Hey, it’s Bob Negen. And sometimes I do a man on the street. Today I’m doing a man on the trail episode of Real Retail TV. And what I’d like to talk about today is a counterintuitive stress reduction technique. And what I’m talking about is taking more time off. There is some bird just squawking up there.

But little backstory– my oldest son Joe– what’s the matter, Sam? Oh, there you go. My oldest son Joe and I were going to take a week and go camping when he got done with his first year of college. Well, it was busy in the office. And it kept getting moved back and moved back. And then we finally put it on the schedule for this week.

Monday we had a meeting. And it was– this just isn’t going to work. There’s so much going on in the office. Joe is an intern with us this year. He’s got a big project. So we scrapped the trip to the Smoky Mountains that we’re going to take. But then Joe had the brilliant idea of let’s just go for a day– camp for a night and hike for a day.

And so here’s the counterintuitive stress reduction technique. Take some time off. You see, I was feeling really overwhelmed. And Joe was feeling really overwhelmed– lots of things to do. But I’ll tell you what– just camping last night and walking all day today, being on Lake Michigan, I feel so much better. Let me share another story.

Mickey Sampson drove from Altoona, Pennsylvania, to Grand Haven for a day in the office. And what she shared with us after her day was that she came and expected to leave with a big list of things that she needed to get done to help her build her business to the next level. But what she left with was the fact that, really, she needed to do less things– more of the right things and less of lots of things.

And so when you think about your day or your week or your month or where you are right now, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, if you’re feeling stressed out, it’s probably a good sign that you don’t need to do more. You need to do less. I don’t know if you can go camping for a night. Or I don’t know if you can go for a whole day and go for a hike out in nature. But take some time. Find some space. And I think what you’ll find is although it’s counterintuitive, you’ll feel a lot better for it.

So action item– take some time. Relax, enjoy yourself. Let the stress go. Have a good time. I’m Bob Negen. I’m on the trail. And this is another episode of Real Retail TV.