I had a fantastic week of holiday last week. Unplugged my MacBook, removed social apps, and email from my phone and just went with the flow of a typical day in Spain. And then it just happened – new ideas kept flowing in—one after the other.

I wrote them all down, simple to not forget those inspirations. Some kept me thinking though – while I walked the dog in the valley, or while spending quality time in the hammock of our Indonesian cabaña in our garden. It was in the reflection where I got the Aha! Moments.

The danger of the treadmill

That learning experience made me realize how easy it is to get caught up in the treadmill and entirely focusing on ‘work.’ We never seem to be willing to pause, planning our reflective activities, and spending time on critical thinking. We think it’s not productive. We believe we have other, more essential tasks to deliver upon first – at least that’s my individual experience.

What’s essential or what’s not?

That short week of holiday not only fully relaxed me but also make me come back to work with a brighter picture of what was essential and whatnot. Unplugging allowed me to see the big picture again. It gave me a deeper understanding of when to say ‘No.’ And the ‘yesses’ that come so natural to me should be ‘Hell Yes!’

But there was more. The reflection gave me many meaningful learning moments. In the leadership role we have, we all have many inspirations – but too often, we don’t do anything with them. They sit there idle. Reflecting upon them through journaling, walking, or merely thinking things over various angles over a cup of espresso on our terras crystalized the real value for me. It enabled me not only to say ‘Hell yes’ or ‘Nope!’ – but more importantly, also giving me a vivid picture of the essential components to put things in motion – to start.

A brilliant idea is only valuable if actioned upon

This experience made me think about the purpose of the tribe we are building with tech-entrepreneurs from around the world. The tribe is not there to give all of us more ideas. It’s there to leverage our best ideas and use our platform’s private environment to make tangible progress on each of those (via the structured prompts, our peer group discussions, or reflective conversations with individual peers). Doing so enables us to deeply explore new paths, challenge our thinking, solve complex problems, remove our blind spots, and sharpen our thinking.

That’s where leveling up happens, don’t you agree?