5 Great Reasons Why You Should Retreat

I’m hearing you loud and clear. You’re getting sick of being alone in your little home office (aka your kitchen table), staring at your computer, phone, ipad all day. And even though you’re an introvert, you’re getting tired of being solo all the time.

Maybe you have a mastermind or an accountability buddy (if you don’t check out where I talked about how you can find one) and they’re great for your business and great for having a strong tribe in the business world. But if you’re like me, you sometimes just miss the water cooler chats and the time that you had between meetings in your traditional job days. If you’re doing what you love, if you’re pursuing the exactly right thing, working on the thing that fuels you, you’re probably excited and are happy to be doing the work you’re doing. And yet even in that case, we sometimes still need something more.

In the process of talking to a lot of creatives in the last year and a half of my business, it has confirmed my not-so-scientific hypothesis that extroverts and introverts alike need to be in company of other like-minded friends.

5 Great Reasons for Going on a Retreat

1. You can create structured time to think about things that are important to you in your business
2. Connect with yourself and with others who get you
3. Get out of your house and office – It helps spur new creative juices
4. You spend time working ON your business, not just working on orders or client projects
5. Get out of doing “home responsibilities” like laundry and doing the dishes

Here are some thoughts on how I think you can find ways to hang out with people who you like in the business world and consider it a business expense:

• Have a retreat specifically for your mastermind group. If you’re already in a mastermind group, one way to get to know everybody and get everybody in the same physical location is to organize a mastermind retreat. You can set an agenda, have conversations about suggested topics, have peer teaching workshops or just enjoy the company of other business owners and help each other grow.

• Create a long weekend retreat with an accountability buddy or business friend. I’m taking some time this month to fly to a different city, stay in an Airbnb, and hoping to make some progress on a book that I’m writing. I’m going with an accountability buddy who is also writing her book! We’re planning on having writing time, business chat time, and friend time to see where the trip takes us! I’m looking forward to being away from my office so I can clear my head and do some solid writing work!

Top Tip: If you want to plan one on your own, I would recommend choosing up to 3 things that you want to accomplish during this retreat, build some relaxing and reflection time in!

• Join a retreat that’s being hosted by an organizer. While you could plan a retreat on your own, it sometimes takes the joy out of the experience since you  have to handle the logistics. Here’s where a retreat planned by an organizer might be your speed. You can expect that there would be a topic, a theme, or something that brings the group together – the common denominator of the group. It might be in a fun location (think tropical or zen like), many of the accommodations and logistics are handled for you so you can concentrate on enjoying the experience.

I’m planning a very small retreat called Introvert’s Paradise that’s perfect for Introverts (or Extroverts who are willing to be mindful of Introverts need for space and reflection) who are looking for a place to connect and talk shop. If you’re interested, you can hop over here for more information and to apply!

• Attend an industry conference and add a few days at the end of it to retreat with a few of the people. It’s great to attend a conference, but sometimes it’s packed with so much great content and maybe not enough time to connect with people and reflect on how the information is applicable to your business right now. I’d recommend adding a few extra days at the end of your trip to cool down from the conference, to digest, process and create a plan to implement. If you can do it with a friend who is also attending the conference, even better! It’s great to have somebody who can chat with you as you process the information!