This past weekend I took a trip down to Naples, Florida to hang out with some friends. While I’ve been on many trips over the past few years they were never really vacations because I always ended up working. It is not that often I take a day off, I guess its the entrepreneur lifestyle. There is always something you can be doing, there are always e-mails to check up on, etc.

I have been working like crazy the past few months, even over-working myself by most people standards. I really have been trying to take ThinkComputers to the next level and also build up Look Social at the same time. This does not leave a whole lot of time for myself. When my friend asked me to come down to Florida I decided that this would be a vacation, not a trip where I was working every morning.

One of the best things about doing what I do is that I have the freedom to do what I want. So when I got the call about coming down I didn’t have to check with my boss to see if I could get off work, I could just book the trip. Freedom of time is something that all of the money in the world couldn’t buy.

So from Thursday till Monday I did not work. It was a weird feeling at first, but after the first day I really embraced it. It was great waking up each morning not having a massive to-do list or stressing over the things that I needed to get done. I could hang out in the pool / hut tub and not think “Ok after this I need to do…”. I think I was at the point of burning out before I went on the trip so taking the time to just relax and de-stress was much needed. And I could actually enjoy the company of other people and really get to know them.

Talking about the trip it was definitely nice to get out of the cold of Pittsburgh and hang out on the beach! The group that was on the trip was really great too, good people and now new friends. Hopefully we all can plan more trips together in the future.

Now that I am home I feel much less stressed and more excited about continuing to grow both of my companies. I think that taking time off to de-stress and traveling definitely has that effect and you should take advantage of it when you can. Even if its a weekend trip, driving an hour outside of the city etc. I think I’ll be planning more trips or even just getting out of the city for a day or two if it has the kind of effect on me!