One of the many reasons people look forward to retirement is because they want to have the time to do more fun things that they enjoy.  The blessing of having a business that we can work remotely is that we can pick and choose the times we work and the times we don’t.  Sometimes this can be a good thing and sometimes not so good a thing.  You see when you don’t have a boss demanding you be in on time, or a client waiting on you, it can be easy to just not show up for work.  But when you know that if you don’t show up you don’t get a paycheck at the end of the week, it generally motivates you.  So, when you are self employed you have to find your own motivation, whether it is really loving what your doing, or looking forward to something, you have to find that within yourself without the external motivation like a disappointed boss.  

When I was teaching there were so many demands for my time, with 12 preps I had to prepare for, then the actual teaching of the classes, then coaching sports, then my own family, it was often very stressful and overwhelming, so I learned early on to schedule several long weekends strategically planned throughout the year.  These long weekends were just time away with my family or alone, no cell phone or TV, and often in the mountains or the ocean.  My first was at the end of the first month of school, so end of September 1^st part of October.  That would get me through to thanksgiving break.  Then Christmas break was right around the corner.  Then my next one was end of January first of February, that would get me through to Spring break, then the last one would be Memorial Day weekend, especially as school got out later and later into June so one year, I wasn’t done teaching until June 26^th, it was insane.  But by planning those strategic times of fun I always had something to countdown or look forward to.  

In our business it is no different.  Just like we have to be intentional with our time and schedule our working hours, we also have to be intentional with our fun and plan time where we are getting together with friends or family or doing something fun like exploring a new area or checking out a new zoo or something. So that when we have those really intense times of high stress and pushing for a deadline we can also celebrate when we get it across the finish line.  This is a picture of a time we went on a sunset cruise around San Diego harbor with a bunch of our friends.  It is also when we just stopped to sit and watch the seals, because we all decided we could.  Sometimes we need to be spontaneous and sometimes we need to be very intentional, a good mix of both keeps us all motivated and remembering to live life instead of just existing.  Now off we go to live more life!