When Is Your Weekend?

This past week my family and I took an impromptu vacation.

It was kind of like those “Wanna Get Away” trips that Southwest Airlines advertises.?

It was Saturday afternoon and we were sitting in our home watching the rain pour, so with a quick check of the calendar ?? and the weather ?? forecast for the week ahead, we decided to pack our bags??and head down to Cape Cod Sunday morning.?

The 4-night getaway was just what the doctor??????recommended.?

We were able to spend more quality time as a family at the beach, at the breweries, at Putt-Putt, and at the local restaurants for our early bird 530pm dinners so that Crew could still make his 730 bedtimes.?

While down there I came to the realization of three things:

1. Autonomy is awesome! If I was still working for someone else then I would never have been able to take such a short notice vacation. But since I own my work, I own my schedule and own my life.?
2. Habits and routines are important, but flexibility is paramount. You can ignore this comment if you are single and have no one that you are responsible for, but if you are a parent, a loving partner, or even a dog owner you cannot be as rigid with your schedule as you may like. That doesn’t mean you cannot still get done what you want to get done, you just might have to do it in a different order or on a different timeline than you originally planned. For instance, when I am not on vacation I work a more traditional day of 8-6, but when I am on vacation I might wake up, work from 5:30-7:30, then do a quick run or HIT workout to remain in good health, followed by a few hour walk with the family (Waffles included), then nap time for the kid to give me a few hours to do more work, followed by full on family time before closing out my day with a few hours to catch up on urgent items before bed. I am able to accomplish nearly as much as I do in a traditional day because I am able to stay laser-focused for those chunks of time vs trying to slug through a 10-hour day of “no distractions.”
3. Don’t lose track of the reason you work so hard. Although it may not look like it, I work hard. I work hard because I want to be present with my family. My kids will never understand why daddy is on this call or typing into his laptop, they will understand if daddy is not spending time with them. The goal in my life and hopefully in your life is not to become the wealthiest person in the world, but the person with the best financial freedom in the world. The difference is that wealth is a $ amount whereas financial freedom is the ability to live life on your own terms. Sure you can still make a lot of money, but that isn’t your primary goal because the richest man in the graveyard??is still dead.?

The best part that came out of this trip was that we realized we could easily do this again while keeping the train on the tracks.???

So with that, what is stopping??you from living like this??

Go ahead and write down all the excuses and reasons as to why you would never be able to do this.?

Then once you are done writing the excuses shoot me a message??and we can talk through how we can reduce or remove those barriers??to success.?

It won’t happen overnight, but as they always say, Rome??wasn’t built in one day.?

What are the building blocks??you need to create your Rome?

Be happy, be free.???

Dan Cosgrove is a partner at Anthem Capital.

Dan is a native of Cincinnati and is based out of Boston with his wonderful wife, cute baby, and dumb dog named Waffles.?

He is an entrepreneur and real estate investor that would love?to connect?to see how he can add value and joy to your life.