Take Real Vacations!
When you start a business you love, you may be tempted to put 100% of your time and energy during waking hours into making it a success. Cali and I have done that with GeekBrief.TV. Even when we took time off from the show, we used the time to work on parts of the business you don’t see. We took that quote, “Find something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” to heart.
The problem is, people aren’t designed to only work. We need rest, and we need play.
Yesterday morning I was listening to the audio version of My Life in France by Julia Child and I got a life lesson. She wrote,
In 1963 I was shooting four episodes of The French Chef a week while also writing a weekly food column for the Boston Globe. In the Fall, we were scheduled to take a break from TV work and had planned to visit Simca and John at their rambling farm house in Provence, but as November hove into view, we began to regret it. The quicksand of my cookery work, Paul’s painting and photography projects and all the mini bits of upkeep and improvement that 103 Irving Street required were sucking at our feet.
‘I just don’t know if we have the time for a trip to France right now,’ I sighed.
Paul nodded, but then we looked at each other and repeated a favorite phrase from our diplomatic days,
‘Remember! No one’s more important than people.’
In other words, friendship is the most important thing–not career or housework or one’s fatigue–and it needs to be tended and nurtured. So we packed up our bags and off we went, and thank heaven we did!
Throughout the last five years we’ve produced Geek Brief, we had similar opportunities and intentions to travel, but we always made the other choice. We prudently decided we should use that time to work on the business. Sure it would be great to go to Italy. I want so bad to go to Scotland. Hey, we should go to Japan and see all the crazy gadgets and have real Ramen! Instead, we opted for the more prudent choice. We stayed home and worked on our business.
Rest and play are the other side of the work coin. You can’t just breath in. You also have to breath out. Lot’s of people look at our story and think it is inspirational, but I hope people will learn from what we got right AND from our mistakes.
Take real breaks. Leave the Mac at home or at least in the hotel room. Enjoy life with friends and enjoy the beauty in the world. Otherwise you’ll just wear yourself out and burn yourself up.
7 Responses to “Take Real Vacations!”
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That’s wisdom, Neal. It’s good for all of us to remember. I’m so thankful for the in-person time I’ve been able to share with the two of you, particularly when we’ve been able to leave the keyboards behind. I know that’s hard, particularly for Cali, so I rejoice any time I see her being able to do it. Helping you with Geek Brief and all the other projects is wonderful, but no where near as great as just spending time with you as friends.
I agree with Dave, some of best times with y’all is when we’re giggling. Not shooting, or editing or what-have-you, but giggling and eating..
I’m glad you see the balance. When I first met you and Luria in 2006, I was in burnout mode from to much work. The energy you were putting into Geekbrief was recharging to me because you two are so genuinely nice people.
I’m glad you are stopping to smell the roses so that your success with “shiny happy tech news” can continue to flourish.
Patchbook
The friends you have now are more like the backbone of your whole life. Your work is extremely important but good friends are even more so. I have recently lost contact with a good friend and it hurts very deeply. If you have something you want to tell a friend, don’t wait very long because you may loose the opportunity.
With such sweet geek’s posting comments I just had to get in and say that you are most awesome folks. Here you both needed a non working vacation and you allowed me to have a vacation on you to spend time w/ you wonderful people. I must say that I watched you work and it looked like you were having fun too!! But my favorite memory is riding in your little bug surfing the internet through Dallas! Thank you for being so authentic with your life. I love you both tons!
Wait.. I needed to change my website url! Thanks for being my friends! My life is enriched by knowing you
I have to agree with you, whole-heartedly. “All work and no play makes Joe a dull boy.” If you don’t take the time to refresh, revamp and rest, you can’t and won’t do your best work. The most wonderful time in my life are those times when we can totally relax and unwind and not expect anything in return. Just rest.