Memorial Day weekend

Another pretty picture that doesn't have anything
to do with anything. This one is the view from
our carport. (Anyone who reads my personal blog
has seen a few of these.) (I love where I live!)

So what plans do you have for this Memorial Day weekend? Cookout with friends? Trip to the lake? Movies? Sounds good. Whatever you're planning, make sure you take the weekend off.

I know for some businesses, that's impossible. My friend Ian, of Highland Landscaping, works most Saturdays, and every Saturday during decent yard work weather. On the other hand, he completely unplugs on Sundays, spending time with his three little girls because that's what daddies need to do. Regularly.

If you work for, or run, a corporation, you get days off. If you're a professional, like a physician or attorney, you set your office hours (or you work for a hospital or law firm, aka a corporation). This message is more for the entrepreneur, the small business owner or consultant who feels the need to work all the time. You may have read that being an entrepreneur is 24/7. You're never off, never not working. I'm here to tell you that that idea is

1. Crap
2. The short path to lunacy.

Your business, no matter how closely aligned with or perfectly reflective of your passion, is your job. You have a life. Get it? That's your job. This is your life. They are not the same. And it's a very bad idea to live as though they are. You need a life that's separate from your work. One of my all-time favorite TV shows, Angel, had one of my favorite characters (Lorne) say one of my favorite quotes:

It's like a song…I can hold a note forever. But eventually that's just noise. It's the change we're listening for. The note coming after and the one after that. That's what makes it music.

It's the change that makes it music, and it's the change that makes a full life, which you're missing if all you do is focus on your business, all the time. Don't get me wrong, we need to work hard. But we also need more than just work.

If you have children, you're going to look back someday and wonder how they got so big so fast, as though it happened when you weren't looking. Where did the time go? If you don't have children, you're going to wonder the same thing about yourself, or your significant other, or your pets, or your social circle, or your neighborhood or hobbies or lifestyle….Trust me, things change, and as much as you enjoy something, the one thing you better be prepared to do is let it go and move on.

But before that happens…now is your chance to enjoy it. Right now. This weekend. This weekend.

So, take the weekend off. Remember the fallen heroes who sacrificed everything to give us the freedom to cookout with friends or go to the movies if we happen to feel like it.

And enjoy.