I believe that taking adequate holiday breaks is an essential part of maintaining optimal performance and good health in both work and play. Let me explain:
Life is busy. After we leave school, we spend forty years or more building our careers, often in roles that involve long hours and carry responsibilities that can bring sustained levels of stress. We can also face long commutes and competing family obligations, leaving little time for regular exercise, socialising with friends or volunteering.
Once laidback Saturdays are now recognised as the busiest day of the week on Sydney’s roads, with mid-week workers frantically juggling their weekly shopping and children’s sporting activities.
I hear working parents talk of having a ‘rear-vision-mirror relationship’ with their young children, with the daily rush to and from childcare being their only ‘quality’ time together. Technology makes everyone connected, contactable and interruptible. Sound familiar?
Success in our modern working and personal lives requires endurance. Fortunately, I believe, our human species is uniquely adapted to endure. Our ancient forbears evolved to range over large expanses of territory, scavenging for food and hunting prey. An ability to cool our bodies more efficiently through perspiration – rather than through panting – is a unique adaptation that places humankind in the animal world’s elite endurance category.
This adaptation underpinned the ancient practice of persistence hunting. A much faster prey animal can sprint away from slower human pursuers, but only so far and so many times before it overheats and becomes exhausted and vulnerable, allowing our ancient forebears the chance to close in for a meal. Do you remember chasing your pet dog around the backyard for an hour until he collapsed in a panting heap? You probably gave him a hug – rather than finish him off – but you might also remember that you needed a rest afterwards, just like our ancient forbears.
We can see the endurance abilities of our ancient forebears mirrored in today’s endurance athletes. In sports such as distance running, cycling and rowing, athletes build endurance through a method called periodization. This involves increasing both the volume (time) and intensity (effort) of training throughout the season, but crucially also scheduling periods of lower-intensity rest and recovery after each performance peak. Sports science has identified that the real training effect occurs during these rest and recovery periods.
When an athlete rests, the body adapts to the stress of the training, making the athlete fitter whilst also making them less prone to burn out. If you have ever participated in a competitive sport, you might recall how you magically seemed to perform much better following a week off during a long season. That was the recovery effect.
Our evolution as persistence hunters has blessed us with the stamina to maintain activity for long periods of time. However, to maintain optimal performance and health we need to periodically rest and recover. So, think of yourself as an endurance athlete, and your holidays as your guilt-free period of lower-intensity rest and recovery.
As a people manager I always try to ensure that my team members take adequate holiday breaks, especially after sustained busy periods. They come back refreshed, motivated and ready to endure.
All food for thought!
Sincerely
John (JT)Thomas
This opinion piece is provided by John (JT) Thomas, a 48- year veteran of the financial services industry and since 1987 a specialist in commercial mortgage funds. Considered by many to be the father of the modern commercial mortgage fund sector, JT helped establish and then managed – for 17 years – what became the largest and most successful commercial mortgage fund in Australia – The Howard Mortgage Trust – with assets exceeding $3 billion. Under JT’s stewardship, investors never lost one cent of their investments and indeed, investors always received competitive monthly returns. JT was also Chair of the $40 billion mortgage trust industry sector working group.
JT has been proudly involved with Princeton for nine years and sits on both the Princeton Credit Committee and the Princeton Compliance Committee as well as being an advisor to the Princeton Board.
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