Stop whatever you’re doing right now
Hands up if you subscribe to the view that a change is as good as a rest? I’m pretty sure I’ve virtually hear those words tumble from the mouths of most of at some point in your business or private lives.
So forgive me if I now proceed to rain on your parade…. because I’m here to tell you that it’s actually categorically not true.
Change all you like – or don’t, you choose. But when it comes to rest…stop whatever you’re doing right now (well, once you get to the end of this blog!) and go and put it top of your agenda.
Whether you run an online time management planner, spreadsheet, hard copy diary, wall calendar…whatever your preferred method of scheduling your life looks like, go and write down those four most important letters all over it – REST.
Because like it or not, it’s as important to timetable in rest as it is those high-level calls, that can’t miss meeting, your partner’s birthday, kids’ sporting events, performance review…I could go on but you get the picture.
When it comes to showing up as our best self at work, we wouldn’t dream of cancelling any of those calls, meetings or deadlines would we? Whatever impression would it give to those around us if that were the case?
Yet we’re prepared routinely to put off the one thing we actually need for optimum all round performance – REST.
I don’t mean grabbing a quick coffee in the corridor with a colleague in place of an agenda- led meeting or a five-minute water cooler chat or crafty cigarette break away from your desk. I’m talking REAL rest here. Rest where you totally switch off, step away from your phone and other distracting devices, properly clear your head and stop mentally racing to the next challenge that needs addressing.
This isn’t a new bandwagon for me to jump on – it’s a topic dear to my heart and I’ve written about before and is something I’m keenly aware of and benefit from enormously myself – when I remember!
But I sense looking around me, others perhaps also need to be reminded of it as we start to emerge from what has been collectively one of the most traumatic periods of our lifetime.
The pandemic has been mentally exhausting for everyone in one way or another – debilitating illness, loss of liberty, sadly unimaginable loss of life, government edicts on how to live our lives, constantly changing goalposts on what is and isn’t acceptable or allowed.
Yet as we learn to adjust to a new normal, we are riddled with uncertainty about how everything will pan out.
Add to that the fact that no sooner had all COVID restrictions been lifted than we found our media sources filled with horrific war stories and it is no wonder people’s nerves are frayed and we face a new kind of uncertainty. We have to consider very carefully what we say to people as we don’t know their pandemic reality and how they might react to the simplest of comments.
In some ways even more than before the pandemic struck, we are beholden to the ‘always on’ ideal – never wanting to miss the what’s next, the potential breakthrough, the new next best thing.
It’s exhausting.
And somewhere in the midst of all this, we’ve somehow forgotten to switch off – ever.
Properly stepping away to recharge our mental batteries can take many forms – I’m a fan of meditation or yoga, you might prefer a nature walk, one where you truly engage with your surroundings, look, listen, appreciate the beauty and calm.
Having PTSD since the train crash, I have always had to be careful what I mentally ask my brain to cope with. A recent house move during the lockdown restrictions, a renovation project, extensive travelling and dealing with tradespeople has become a full time job in itself.
I now realise it has taken a lot out of my body and yet at the same time, I’ve had to keep my business life ticking over.
Key to juggling all that successfully has been rest. Lots of it.
Without it, we run the risk of presenteeism – turning up for work but not as the best version of ourselves. We are simply going through the motions.
Rest grants us the chance to re-energise, be more creative, more productive. In short, more useful.
So before you do anything else, go to the top of your to do list and schedule your next proper rest period.
"Rest and self-care are so important. When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve others from the overflow. You cannot serve from an empty vessel."
