This week, I find myself preparing to set sail in the British Virgin Islands, where I’ll be spending seven days aboard a catamaran with some of my favorite humans. What makes this trip different from my recent world travels (including heli-skiing in British Columbia and masterminding in Cabo) is its delicious lack of purpose.
No networking. No business development. No personal growth objectives.
Just space.
I’ve noticed something interesting about us entrepreneurs. We’re masters at optimizing, maximizing, and “biggering.” Even our downtime gets hijacked by the constant drive to improve. We turn vacations into networking opportunities and rest into “productive recovery.”
I catch myself doing this all the time. My recent travels have been incredible, but they’ve all been tied to some larger purpose – speaking engagements, mastermind events, business development, or adventure. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s profound power in occasionally doing things for absolutely no reason at all.
This hit home for me recently when I caught myself reaching for my phone while waiting in line at the grocery store. The mere prospect of thirty seconds of unstructured time was enough to trigger an immediate escape into distraction. When did we become so uncomfortable with empty space?
We’re so addicted to productivity that we’ve forgotten how to simply be.
This is why I’ve started intentionally incorporating fiction reading into my routine. Between all the business books, personal development, and financial theory, I make sure to throw in a novel every few months. Not to learn anything. Not to grow. Just to let my mind wander into different worlds and possibilities without any agenda.
The same principle applies to taking solo retreats. A couple of times a year, I’ll block out a weekend with absolutely nothing scheduled. No goals. No plans. Just space to be alone with my thoughts. The first day is usually uncomfortable – our minds aren’t used to this kind of emptiness. But by day two, something magical starts to happen. The mental chatter quiets down. The constant pressure to optimize releases its grip. And in that space, true insights often emerge.
But here’s the thing: you don’t need a week on a catamaran or a weekend retreat to start practicing this. Start small. Can you sit in a coffee shop for 30 minutes without pulling out your phone? Can you take a walk without listening to a podcast? Can you give yourself permission to read a book purely for enjoyment?
The irony isn’t lost on me that I’m writing a newsletter about the importance of taking space… while on a boat in the Caribbean. But perhaps that’s exactly the point. Even this moment of reflection wasn’t planned – it emerged naturally from the space I created.
True wealth isn’t just about financial freedom. It’s about having the courage to occasionally step off the optimization treadmill and simply exist. To do things that have no point. To get comfortable being bored. To trust that sometimes, the most productive thing we can do is absolutely nothing at all.
So here’s my invitation: where can you create some purposeless space in your life?
What would it feel like to do something simply because it brings you joy, with no ulterior motive?
What might emerge if you gave yourself permission to occasionally do nothing at all?
To finding freedom in the empty spaces,
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