What is No Vacation Required?
No Vacation Required is lot of things.
It’s the idea that you can build a life that you don’t need a break from.
It’s inspiration and advice to motivate you to create a No Vacation Required life.
It’s the reason we started our business: The Change Laboratory.
It’s hyperbole (even fulfilled people appreciate vacations).
What is The Change Laboratory?
The Change Laboratory is a personal and business development consultancy. It’s where we provide coaching and consulting solutions to help people – both individuals and teams of individuals – overcome some of the most challenging aspects of change, shape new visions and goals, and maximize potential. We do all that via two avenues:
Personal Development Services aimed at helping people to Figure Out You. Dedicated to helping clients discover their “one you.” Clients uncover fundamentals like natural strengths, values, etc. so that they can embrace change and make better, more fulfillment-forward decisions about how to move through the world.
Business Development Services helping organizations to Stop Hating Mondays. Dedicated to empowering teams of individuals with tools for greater career satisfaction and arming organizations – from startups to Fortune 500 – with comprehensive, new-school HR and business strategy guidance.
TL;DR – The Change Laboratory is where we work to help people build a No Vacation Required life.
What will I find on this Substack?
The Change Laboratory is where we work, this Substack is where we talk about what we do and the things we’re most known for.
We’re just getting started, but here’s how things look now:
Posts and Notes – Fresh content focused primarily on building a life you’re excited about (Figure Out You) and #sundayscaries-free teams (Stop Hating Mondays). We’re not really “hot take” kind of guys, but we do have very clear perspectives on the things we know inside and out and that matter to us. We’ll aim to surface ideas that we feel will matter and make a difference to you. Some of our favorite sub-areas:
Personality: We’ll go beyond the (mostly vacant) memes – You’re a Slytherin! You’re a Soy Milk, Extra Hot Latte! – to discuss how your personality shapes the way you experience the world and how you can make personality and type dynamics work for you in all of your roles.
People: As in, how people come together and work together. We’ll talk about best-in-class workplace practices, and areas where organizations fall short.
Pursuits: Tips and tools for understanding yourself better, navigating a career, pursuing a passion, and finding purpose.
Wellness: A No Vacation Required life is a wellness-forward life. The problem is…. we have a major wellness crisis in this country. We have tips and tools (and training!) to help.
Ask An Expert (Chat) – There is a lot of advice out there. But how do you know who or what to trust? So that you can stop crowdsourcing advice on Reddit, we’re using the chat feature as a place for paid subscribers to ask questions about – you guessed it – what we know best: building a life you’re excited about and #sundayscaries-free teams. So, “ask away!” about your workplace dilemma, personality clash, or existential crisis. We’ll provide answers that are trustworthy, concise, clear, and actionable.
But wait, there’s (soon to be) more! – We’ll be adding additional features as we get settled in. For example, we’re currently working on our next feature: the “Why Are We Still Doing That?” podcast. Because when your business is called The Change Laboratory, you tend to ask “Why Are We Still Doing That?” about, well, everything.
Tell me more about what’s in it for me.
To put it simply, we want you to have a No Vacation Required life. In order to build a life you don’t need a break from, we’ll work to inspire you to:
Know yourself better
Make fulfillment-forward decisions and be more fulfilled
Let go of outdated, limiting ways of thinking
Use self-knowledge to navigate the world more easily
Have a vision and mission for your life (and understand why that matters)
How do I use the Ask an Expert (Chat) feature?
If you’re a paid subscriber (thank you!), you have the ability to:
Ask for advice – Ask questions related to our areas of expertise, including
Human Resources
Career Development
Personality
Self-Discovery
Coaching
Benefit from others’ questions – See others’ questions and our responses
Join the conversation – Follow-up or comment on any questions or advice
Stay anonymous – Email a question and we’ll post it with a response
Who are we?
We’re Kent and Caanan. We started our No Vacation Required life way back during The Great Recession. We understood relatively early that life has an expiration date (and no guarantees), so we transformed our lives with the primary goal to live for now. Long story short, we front-loaded all our “later in life” goals and never looked back.
We founded The Change Laboratory as a virtual consulting business back when working remotely was novel (and still called teleconferencing 😂). That enabled us to travel the world and volunteer, all while doing work we’re passionate about. Now, 15+ years later, we’ve helped thousands of clients know themselves better, make more fulfillment forward decisions, and get better at change.
Again, we love the work we do; it’s a manifestation of our personal No Vacation Required life. We created both The Change Laboratory and this Substack because we want more people to love what they do and build their own No Vacation Required life.
What’s the deal with the photos?
We’ve been fortunate to see and experience a lot of the world – 75 countries, 7 continents, 50 states, and 56 National Parks (and counting) – since we started our No Vacation Required life. So why not share them?! We’re not trying to pick photos that relate directly to the content, we just want to fill this Substack with gorgeous pictures that bring us (and hopefully you) some joy.
