In recent years, one thing has become clear: Americans kind of suck at taking vacations—and it’s really no wonder why. Taking time off work is meant to help us recharge and leave the stress of meetings and emails behind. But the reality is that we spend our beach vacation absent-mindedly responding to emails or side-stepping the family potato sack race just in case that work call is something urgent. No matter how far in advance we book our tickets or reserve our hotels, work always seems to sneak in on the precious time we intended to take off.
Shonda Rhimes, with four television shows simultaneously in production, is an entertainment industry titan. In a recent TED talk, she described her deep passion for her work: “When I’m hard at work, when I’m deep in it, there is no other feeling…It is hitting every high note. It is running a marathon. It is being Beyoncé. And it is all of those things at the same time. I love working… A hum begins in my brain, and it grows and it grows and that hum sounds like the open road, and I could drive it forever.”
