Stretch Armstrong was a large, gel-filled action figure first introduced in 1976, a well-muscled blond man wearing a pair of swimming trunks whose most notable features were his arms and legs that could stretch outwards for great lengths, presumably without breaking, and ultimately returning to his original state.
The youngest of four kids, my siblings and I definitely put good ol’ Stretch to the test, each one taking a limb and pulling as hard as we could in opposite directions, but he never broke.
Sound familiar?
The idea of being stretched beyond one’s conceivable limits and then bouncing back is a concept that is all too real in our world of ever shrinking resources and increasing needs. But the point is, we do bounce back. Just like Stretch, the amazing capacity and incredible resilience of nonprofit professionals is seemingly endless.
The youngest of four kids, my siblings and I definitely put good ol’ Stretch to the test, each one taking a limb and pulling as hard as we could in opposite directions, but he never broke.
Sound familiar?
The idea of being stretched beyond one’s conceivable limits and then bouncing back is a concept that is all too real in our world of ever shrinking resources and increasing needs. But the point is, we do bounce back. Just like Stretch, the amazing capacity and incredible resilience of nonprofit professionals is seemingly endless.
But even Stretch had time off from the torturous tugs of little tikes from time to time. When is the last time you took a vacation in the toy box of life? More and more Americans skip the annual vacation, and those of us that do manage to physically break away, find ourselves, with increasing frequency, bringing work along with us, or “checking in” via technology and ultimately keeping ourselves still in the work mindset we should be escaping.
The fact is vacations can help with your job performance! The psychological benefits that come with more frequent vacations leads to increased quality of life and that can lead to increased quality of work. Vacations promote creativity, stave off burnout, help keep us healthy and promote overall wellbeing. In other words, keep Stretch Armstrong elastic! Have you ever seen plastic get hard and brittle? It isn’t pretty.
The Center’s Department of Education spends eleven of the twelve months promoting best practices in nonprofit management through our various programs. But there is one month, July, when we stop our programming and focus on personal renewal.
Summer is fast approaching and your assignment; Mr. & Ms. Armstrong… plan a real vacation! Even if you don’t have the funds to go somewhere, find a way to really disengage completely from work and the demands of everyday life to restore yourself and ultimately prepare you for the next BIG S-T-R-E-T-C-H!
Stacey Bruenning
Director of Education
Summer is fast approaching and your assignment; Mr. & Ms. Armstrong… plan a real vacation! Even if you don’t have the funds to go somewhere, find a way to really disengage completely from work and the demands of everyday life to restore yourself and ultimately prepare you for the next BIG S-T-R-E-T-C-H!
Stacey Bruenning
Director of Education
how true!
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