Go Where You Feel Most Like Yourself

This weekend I went away for a girls weekend. Oh, don't get too excited. We don't go to Las Vegas, California, skiing, or even to a spa. We really like each other's company so where we go doesn't matter. Well, it does matter because it is where we go every year.

We go to a place that use to be a hunting lodge. It is now a scrapbook retreat called Big Rock Ranch in East Texas. So now you know I am a scrapbooker. It makes sense. I am sentimental, I like to use different parts of my brain, and it is an easy activity to be productive, enjoy bountiful conversation, and it affords itself to a few snacks, great meals, and some wine between the 6 of us. This is the weekend that I put my business off the radar (there is no signal for Internet), my kids are with my husband (for more than a few make up soccer games), and we get lost not knowing what time it is (watches are really not important). While I always have 50 reasons why I shouldn't go, I have 52 reasons why I am always glad I went.

In my second book, Working in the Smart Zone, there is a quote at the beginning of one of the chapters. It reads "Go where you feel most like yourself". This is a line from a movie that we watched last year on this "Survivor Big Rock" weekend. We rewound the movie more than a few times as the words resonated with each of us. My closest friend in world, Camile, is a landscape architect in business for herself. Our friend Cheryl is a bookkeeper in business for herself. We heard those words and we all stopped in our tracks." Go where you feel most like yourself" is such a powerful message. That is why we protect our Big Rock weekend each year. Together we laugh. We relax. We get silly and we get deep. We catch up on things from the year and we share stories about the pictures that we are putting in our scrapbooks. I know where I feel most like myself. Do you?

If you walk around most days wondering just who you really are, go where you feel most like yourself. It can be with high school friends, fishing with your kids, at a Mavericks basketball game, or simply out to dinner with your spouse. Protect the times that you feel most like yourself. Do it often. Do it right. That will keep you in the Smart Zone.