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We never have enough of them, they’re never long enough, and what we do have, we rarely completely use. What is it that shares this interesting, yet paradoxical description?

Why, vacation of course!

Like other facets of your life, a vacation isn’t just a tool for maintaining balance, but also a place to maintain a balance in itself.

Now, I’m sure (at least I hope!) most of us already know what a vacation is, but to summarize quickly, a vacation can encompass changes in four main areas: your schedule, the scenery you’re seeing, what you’re doing to fill your time while enjoying said scenery, and how you’re paying for it all.

Balanced changes to your schedule

This area is perhaps one of the easiest to keep in balance, but also one of the easiest to let get away from you. That fleeting week of time away from your daily responsibilities can call out to you to make the most of every moment. In doing this, we can easily overschedule ourselves, jumping from one sight or activity to another, never slowing down, never really stopping to enjoy what we’re doing. You end up having a lot of moments, but not necessarily making the most of any of them.

Some look at this as a great way to fill time. This would be the person telling you that they went here, and saw that, and then went there and saw that, but the story doesn’t go much deeper. The way I figure it, if you’re going to spend your valuable time and money to go somewhere, you should make the most of the experiences. It’s like the person who buys three books a week and never reads one, but has a full bookshelf that looks great and includes some classics. What’s the point?

Balancing the change in scenery

This hearkens back to an earlier post I had written on Setting the Scene. While that was focused on primarily helping to improve productivity, the tips can still be relevant.

A vacation doesn’t need to be a huge, around the world voyage (though there’s nothing to say that it can’t be), but just needs to help you change your mindset. Whether it’s a relaxing afternoon in the park, hitting the movies for the late show on a week night (which you’d rarely do if you had to get up at 5AM for work the next day), or the aforementioned trip around the world, changing the scenery you usually see can tip your brain off that you’re now on vacation.

The key to balance here is to remember that even small changes can have great impacts.

Balancing the change in activity

Some people see a vacation as doing as much stuff as possible in the time available, and some see it as sitting by a pool with a frosty beverage within reach for a week at a time. Now, both of these are valid types of vacations, but don’t feel that you have to conform to your usual range of activities.

So if you can get that week away, but don’t have the funds for your Caribbean escape, don’t sweat it. Maybe check out some local museums, or head on that wine tour you’ve heard is good.

Balancing that chequebook

One of the biggest challenges in any vacation is financing your adventures. But vacations don’t have to be expensive, they can be something like taking an afternoon off work and checking out the latest free exhibit at the art gallery or heading out to watch fun events (like this, perhaps).

If you’re sitting there reading this, and having some trouble coming up with ideas of what to do for an inexpensive vacation, check out some tips from J.D. at Get Rich Slowly on how to be a hometown tourist, and Trent at The Simple Dollar explaining how to have a money free weekend. Heck, make it a challenge; maybe you can stretch it to a week! (He did list 100 things to do.)

Even if you’re planning a larger trip, there are ways to do it inexpensively. Author and blogger Tim Ferriss has posted a few quick guides highlighting how to enjoy cities like Tokyo and Buenos Aires for less than you might think.

One of the great things about vacations is the opportunity to do something different. The changes you make in your life while on vacation all impact you in one way or another, and like all changes, they have the potential to create both good and bad outcomes.

The big challenge in maintaining a balanced vacation is really in ensuring you’re not trapped into one specific idea of what a vacation must be. By opening yourself up to some new ideas, and thinking about balancing what you’re doing, with how much time you have and the money you have to spend, you can give yourself a relaxing break from your everyday routine. Even if you love what you do (which I sincerely hope you do), taking a step back can be a great source of new ideas, new energy, and new passion.

Enjoy!