanks to the Board of the Rescue Mission for believing in me and allowing me this chance to grow.
Questions: Have you ever taken a study break? If so, what did you learn? What did you do during your summer vacation to refresh and reset?
DC
