social media weekend challenge don't tweet it awayWhat is a weekend anymore? We look forward to them, but why? Are we enjoying them?  When we are lucky, weekends are a time for us all to enjoy some down time with family and friends. Regardless of your role; business leader in corporate, an entrepreneur, small business owner, intern or worker bee… it is easy for us to lose track of why we are doing what we do.

As entrepreneurs I think many of us look at weekends as a time to “get ahead”.  A two day period when we can take time off of client meetings, networking groups and work on projects like website upgrades, sales pipeline, new informational product roadmap, content strategies or simply waste an hour tweeting and surfing Facebook.

Particularly for those of us living our dreams, building a business that ignites, monetizes and integrates our passions, it doesn't seem like work.  We are so excited and in to what we are doing it is hard to turn off the work brain and switch to weekend mode.  Often times we spend a weekend with iPhone or Twitter connected 24/7 before we notice it's Monday morning and we wonder where the weekend went.  We wonder why the laundry is still piled in the laundry room on Sunday night at 10 pm.  Not that this has ever happened to me, ha!

Social media adds another layer of weekend wasting.  It's far too easy to get carried away with tweets and twits, Facebook share and likes, posts, fan pages, opt-in boxes, widgets, affiliate programs and more.

We often lose track of why we are doing what we do! Aren't we doing what we do to enjoy life? To have a better life? To spend time with friends and family?

Being a  Type A, over achiever, Tweeting addict, social media lover, content warrior, blogger, CEO, as well as an ROI and data junkie I can find a million things to do on a Saturday afternoon that unfortunately does not involve a beach, a comfy chair and a drink with a cute lil' umbrella straw.  Therefore, this post is written to help myself as I too am an admitted weekend work warrior!

This weekend I am pledging to turn off my digital life for some solid blocks of time.   I am going to take time to connect with my family and friends.  I spend all week connecting with my Twitter followers, Facebook fans and friends and the list goes on.  It's my belief our loved ones deserve the dedicated time they are yearning for!

It is important you take the time to enjoy life so you can connect with yourself.  Connect with your WHY!  Celebrate what you have accomplished and where you are headed.  Free your mind, body and spirit to work smarter not harder for the remainder of 2010.  Recharge your inner being so that you can feed your audience a plate of inspiration on Monday.  Freeing our minds from tweets and twits enables us to take our thoughts up a few levels, back up to the vision level.  When we do this we can also help our audience go there.

The Challenge:

1. Take a weekend!

2. Re-connect with yourself

3. Dig out your passions and your “why you are in this business”

4. Prepare your mind so that Monday you can help your audience, clients, partners and friends reach their WHY

Are you in for the challenge? If yes, Tweet about it and copy @PamMktgNut, post on my Facebook Fan page! Commit and live life!

If we focus on the why, the objectives and goals it enables success.  Focusing on only tactics will get you a list that is crossed with “x's” but will do little to enable you to schedule and book that next mini-vacation or  weekend on a nice warm beach, with no screaming kids and umbrella straw hanging on the side of your drink of choice!

I am going to take the time to hang with my kiddos, hubby and best friends.  I am going to reconnect with myself and my family.  Yes, I will probably think of my business as I will need professional therapy to fully turn off the mind for 3 days, not joking!  However, instead of thinking about Twitter or Facebook I am pledging to think about my vision with a focus on what I have accomplished versus what I need to do.

Life is not about how many Twitter followers we have, number of people who have clicked like on our fan page.  Life is about living folks, not tweeting!  It's about executing to live our WHY not just dream about it!

Your Turn!

Will you pledge to enjoy your weekend?  Turn off your digi brain if even for a few hours at a time?