Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV, the place to be to create a business
and life you love.
Last year I had a life changing carb craving.
Specifically I wanted a croissant.
And my first thought, I should walk around the corner to that cute little French bakery
that I’ve been always meaning to try.
It’s one of those places that you probably have in your neighborhood where you walk by
a million times but for whatever reason, you never go in.
So I walk over and as I’m getting up to the door I notice this little white piece
of paper on the glass door and it says this: “Closed due to vacation.”
Now, typically when I go to a store and it’s closed, I’m usually like whomp whomp, but
this time I was actually like, “OMG, closed due to vacation?
It’s a revelation!
This is a party!”
There was no disappointment.
In fact, it was super inspiring to me that someone could close down their entire business
for an extended period of time just for vacation.
So nobody died, they weren’t going out of business, it wasn’t renovation.
Nope, they just wanted to take time off.
So, I got so excited by this idea that I forgot I even wanted a croissant, I ran home, called
up my team, and I told them, “We are closing down at the end of the year for 2 whole weeks,”
and we did it then and guess what, we’re doing it again right now.
We’re closing down for the next 2 weeks.
Now you’ve got to get, this was a pretty big move for me.
Doing stuff nonstop is pretty much in my DNA.
I mean, I’ve been working consistently since I was 10 years old.
Yes, I’ve taken vacations, but this idea of completely closing down your entire company
for an extended period of time, that’s pretty radical, at least for me.
I mean, I know they do that kind of stuff in Europe, but I’d never really seen it
done here.
And in this digital age and since I run a digital company, I feel like there’s this
ever growing pressure to always be on and always be responding and always be engaging
and always be creating something new.
But the truth is, from my point of view, this always on, always pushing, always going, it’s
really a sickness and over time it can destroy you.
It can destroy your health and your creativity and your relationships and everything.
And, I mean, when it comes to your team, it can burn them out and take them completely
out.
And the more experience I have in this world, the more I see that personally, my soul craves
down time, it craves play time, it craves time completely just off the grid.
Now, if you're anything like me and you're super passionate about what you do, even just
the thought of taking significant time off can feel scary.
I mean, after all, let’s say you take yourself off the grid and all of a sudden everybody
forgets about you or you miss out on some huge opportunity or, goodness gracious, your
competitors get ahead.
But here’s what I learned when we shut our whole company down for 2 weeks last year:
it was the best thing we’ve ever done.
Everybody, including myself, came back so refreshed and rejuvenated and the entire team
came back with new ideas to take the company to the next level.
I’m telling you all of this because I want you to remember two important things.
First up, great things happen when you unplug from technology and you plug into your real
life.
Now, as much as I love technology, and I really do love it, I have learned it is vital to
take time to just let yourself be.
Because if you’re constantly listening to the noise of the world, it’s impossible
to hear the whispers of your soul.
What’s that?
My soul just told me that’s a tweetable.
Now, if you're thinking to yourself, “This sounds great, Marie, but I can’t take 2
weeks off right now,” or, “I can’t take a whole week off,” that’s completely fine.
But ask yourself, can you take 48 hours off?
Or maybe just one day?
And number two, the whole point of this episode is this: you get to write the rules in your
business and your life.
Question everything that you think you have to do, really challenge those assumptions.
Do you have to be on Twitter, especially if you don't like it?
Do you have to work on Mondays?
Do you even have to wear underwear?
But seriously, do not undercut your ability to craft a business and a life that you truly
love.
So now I would love to hear from you.
What’s one thing you wish you can do in your business that you think you can’t
do?
And what would happen if you truly challenged that assumption?
As always, the best discussions happen after the episode over at MarieForleo.com, so go
there and leave a comment now.
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Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world needs that special
gift that only you have.
Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time
on MarieTV.