11/11/2021

How to Have a Great Personal Planning Retreat

Here are some best practices to get greater success

This is the week when Diane and I are taking our annual personal planning retreat together. We’re not quite sure when we started this tradition but it was at least 25 years ago. As I’ve written about before, back in the early days we spent a weekend at a $25 a night cabin in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. This year, it’s a crisp November week on a South Carolina beach. We’ve lost track of all the venues and iterations of the years in between, but what we haven’t lost track of is the immense value in taking some dedicated days every year to look back and look ahead. The practice has proven to be a foundation of our marriage, our parenting, the business we run together and the overall life partnership we’ve created together.

People often ask us what we do on our retreat and how we do it. Here are the components that we’ve learned are important to have in our mix:

Get Away If You Can – A change of scenery makes it a lot easier to relax and reflect. It doesn’t need to be fancy; it just needs to be different than your usual place. We’ve had a few years where health or other life issues kept us from getting away. That’s better than not taking the time, but not as good as getting away.

Please select this link to read the complete blog post from the Eblin Group.