CSP 015 - Taking a creative personal retreat

And what I got wrong on my personal retreat

Jun 26, 2025

Hey Creative Souls,

I hope you are safe and well.

I’m very pleased to announce that my latest book “Workshop Mastery: Design, Teach & Engage Your Audience” is out now!

In today’s newsletter I will share about a personal retreat I did some time back:

What a retreat probably should look like
Why mine wasn’t so much a retreat
What I would do differently next time
Photos from the retreat
Video of the retreat

Let’s jump in.

Creative Personal Retreat

I’m not going to lie – my pillars of life were out of tension (and still are to some extent). With a heavy work schedule, a feeling a deep malaise after lockdown and a gnawing feeling that I should be creating more, I decided to take a little weekend retreat.

I chose a weekend personal retreat to focus on getting my podcast launched. This is work that has gnawed away at me for over a decade and I’ve simply been too scared to get it done.

What would the world think? Would it detract from my core business of consulting? Would I ever get it done?

Well, no more. I booked a tiny Airbnb, too tiny to be honest, and packed my recording gear (and cameras), and embarked on a not very well planned weekend retreat to Essendon, Herts.

Wherever you go, there you are

I ignored the typical personal retreat advice of having no big goals or fixed agendas, and instead set myself a goal of recording 50 podcast episodes in a weekend!

Ambitious, but as I explain in the video – I need these seemingly unsurmountable challenges to keep moving. I also share how I get on against my target, visit the village where an episode of The Avengers (TV show) was filmed and wax lyrical about life, local pubs and how to get the best from a retreat.

I’m very grateful and lucky to be able to take a personal retreat like this and I was determined not to squander this privilege.

But, as Jon-Kabat Zinn pointed out, wherever you go there you are….and I certainly discovered that. (Amazon affiliate link)

Watch the video. Or read on to see what I learned from this – and how I would conduct the next one differently.

Please note, as I transition my YouTube branding over from Cultivated Management, videos like this one will still include in-video references to Cultivated Management.

Personal Retreat Basics

The idea of a personal retreat is getting away from it all. The general advice seems to be:

Find somewhere in nature or somewhere peaceful
Have no fixed plans and instead be carried by nature and your emotions
Eat clean, sleep, don’t indulge
Be at one with yourself with limited distractions

My version didn’t go along those lines.

I did find somewhere near to nature, but it wasn’t overly peaceful. A country road ran past the tiny (I have said how small this place was) Air B ‘n’ B. It seemed to be a favourite road for people with fast bikes and fast cars – both of which had loud exhausts. It was NOISY!
I had a very fixed plan – record 50 episode, but I also planned some walks and the garden are was very conducive to watching the sunset
I ate well but did discover a local pub…
I was at one with myself, had limited internet connectivity and had a clear focus. My mind wanders hence I set some concrete goals.

Here’s a doodle that explains what I should have done differently.

An image of a notebook showing the steps to a great personal retreat — A picture of my notebook

This is a pretty rubbish doodle of the air bnb – tiny – did I mention that? With some ideas on what I would do differently – and what to look out for the next time I do it.

Personal Retreat Checklist for future retreats

Personal Retreat Wish List (If I’m lucky enough to do one again) and some things to consider if you’re doing your own.

Define a clearer purpose (switch off, or productivity)
Cheap
Fire-pit and BBQ with outdoor space
Near nature or in nature – access to walks and rural life
A good pub nearby serving food
Just enough cameras to do the job of filming it – I took more gear than I used
A clear creative goal – but maybe not so ambitious as recording 50 episodes of a podcast (I did manage to record 23, plus some “How To” videos, plus plenty of photos).
Maybe next time I need wi-fi. Not sure about this – it will tank my productivity but will cut down on data costs.
Paper, pens, colouring stuff – I enjoyed doodling whilst the sun set
Clean food

I did enjoy my personal retreat and I’m very grateful I had the chance to do this. I very much enjoyed it and got stuff done. I would love the chance to do another one but let’s see how money, time etc goes this year.

Thanks for reading this article. If you enjoyed this edition of CSP, feel free to share it with others.

Until next time, where I’ll be sharing more ideas about creativity, learning and communication.

Cheers

Rob..

Support Creative Soul Projects

Creative Soul Projects is a reader supported creative outlet.

Your support and membership has helped to create lots of great content, and useful resources for other creative souls, around creativity, communication and personal learning.

If you’d like to support CSP, consider buying the following: