Wow, it’s April. Of 2022…

For a while there, life felt like it was moving in slow motion. We were locked down at home, wishing we could go out and about and get back to our lives. Now that we’re back to our lives, life feels like it’s moving in fast forward. We are rushing from Point A to Point B, wishing we could go back to long days on the couch with no social obligations or office visits (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday).

Funny how that works.

The underlying pattern that forms when we take a look at how time feels is that we’re not as present as we aim to be. The grass is always greener with our schedule, wishing for the weekend when it’s Tuesday and scared for the work week when it’s Sunday. We miss travel until we realize we need to deal with TSA. We love vacation until we realize we’re out of our routine.

Funny how that works.

One of the biggest inconsistencies we see in our community, whether it’s talking to someone on a retreat or working with a private client, is a lack of priority placed on rest. Some wasted it while we were at home with all the time in the world to improve it and some now crave it when it isn’t readily available.

Rest = Recovery

Proper “rest” is actually recovery, and it’s an active process. It’s not binge watching junk TV or scrolling social media after a long day; while we might think “zoning out” is good rest for our brain, it isn’t a productive way to move the needle forward on feeling better, it’s simply an escape from feeling worn out.

We’re always trying to do more, push harder, squeeze more in, which is reflected in our “work hard play hard” attitudes, our trying to sneak the last bit of work in during the evening between dinner and bed, striving for more achievement and increased levels of caffeine in our diet.

What Proper Rest Can Do

Placing a higher value on rest allows us to do two things at once:

1) Give our brain a rest from difficult, productive, focused work

2) Allow ourselves the space to figure out which direction to point our rocket ship next

The goal is to be BOTH effective and efficient; in other words, do the right thing and do the right thing well (instead of running fast in a direction we don’t want to head just because we didn’t have the break or awareness to even realize we were off course, which is often a function of mindless busyness).

This starts with placing a higher value on rest.

The end goal? Work, have fun, rest, repeat.

That’s the best day ever.