For years my wife and I have believed in the power of recharging our batteries. When you’re a small business owner, particularly one in the creative world, the every day grind of life, love and business can wear on you physically, emotionally and creatively. Sometimes you need to take a few days to just get away from it all and recharge your batteries.
Earlier in our marriage we’d get away at least once a year by ourselves and spend a weekend by the water and plan our goals for the year. We’d plan business goals, family goals and spiritual goals. We’d drop the kids off at a friend’s house so we could also use that time to reconnect as husband and wife.
When we lived in Silicon Valley, Santa Cruz was our favorite retreat spot for weekend excursions.
Photo © David D’Amico. CC BY-SA 2.0.
But somewhere down the line we lost sight of those retreats and stopped doing them. Until this year. Last month marked our one-year anniversary of moving to Seattle, and we decided that moving forward, we were going to reboot our retreats. Some we will do together, and some we will do alone (because, let’s face it, there are times when you just need to be completely alone: no kids OR spouse. Anyone married out there more than a year knows what I’m talkin’ ’bout. 🙂 )
There are all kinds of retreats you can take. The ones we’ve started this year are geared towards recharging our batteries physically, while at the same time using that extra “breathing room” to reboot aspects of our business and creativity. (It was on one such retreat this year where she launched her new blog RenaissanceGirl.me).
Here are my top suggestions for how to prepare for such a retreat:
- Determine specific goals and objectives for your time away. What do you need to accomplish and/or how do you need to feel on your return to make the retreat a success? (One note of caution: don’t try to accomplish too much).
- Pick a location close enough to drive, but far enough away where you feel like you’re getting away from the hustle and bustle.
- Make a checklist of everything you need to bring with you (e.g. computer; camera; cards; food; etc.)
- Make a budget for how much you will spend on the total retreat.
- Create an implementation plan for whatever you create/determine/plan while on the retreat.
I can’t express enough how rewarding and rejuvenating retreats like this are for your creativity, your craft, your business, your family life and even your health.
What other ways have you recharged your creative juices.