39: What I Learned from Taking 4 Weeks Off

I took four weeks off recently and there’s quite a few things I learned in that process. From the point of when and why I started thinking about taking time off, how I was able to take that time off and switch off a lot and still keep things running, to what I’ve learned from that experience and what I’ll be changing moving forward.

About two months ago I started waking up tired and just feeling this constant exhaustion. And after a few weeks of this,  I realized- okay, this is getting worse, I am getting more and more tired, nothing has helped, nothing is changing, I generally feel like I just need a good proper break. Not just a holiday to go eat good food and do fun things, but pure rest.

My first question was- Can I? You’re a bloody entrepreneur, you can take whatever time you want off, whenever and you don’t have to ask for permission or validation. Okay, great. 

My follow-up question was- How can I take time off, to switch off from things as much as possible, while still keeping things running and not completely disappearing? And this process was actually way way easier than I thought. I do have an amazing assistant, so she was handling my inbox. This I do think is really important-to have someone on your inbox. Just for your own peace of mind. I uninstalled the Gmail app from my phone. The only thing I did keep in my calendar were my mastermind group coaching classes and training, because they were already pre scheduled once before. And about three appointments that have already been pre scheduled too. Apart from that, we had a backlog of guest episodes that had been pre recorded in the last couple of months. So, we had enough content in the backlog for the podcast, for me to not have to make any solo episodes, because I was just feeling I don’t really have the mental energy right now to think about this.

“It was a very very lovely holiday but it also felt like it wasn’t exactly what I needed. I needed literally just to keep lying on my garden reading books and help myself lower my nervous system.”

– Maggie Giele

What I realized, and this is gonna sound really ironic, and it’s a bit shocking to me, but four weeks off were really not enough. Because the first two weeks, I realized- wow, I am checking Instagram or Facebook every five minutes, I’m still going on Facebook and answering people’s questions and comments in my Facebook group. I also had a few projects I wanted to do around the house, so those two weeks actually filled up very quickly.

I did have some lovely afternoons lying in the sun in my garden, reading some new fantasy books that I had been meaning to read literally for 15 years. Then I had about two weeks of a holiday with my husband, we did a road trip through Europe, which was beautiful: champagne in France, Switzerland, and northern Italy, which was really, really lovely. But it was also a lot of driving and a lot of stimulation and thinking and it felt like it wasn’t exactly what I needed. Like I needed literally just to keep laying in my garden reading books and help myself lower my nervous system. When we came back from our holiday, I thought I would come back from these four weeks feeling so refreshed and energized and motivated but I came back feeling tired and the idea of working or doing something new felt like a bit of a drag.

So that weekend, after we came back, my friend Molly Pittman and I had a yoga retreat plan that we went to. Oh, and that was one of the best things I could have done for myself. And I’ve never been into yoga. I’ve always felt like I want to be the person who does yoga, but I’m much more of a martial arts, taekwondo and kickboxing kind of person.So we went for this yoga retreat, which was very, very chill. It was just three days of doing what you feel like doing, and breathing, and pure rest. After I came back, I realized that this is what I need more in my life, I need this type of activity to lower my nervous system. I need more of pure rest, not just fun rest, like going out with friends, or having a holiday or going on a weekend away somewhere. But lying in the garden, reading a fantasy novel, doing yoga, sitting by a swimming pool, or by a lake or in a forest and just absorbing and breathing without expectations and obligations.

There’s a couple of things I’m starting to do differently now that I’m back. And that’s very much based on this almost personal development, I feel I’ve done. I’ve planned three launches for the next six months. One is my Mastermind launch, which is coming up now. So if you are an online based or service based entrepreneur, who has been in business for at least two years, you’re making at least 50k-75k a year and you’re ready for the next level, which to you looks like authentic marketing, more visibility, audience growth, building more of a team, doing higher level trainings, and adding extra streams of revenue- let’s have a conversation, because I have a couple spots left for this. Next, I’ll be really focusing on the Micro-launch method and having an amazing second launch of that in the coming month. And finally, I do have one or two spots coming up for the next month for Strategy intensive. So if that’s something you’d be interested in-to plan out your strategy, business model, pricing and offers so you can add an extra five or 10 k at least of revenue a month, go to maggiegiele.com/call. 

And personally, it looks like going for yoga, once, ideally twice a week. And it looks like going for morning walks.The last thing I had done was uninstalling Instagram and Facebook from my phone. Those are some things that I slowly started implementing and realized it gives me great energy.

So in conclusion, this process of taking the time off was actually way easier than I thought it was. I feel really refreshed, excited and really, really glad to be back.

Love + magic,

Maggie