{"id":12640,"date":"2023-09-26T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T15:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/?p=12640"},"modified":"2023-10-24T10:47:33","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T01:47:33","slug":"too-embarrassed-to-admit-taking-time-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/too-embarrassed-to-admit-taking-time-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Too Embarrassed To Admit Taking Time Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

I lied.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was <\/span>HORRIFIED<\/span><\/i> because I like to think of myself as an honest person. But the lie just plopped out of my mouth before I could even think.<\/span><\/p>\n

While ordering lunch from a Thai food truck near my office in Ginza, I told the vendor that I\u2019d just got back from Bangkok – that was true.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow long were you there?\u201d she asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, just one night\u201d – that was true.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAh, for work?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEr, yes\u201d – not true!!!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Admittedly, I did a tiny bit of work by the pool, but I didn\u2019t go to Thailand <\/span>for<\/span><\/i> work..<\/span><\/p>\n

Flustered, I grabbed my gapao rice and scurried back to the office, wondering, \u201cWhat happened there? Why did I lie?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I realized that I felt embarrassed to admit that I was taking time off\u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It sounded so extravagant and self-indulgent to fly to Bangkok for just one day for fun!<\/span><\/p>\n

This was five years ago. I\u2019d started to experiment with the idea of doing less, but better\u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And it was <\/span>extremely<\/span><\/i> uncomfortable because I was self-conscious about what other people thought – even the lady in the truck, who I didn\u2019t really know!<\/span><\/p>\n

Around that time, I\u2019d read and reread the amazing book <\/span>Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less<\/i><\/b> by Greg McKeown<\/b><\/a><\/span> (\u30a8\u30c3\u30bb\u30f3\u30b7\u30e3\u30eb\u601d\u8003 \u6700\u5c11\u306e\u6642\u9593\u3067\u6210\u679c\u3092\u6700\u5927\u306b\u3059\u308b).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The author writes,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if we stopped celebrating being busy as a measurement of importance? What if instead we celebrated how much time we had spent listening, pondering, meditating, and enjoying time with the most important people in our lives?\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

And<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have a vision of people everywhere having the courage to live a life true to themselves instead of the life others expect of them.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Well, I hope Greg will now consider me one of those people in his vision.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve changed the story I tell myself from \u201cI need to work hard to be successful and for people to like me.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s \u201cBy doing less and prioritizing my physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing, I\u2019m more creative and energized to do brilliant work and make my best contribution in the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s my contribution? Helping others, especially professional women in Japan and beyond, to discover how they too can enjoy less effort and more impact in their work and lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are you prioritizing?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I lied. I was HORRIFIED because I like to think of myself as an honest person. But the lie just plopped out of my mouth before I could even think. While ordering lunch from a Thai food truck near my office in Ginza, I told the vendor that I\u2019d just got back from Bangkok – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,55,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-communication","category-personal-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12640"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12818,"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12640\/revisions\/12818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasugacommunications.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}