unplugging

my business takes a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of work. i’m grateful to own and run it with one of the most motivated and driven people i’ve ever met. i’m grateful to be surrounded by friends, family and my wife who support me through the madness. i’m grateful to have people that work for me that would do anything to see the business succeed.

given that it’s an online business, that means i’m always at my computer. always online, on facebook messenger or slack trying to help someone get something done or get help to try to do something i’m doing – or talking to our students or members of our program. or looking at numbers and data or checking on this or checking on that. and i’m grateful for every second of it. this business is growing at such a rate that it’s allowing me to do some things that i didn’t think were going to be possible quite so soon. it’s allowing me to set my future son up for success months before he’s born. it’s allowing me to give my wife the life that she deserves. and it allows me control – control over my life, my schedule, what i do, when i do it, and how i do it. granted, sometimes i don’t feel like i have a ton of control, and when you work multiple 18 hour days in a week, control over your schedule is the last thing on your mind.

but i love it – i love the rush, i love looking at the numbers, i love to see people succeeding, i love to be able to look at something and say hey – i helped to create that. i love being able to look at our employees and say hey look – they’re doing great. i love being able to look at our students and members and say holy shit that’s an incredible story.

but sometimes – it’s nice to unplug. it’s nice to leave it all behind, not worry about it, not have any stress, and let go. it’s hard to do that ha – but it is nice once you get past the first few days.

and a few weeks ago, we did that. i was unaware but evidently there is this thing called a “babymoon” – where an expecting couple goes on one last hurrah before the baby comes, and so my wife and i went to naples, fl for 5 days and it was great. i tried my best to not look at my phone, my computer, and unplug. i messed up a few times – but i’d like to thank kale for telling me at one point to get the hell off and go enjoy time with my wife.

and that is what we did. we sat by the pool, we sat on the beach, we went on a few walks, and then we sat some more places. i drank lots of drinks – but the two best things about that trip – were the fact that i was able to read a ton and write a bit. that’s the trip that i started my book on. i wrote a solid 20-30 pages, and those pages are basically my outline for the entire book. that would make more sense, but i don’t want to give away anything about what i’m writing quite yet.

i got to read – one of the books i read is called “atomic habits” – it’s a wonderful book, and it’s a huge reason why i’ve decided to actually do this. write here, write my thoughts down. i would say write my feelings down…but i’m kind of a brick wall. emotions are stupid, i’m sure i’ll have multiple writings on that so if anyone out there does ever read this, don’t get too offended quite yet.

i got to spend time with my wife. something that i’m not always good about, something that i honestly try hard to make sure i do. it’s not that i don’t want to spend time with her, it’s that when you have a lot going on, it’s really easy to take the people close to you for granted. we just got to relax. neither one of us talk a whole lot, but we don’t have to. i once read a quote that went something like this, “you know she’s the one when you can sit in a room for an hour, not say a single word, and it not be awkward.” we got to sit with each other – granted most of the time she was sitting in the sun and i was sitting underneath the shade (the only other thing in this world i despise almost as much as emotions is the sun) – but it was relaxing, nice, and i didn’t have to worry or stress or try to get something done. i just got to sit there.

and while i was sitting at the pool or sitting on the beach reading or writing or just sitting there thinking beside my wife, i came to realize something. it was a weird thing to notice, but i did.

for most of the time when we were at the pool, we sat at the adult pool. it was one of those fancy places that has a “family pool” and then an “adult pool” where you have to be 18+ to sit by the pool. we happened to go to this place over a week where it was spring break at random places across the country, so there were quite a few kids there. i have nothing against kids, but when all i want to do is sit by the pool and drink my beer and read, it’s nice to not hear the screaming.

but while we were sitting there – i noticed that of the hundreds of other people at this place, i didn’t see a single other couple there, on vacation, relaxing and doing nothing under 30. none. i saw some in their 30s – some had kids. i saw a bunch in their 40s, mostly with kids. i saw a tonnn of people there over 50. but i honestly saw no other couples or people there just having a good time under 30. i thought there was a bachelorette party there and they were under 30, but brooke said they were over 30 so i was wrong.

isn’t it strange – that in the world that we live in, with all the resources we have access too, that most people under the age of 30 don’t take vacation days, are stressed beyond belief, are piled under student loans, and can’t make time to relax on a beach? granted, i’m sure there were people at plenty of other places, my sample size isn’t that big given it’s at one place in one city in florida. (i always remember how to spell florida by remembering the rapper flo rida.) – but i didn’t like it. i can only speak from the experience that i have, but i feel like i’m in my prime – i feel like now is the time when i need to be travelling, i need to be taking trips, i need to be doing things. maybe i’ll feel that way in 10 years, maybe i’ll feel the opposite. but people in 20s deserve to go out and see the world and enjoy the time we have been given.

time is the most valuable thing in the world – it’s the one thing that can’t be bought back, no matter how much money you have. and some of the best use of the most valuable resource on the planet for me – is unplugging.