How to Retreat Like a Boss: Tips and Tools
This is the time of year when it’s ok to retreat. The sun disappears at 4:35pm giving us over scheduled folks the middle finger. I feel like going to sleep at 8pm because it’s pitch black and guess what? Sometimes I do! Mother nature is bossing us around and I like it.
(On that note, have you seen the movie, Mother! ? If you wanna retreat to a dark place real fast I highly recommend.)
Time to sync our mental clocks with our body clocks and slow down. But slowing down means more time to think, which can put our brains into loop mode over analyzing all the things we didn’t do this year, or tried to do but failed, or couldn’t afford, or didn’t have time for. (Or was that just me?)
My brain has landed on my big 2017 goal: writing a book inspired by my blog, 100 First Dates. I’ve struggled with writing regularly because life and Netflix get in the way, and I have been judging myself. I should have a first draft by now! I should have a book proposal written by now! I should have extensive lists of publishers and agents! Yadda, yadda, yadda.
Sometimes I have to tell myself SHUT UP and that feels better.
Also talking to other creative humans about work, personal projects, and productivity has helped me feel less alone. And I cobbled together some of my chapters and I realized I’m very close to a first draft. It’s hard to pat ourselves on back, but it is so necessary!
Another thing that’s helpful for me is to set the next small step, and to not get caught up in the very end goal of my book (which may or may not be to get made into a funny movie with strong female leads who don’t care if they get the guy) because I don’t when I will reach that goal - or if ever. What I can control my next achievable step, which is...drumroll please...a writing retreat.
The beauty of the writing retreat is that can mean whatever you want! You can join an established one with writers in a beautiful bucolic scene anywhere in the world, or you can create your own, which is what I will do.
I’m grateful that my parents still live in the house where I grew up, which happens to be in a small bucolic town a few hours outside of NYC. They have an office where I will camp out for 6 days and write by myself. I will write my book until I have a first, ugly draft that I can be proud of. Then I will celebrate with wine and family.
The purpose of a retreat can be vary, and you can retreat by yourself like me, or with a group of people - friends or coworkers. Length can also vary. Maybe you only have 15 minutes on a Sunday morning, or you are able to block out a week or more. Do what’s best for you, and below I share 4 tools to help you with your own kick-ass retreat.
HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN RETREAT
1. DO - Shift into beast mode. Turn off your phone (seriously), and turn on your out-of-office. Focus on your one project and set small daily wins to check off so you feel more accomplished. Tell your friends and family to stay away and why. We all need support to get sh*t done!
2. REFLECT - If you don’t have a specific project to attack, how about yourself? Use this time to reflect on where you are and where you want to go. Try answering these 10 questions during your solo retreat (hint: write down your answers to fully process your thoughts).
3. LOOK BACK - Want to lead a retreat with your work team or community group? Get grounded by looking back and appreciating what happened this past year (the good + the bad). Use one of my favorite History Mapping tools to encourage each person to share their take on past events.
- Here’s more about the benefits of team retreats and how to ensure they are fun and effective (hint: paintball is NOT the answer).
4. LOOK AHEAD - There is power in writing down your future goals and checking on them throughout the year. I love to use the WOOP model because it’s very simple and gets you not only to think about obstacles that may prevent you from accomplishing your goals, but also about how to overcome these obstacles. It’s a much-needed reality check and a fun acronym to say.
********
May the force be with you and your retreat in these coming weeks.
If you need help and/or ideas to design or facilitate your retreat please reach out! I’m here to help (but not between Jan 2-5, 2018 because I’ll be gettin’ my writing retreat on).