Wait…a “work vacation” is not what you might imagine. I’m not advocating that you work while you are on vacay with your family!!!! A work vacation is when you unplug from life for a few days and you get quiet and you get to WORK.

As moms, so many of us are constantly juggling life, family, home, business, friends, social obligations, volunteer opportunities….ALL THE THINGS! As a Marine, my husband could literally have to come home, pack a bag, and be gone. That was our reality. And even though we share so many of the household tasks (the man does laundry, mops the floors and soooo many other things in our home)…but he could literally unplug from our lives at a moment’s notice and leave to focus on work.

The first time I ever heard about a “work vacation” was when my friend Kim booked herself a hotel room in town and took all her work notebooks and sticky notes and poured out all her brilliant ideas into a new plan for her business. Her bakery was AMAZING!!!!!! She was so creative and her mind was filled with GREAT ideas for the online and brick and mortar parts of her business. But with four kiddos, several dogs and a Marine husband…the actual time she had to move the needle in her business was NONE!! So she periodically booked a weekend work staycation and got busy building out her dreams.

We also went to several business conferences together over the years. We would soak it all in…come back to the room and pour out our new ideas to each other (we won’t talk about the time I got food poisoning…mkay). But getting away to focus on just our businesses was so impactful to our growth and honestly, to our fulfillment in our work.

When you are constantly juggling soccer schedules, vet appts, cheer practices, permission slips, orthodontist appointments, while also invoicing clients, editing photos, marketing, baking, attending Chamber of Commerce meetings, etc…..you are simply surviving. And survival mode is not where you will thrive. You are truly just keeping the wheels from falling off.

In order to up level your business, you must invest the time, the focus, and the energy to feed it, to nurture it, to grow it. If you are feeling like you can’t get your business legs under you or that you are stuck and can’t get traction and momentum to move forward, I want to encourage you try one of these three things and then check back in with me.

#1:

Look around. Evaluate your life. Are you devoting the required time and energy to your business that it needs. If at the end of the week, you’ve worked on your business one-two hours a day and that’s it….that might be your problem. Anyone who says that’s all they have to do is lying to you. While yes, there may be seasons of busy in your business and then slower seasons, no business can thrive with only 1-2 hours a day. If every time you get ready to sit down to work and you are interrupted by a little one or you need to run an errand or you get distracted by social media or TV…evaluate that. Create real boundaries around your work time so that you can actually get work done. I recently had a coaching client start her workday at 5:30am. She now gets two solid hours in before her kiddos get up and it’s created so much momentum in her business!!!! It’s because it is uninterrupted time for focus and staying on task.

#2:

Can you get away? Like go away for a day or so…to simply have the quiet and freedom to dream about the next season of life and business. Life is noisy. Life is messy. Life is beautiful. But it can impact our ability to take the time out to have real conversations with ourselves and mentors or partners to get your focus back. I often hear from business owners that they don’t have the money to invest. One year, I wanted to go to LA to a conference so I posted that I would be on the west coast and someone booked me for a branding shoot. That shoot paid for the entire trip. I even tacked on a few extra days to visit a friend. It was amazing and didn’t “cost” me a dime. I did the work to get there. One year I needed a new camera. I booked a wedding and paid for the upgraded camera. Get creative. Get hungry. Get to work.

#3:

Stop playing it safe. That big, hard, scary thing that your heart is dreaming about for your business…DO IT! Want to make a pivot…DO IT! Want to add in a new offering…DO IT! Want to coach…DO IT! Want to add on a digital product to sell…DO IT! Want to open an online T-shirt business…DO IT!!!! Want to start a podcast…DO IT!!! Yep…just did that one! Stop thinking that you can’t or worrying that you’ll fail. If you fail, you’ll fail forward. You’ll learn something new and you’ll go back to ideate a new tweak or fix the failed part or scrap it altogether and move on to the next thing that will be right for your business.

Life is a one way journey, you don’t get a do over. If this off ramp doesn’t work out, you’ll just come back to the main road and keep going. BUT…what if the off ramp takes you to an ever dreamier drive and even more beautiful scenery?!?! What if it leads to a grand adventure you could have never dreamed of? If you continue to white knuckle your life’s journey and your business…you’ll continue to miss out on the beauty of the drive along the way.

Go book yourself a “work vacation”!!!

Or go book yourself a “work retreat”….in fact, we have one more seat for our Business Reboot Retreat in Charleston, Sept 18-22, 2022. It’s specifically designed to give you the education time and the work time all wrapped up in one “work vacation”. We’d love to see you there!

www.businessrebootforcreatives.com

Blessings,

Corry