Just back from a great family vacation that took us from Ottawa down through Vermont, New Hampshire and into Maine where we kicked back and enjoyed the beach for a few days followed by some touring around Boston before heading home.

Along the way we enjoyed incredible sunsets, friendly people, some much needed time away from electronics, a beverage or two 🙂 and special times with my two boys and wonderful wife.

maine beach ogonquit We spent some time at Ogonquit beach in Maine, drove up the coast toward Katabunk and down through York and Portsmouth…our biggest enjoyment was one of the finest stretches of beach I have ever come across – as sandy and sandy can be with some wicked tides that make for extreme water fun and constantly changing swimming conditions

Have you ever been to Maine?  Love to hear your experiences, we are definitely heading back.

Got to thinking while I was down there how wonderful it is to have worked my butt off on my last few campaigns (a newly launched ebook in the personal development niche as well as a revamp of my InfoMarketer’sZone membership site).  Weeks before we headed away on vacation these two new (updated in the latter case) were chugging along very nicely generated automated income.

Aside from loading a few posts into my autoresponder and blog, getting away was a breeze unlike in the past where taking vacation seemed like a sin and definitely was not something you wanted to come back from.

This time it was different, getting away was easy, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire time away AND was eager to come back because I knew I had some really cool plans in the works heading into late summer and fall.

That’s what I call a stress-free vacation – not something I had ever experienced in the past.maine-small

As much as we enjoyed the trip, I managed to come up with some new ideas and renewed energy while sitting looking at the sunset over the rocky coastline just 5-minutes from our hotel.

Being in new places, experiencing new things brings with it wonderful inspiration, incredible energy and renewed motivation to get moving on some projects that we have pushed to the back of our minds.

Don’t get me wrong, I am an advocate of jumping into projects with 110% energy, but just as important is the reward of taking a few days and putting yourself and your family in a different place where you can experience adventure (walking on the Maine coast rocks at high tide, zip lining on the coast of Maine), romance (let’s just say there was some of that too) and wonderment at the power and beauty of Mother Nature – suddenly many things fall into place that were just not clicking before we left.

So now it is back to business, I can honestly say that the first two days back have been more productive than the 8 prior to leaving…that’s what it means to be refreshed and eager to get back.

cheers-smallHave you gotten away on your summer vacation yet?

Even if it’s a 2-night getaway, I highly recommend it as a way to recharge and refresh you – as entrepreneurs we don’t always see the forest for the trees when it comes to recognizing the benefit of a little down time within the fury of activity that we experience each day of our lives.

What are your thoughts, how important is your vacation to you?