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Search Results for: retreat

Another Tech-Free Retreat

September 12, 2022 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

I can’t tell you how much I missed doing a tech-free retreat this summer. I had plenty of time off this summer—I always do—but I had not done a real tech-free retreat until last week. For those of you who know me, you know what I’m talking about. For those who don’t know me, I have been doing tech-free retreats since 2016, inspired by Richard Leider’s book, Repacking Your Bags.

This is a day (preferably a full day 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) where I turn off my cell phone and do not check social media while I read, plan, think, meditate, and “retreat.”

For a number of years I used a friend’s office space downtown Waterville along the Kennebec River, but she sold it last year and I have been struggling to find a new place. I used the local library and coffee shops in the past but always wanted to find a cabin or camp on one of the lakes nearby. Well, I found one.

I spent Last Friday at a friend’s camp on Messalonskee Lake here in Central Maine. The weather was fabulous (although that is not a prerequisite), and I spent the morning on the camp deck looking over the lake. I watched a loon swim by and a fish jump as I began writing in my journal. The peacefulness of the day was helpful in slowing me down.

My view from the deck

There is something special about these retreats. They take me away from jumping between tasks and wondering how I am going to get to the third task on my list. This day was about slowing down. After writing and thinking for awhile, I picked up a book recommended by a friend, The Earned Life by Marshall Goldsmith, and began my journey into his thoughts on what is important.

After a short break for a morning meal and coffee, I returned to the deck for more reading and writing on my retreat.

I forced myself to stop and look at the water and forest around me, thinking of my mother who loved our camp in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan which looked similar to this camp. Mom could sit for hours and enjoy the moment. But I was always looking for things to do and struggled with sitting quietly and thinking. Not anymore. Now I relish the moments; but it took practice.

My day started with walking meditation which helps me focus and slow down. Most days, I take a mid-afternoon meditation break which helps me re-energize myself and refocus myself for the remainder of the day. This day was no different.

After taking some time to just reflect, I took out my editorial calendar and began planning my next 90 days. Turns out, I planned nearly six months of weekly emails and made numerous decisions about the kind of content I want to share with my followers. What a relief to get so much planned!

Journaling on my retreat
Selfie of me journaling on my retreat.

I know you are busy. We all are. But I encourage you to find time to slow down. Take a half day to turn off technology and let your brain think instead of react. Here is my blog from a couple of years ago, Tech Free Retreat and the Benefits of Turning Off the Tsunami of Information. If you try a retreat, please let me know how it goes.


Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and The Adventure of Finding Me in New Zealand. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association and the Mid-Atlantic Career Counseling Association’s Professional Contribution’s Award in 2020.

Sign up to receive my TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON. You will also receive the career practitioner’s weekly email on a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. (Sign up)

Filed Under: Career Tagged With: mindfulness, reflection, tech-free retreat

Six reasons why I do a tech-free retreat

August 10, 2020 by Jim Peacock 1 Comment

My goal is to do a day-long tech-free retreat each month, inspired by Richard Leider’s book, Repacking Your Bags, and by my brother Mark who has been doing retreats for over thirty years. Each month I look ahead in my calendar to see what day works best. My brother takes any month that has a 5th Friday because there can’t be any “repeat meetings” scheduled on that day. I.e. “We meet on the 2nd Friday”… or the “3rd Friday of each month”.

This is a day I turn off my phone, computer, and ignore social media, so I am not “chasing the rabbit down the proverbial hole” every time something dings, rings, or shakes. I get up at my normal time, read the paper, eat breakfast, make lunch, fill a thermos of coffee, and then pack up my things and retreat to a friend’s office in downtown Waterville along the Kennebec River. (Thank you Jeri). I have done past retreats at a local college and also on the 3rd floor of our city library, but having a place that is truly private is important. There is something magical about being at her office space, away from my home, not at my desk, not in front of my computer, that creates space for me to do my retreat.

Mindfulness

Here are my six reasons I do a tech-free retreat.

SIMPLIFYING

Probably the number one reason I do a tech-free retreat is to simplify my day. When I work from home there are so many distractions and things to do that constantly catch my attention, chores that need doing, sounds of kids playing, the mail truck arriving, etc… At her office, nothing is familiar.

The noises are different, the chair is different, it smells different. Perfect, time to simplify. My “monkey-brain” seems to slow down here.

THREE MONTH PLAN

I use this time to create a three-month editorial calendar. As many of you know, I write a weekly career email that goes out every Tuesday morning. One week I typically write a blog, another week I interview people on a variety of career topics, another week I might do a Facebook Live. Today is my day to take that 5000-foot view. It always feels good to have a plan laid out for the next three months and all I have to do is execute it. When I come home, I update the three month, dry-erase wall calendar I have. Now I can see what I will be writing about or sharing for the next twelve weeks.

10,000-FOOT VIEW 

This is also the time I like to reflect on the bigger picture. The 10,000-foot view. Where do I want to be in three-five years? What areas do I want to revise, recommit to, or remove from my plan? One of my three-words for 2020 is “rebalance” and I am thinking about how to rebalance my work and leisure time. 

Top of Mt Whitney

It is hard to do sometimes working from home and owning my own business. This is the day that gives me the “space” to stop and think, which is nearly impossible to do at home with all the distractions. This is one of the most “freeing” feelings I get on the retreat…time to do what I want and when, and to look to the future.
[Me on top of Mt. Whitney, 14,505 foot view in 2012]

WRITING

Whether you like to write or not, the kinesthetic process of handwriting your thoughts is powerful. I happen to like writing. Most regular workdays, I begin by writing in a journal. Today, I will write more.  For me, the handwriting forces my brain to organize my thoughts and to choose what is important to me now. 

Sometimes I only write a few paragraphs because nothing is really jumping out at me, other days, I write more. On my retreat, I tend to write lots more. Because I have done my editorial calendar, I often have a couple of blogs kicking around in my head. I started this blog you are reading on my retreat. I started another one that will be coming out in September.

OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE

I remember the first time I did a retreat. Yikes! The first couple of hours all I could think about was the text messages, emails, posts on LinkedIn, that I was missing. It took awhile on the first retreat to turn that “monkey mind” off.   Now I look forward to my retreat day.

The key is getting out of my comfort zone and getting into the “stretch zone”. When we work with clients, we need to remember that there are actually three zones people can be in. 

  • One is the “comfort zone” where not much learning or growth happens
  • Another is the “panic zone” where people are overwhelmed. There is zero learning happening here either.
  • The one in between I call the “stretch zone.” This is where learning and growth happens. We are out of our comfort zone and not in the panic zone, and this is where we can think, observe, and learn.

READING

tech-free retreat reading

Charles T. Munger said, “In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time — none, zero...”

Image by Dariusz Sankowski from Pixabay 

I always have a book, magazine, blogs, or journals to read and it feels like there is never enough time to read them all…and there isn’t. But today at my tech-free retreat, I will take at least an hour or two to read. This retreat I read my current pleasure reading book, as well as three business magazines. 

My challenge to you… try a tech-free retreat

Think about a day, or start with a half-day, to unplug and do the work we all must do to slow down. I call it the ‘tsunami of information’ and it comes at us all daily. We need to find ways to think and to “just be” in the moment. Do not be fooled by the fact that just because you are busy, it must mean you are productive. My tech-free retreat day is probably THE most productive day I have each month.

As the old Life cereal commercial said, “Try it, you might like it.” (Watch Mikey eat)

Want to learn more about taking a retreat? Watch this interview with three of us who take retreats and we talk about how and why we do them. INTERVIEW


Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from National Career Development Association.

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You will also receive the career practitioners weekly email on a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. 

Peak Careers - Professional Development for Careers

Filed Under: Career Tagged With: tech-free retreat

INTERVIEW: Taking Retreats to Slow Down

November 20, 2018 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

  • How many things are on your “to do” list today?
  • How many times/day do you check your email and social media accounts?
  • Get control over your day again by choosing 3 things to do each day that “must get done” and then look at your list of 25 things.
  • Check your email 3 times/day…bunch them up so you are not chasing emails all the time.

And…consider taking a day, or a half day, retreat to slow down and rediscover your creativity.

 
Listen to this Peak-Careers Interview with three of us who have been doing retreats for a while now and learn:
  • What our typical “retreat” looks like
  • What motivated us to start doing them
  • What the benefits of doing them can be
  • and some advice & tips for getting started
tech free retreat

Interested in this topic? See my blogs on mindfulness

 

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more.

Peak Careers - Professional Development for Careers

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: focus, meditation, mindfulness, reflection, retreat, slowing down, tech free, tech free retreat

Tech Free Retreat

November 12, 2018 by Jim Peacock 2 Comments

Tech Free Retreat and The Benefits of Turning Off the Tsunami of Information

What I love about taking my tech free retreat day each month is the ‘cognitive dissonance” it causes me. An out of my comfort zone kind of ‘cognitive dissonance’. I leave the house as close to 8:00 a.m. as possible and drive to a friend’s office who so graciously lets me use it for my tech-free retreat day. And then it hits me – WHAM! It’s different. Feels different. Looks different, smells different. It will be a different day.

The cell phone is turned off.

I do not check emails.

I do not even look at any social media.

tech free retreat

Here is an inside look at my most recent retreat. I hope you can see the value of doing this to slow down your life, to reflect, and to take that broader view of your work-life.

NEXT WEEK’S PLAN

My Tech Free day typically lands on a Friday which is when I craft my plan for the following week. My “To Do” list each day is only three (3) tasks. So I take the fifteen minutes to lay out Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Monday looks like this.

Monday

1 ) At least 90 minutes working on my book

2 ) Finish my weekly email that goes out Tuesday

3 ) Draft the email to my connections in New Hampshire and Vermont and send

I find that three big things are about all I can get done in most days. If I do get through them, I can pick one item from the following day to work on. I also schedule three smaller items. These are things that just need a little time and effort and often doesn’t require much thinking. But without scheduling them on a day, they tend to stay on my To Do list way too long.

JOURNAL

tech free retreat

The next thing I do is start journaling. Writing whatever comes into my mind. It mostly has to do with work but if something is going on in my personal life, I write it out. You’ll notice I am saying “write it out” which is because I do not do my journal on a computer. I spend enough time on the computer and find that the slower handwriting process is helpful in fleshing out my ideas. Writing forces me to take the time to actually think about what is important to me now, what is realistic, what are my priorities today. I will occasionally look back at the past few weeks and see if there are any trends or themes. My journal is often not very ‘heavy’ stuff. It is a journal that allows me to purge my thoughts out of my brain and to work on them.

SLOW STUFF

In between bursts of work I either go for a walk, meditate, do Qigong, or read, and in the afternoon I take a 25-minute nap. This nap was inspired by Daniel Pink’s newest book, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.

Each of these activities is for the sole purpose of slowing myself down. Giving myself permission to be mindful and in the moment. The power of mindfulness continually reminds me to be present in whatever moment I have.

I always have a book or two I am reading but will sometimes feel guilty if I stop work to read most days. Not on my retreat day though. This is my day to slow down and read for a while in a book or a professional journal that has been sitting by my desk for a few weeks. Today is the day to slow down.

BIG PICTURE

tech free retreat

I keep a three-month calendar on the wall in my office which shows me what is coming up, projects I have, and my editorial calendar on it. I always spend some time on my editorial calendar on my retreats. Looking ahead to what my blogs will be on. Who do I want to interview? What tips do I want to share each week? Webinars? Facebook Live? The better I am at looking ahead and planning the fewer crisis events I have to face weekly.

Being able to step back and look at the next 90 days helps me to conceptualize what needs to get done in the next 60 days, 30 days, week. I feel so much better when I have my three-month calendar up to date. I know that I don’t have to worry about my upcoming webinar for another 3 weeks. Whew! That feels good. But then I can see that my speech coming up in four weeks will need attention next week. All good stuff.

CREATIVITY

Growth happens with cognitive dissonance. When you are forced to “think” in a different way. When someone says or does something that challenges beliefs, values, and attitudes it forces us to ponder and wonder if there is another way of doing things. My tech free retreat day almost always causes me to challenge some beliefs. This challenge causes creativity. Changing things up by leaving my office/home and going someplace new and doing different things throughout the day helps me find different solutions. Solutions that I would not get when I am “peddle to the metal” all day like I am so many other work days.

I encourage you to consider taking a tech free day, or a half day, sometime soon.

This crazy world we live in and its ‘tsunami of information’ coming at us all the time is not healthy. Put your health and wellbeing ahead of technology and take a retreat.

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching. He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more.

Peak Careers - Professional Development for Careers

Filed Under: Career Tagged With: meditation, mindfulness, reflection, retreat, tech free, tech free retreat, turn off technology

Technology free retreat – What a great day!

March 26, 2016 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

IMG_2634

On February 19 of this year, I turned off all my technology and took a “Rebalancing Retreat.”

Thanks to the inspiration from my brother Mark who has taken retreats annually for years and to Richard Leider, a ‘purpose’ expert who suggests in his book, Repacking Your Bags, taking a ‘technology-free’ day and to use that day to  j u s t   t h i n k…

My retreat was at a local liberal arts college in a remote room in the chapel tower. My view included the beautiful campus on top of Mayflower Hill in central Maine, to the east towards the coastal mountain range, and to the north up the Kennebec River Valley towards Quebec. Inspirational and fortuitous says my brother the priest. Below are some of my thoughts from that day.

I find myself reaching for my phone to check emails (I must have 20-30 by now from last night) or to send a text to someone… and I realize…the text can wait, it really is not that important they receive this text at 8:45 a.m.  

[Read more…] about Technology free retreat – What a great day!

Filed Under: Career Tagged With: finding meaning, less is best, purpose in life, rebalancing, retreat, slowing down

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

January 19, 2023 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

This book was recommended to me because I love to take tech-free retreats and write, read, think, meditate, and just “be” in the moment. (Read bout my tech-free retreats).

This is a fairly religious book written by a Jewish man in the 1950’s but what really resonated with me is his concept of time vs space. And how so many of us have filled our lives with things that take space, like material goods, work, and doing things.

He talks about the importance of respecting time as a thing to enjoy…just the time we are in, like mindfulness. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes to think about.

“We must not forget – that it is not a thing that lends significance to a moment; it is the moment that lends significance to things.”

“We usually think that the earth is our mother, that time is money and profit our mate. The seventh day is a reminder that God is our father, that time is life and spirit our mate.”

“Time is the process of creation, and things of space are results of creation. When looking at space we see products of creation; when intuiting time we hear the process of creation.”

Amazingly I watched a Simon Sinek podcast today when I finished this book, with Brene Brown and Adam Grant talking about creativity and the importance of giving our brains space to think. To take the time to NOT think about being creative and to take the time to do nothing (Abraham’s “time”) to let our minds go free.

Taking my retreat and turning off the technology is the day I slow down. It is by far the most productive day of the month whenever I take it.

This book is a real thinker book and has references to lots of rabbi’s and readings from the Bible and the Torah. But the most important thing about it is that it reinforced my need to retreats and take the time weekly to NOT do things and “just be” in the moment.

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