You're probably all too familiar with why so much vacation time is left on the table. The reasons range from "I don't want to look bad to the boss," to "I know the work will only pile up, so I can't relax anyway." What you may not know is that a 20-year study by the Framingham Heart Study found that women who took two or more vacations a year cut their chance of a fatal heart attack in half, as compared with women who took no vacation. Similarly, men who took frequent vacations were 32% less likely to die from heart disease and 17% less likely to die from other causes than those who rarely took vacations.

My own belief is that we've become so accustomed to living life at a break neck speed that it's physically difficult to slow down. When the heart isn't racing and the endorphins aren't pumping, we don't feel quite alive. Consider these tips before the end of the year when your company's "use it or lose it" policy causes you to leave your vacation days unused.

  1. Remember, unused vacation time never makes or breaks a career. Just because some people in your company see it as a badge of courage to end the year with unused vacation days, it doesn't mean you have to succumb to peer pressure. And if you're a manager, it's even more important that you be a role model for your employees by taking your own vacation time and encouraging them to do the same.
  2. Take shorter, more frequent vacations. If you're worried that you’ll lose your job if you take all two or three weeks of vacation at once, take long weekends combined with Monday holidays.
  3. Schedule vacations at the beginning of the year. I've learned from experience that if I don't schedule my vacations early, the year goes by and come December, I haven't taken the time off I need to be my most effective at work, in my relationships and with the activities that are most important to me. This isn't to say you might not have to postpone vacation plans if something urgent comes up at work, but the key word here is postpone, not cancel. As soon as you know you're going to have to make a change, get another set of vacation dates on the calendar.
  4. Develop a passion outside of work. If you don't have things you love to do outside of the office, it's less likely you'll want to take vacation time. If you're single, you may be most vulnerable to this phenomenon—you may not have a network of friends to vacation with, you may not have hobbies that engage you, or you may find the relationships at work so rewarding that you actually prefer to be in the office to home alone. Whether you're single or partnered, you've got to have a life outside the office.