3 things I learned on my creative retreat
This November I went on my first ever creative retreat. I use “creative retreat” loosely since I just booked an airbnb in the woods and spent 3 days there with my dog. It turned out to be surprisingly productive and valuable - sometimes going to a new environment (without clutter and toys everywhere) is exactly what’s needed to clear the mind. I thought I’d share more about my experience here, and encourage you to go on a retreat of your own!
What my goal was:
I wanted to get in touch with what I want and need for my life right now, and figure out how I can structure my business around that. I had my first child last December, and over the past year I’ve realized that the status quo of my business isn’t working for me anymore, and I knew I couldn’t just keep on keepin’ on. Going into the retreat, I had written down a couple specific questions I wanted to answer about my business related to offerings I wanted to stop, continue, and expand.
What I did:
I wanted to spend at least 1 day decompressing so that I could be in a more reflective state. I explored the town, drove to the continental divide, did some hiking, and went to a lovely hot spring. I also brought some art supplies to play around with. I didn’t actually think about my business until the end of my second day there, but by the time I sat down to journal, the insights and ideas came rushing out.
What I learned:
Assess your intuition with numbers. I noticed that there was part of my business I wasn’t enjoying as much anymore, but I couldn’t justify cutting off that income stream because it was the biggest part of my revenue. However, when I dove deeper and started breaking down the numbers in different ways and looking at margins, a different story emerged. I believe it’s important to listen to your gut, but when it comes to business decisions, it’s also important to look closely at the numbers to fully understand your decisions.
Sometimes your business gets away from you. Sometimes as you grow, you start creating things that people want to buy, that you might not love to create. As my business grew, clients started to ask for larger and larger signage displays - walls and backdrops of different shapes and sizes, and fonts that weren’t my calligraphy. No doubt these things look amazing, and I’m always drawn to unique ideas…but I realized that I don’t love what large displays entail - designing them to be structurally sound, transporting them, and the physical labor involved with working on them. This is still an area that I’m trying to figure out where my boundaries are, but at least I’m aware that I need to draw some boundaries.
Creating doesn’t equate to a finished product. The initial idea for this retreat came from seeing artists participate in residency programs, where artists typically come away with some new work. I went into this with an idea for a piece that I wanted to create. Turns out my idea didn’t work well in practice (it involved watercolor on vellum, which crinkled up with the water). Instead of pressuring myself to create a finished piece, I embraced the experimentation and threw everything away at the end. I loved letting go of that idea that I had to have “something to show” and just enjoyed the time as play time. After all, this was a 3 day retreat, not a months-long residency!
What I would do differently:
I absolutely loved having this time away and would love to do a retreat at least once a year. I would try to add on an extra day (for a total of 3 nights / 4 days) though, especially since the first and last days were travel days. The “relax → create → reflect on biz” flow worked well for me, and while I did the relax part well, I wanted more time for the other parts.
What does your ideal creative retreat look like? Drop a comment below and let me know!
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