W.I.N. Wednesday: Learn to do this without guilt.
The following was shared recently on The Daily Coach blog:
Rest Without Guilt
If you need to rest, rest without guilt.
There's so much going on in the world all of the time. Sometimes everything feels too heavy.
Your body will fight rest because you remember all of the people you feel are being more productive than you.
But sometimes the most productive thing you can do is rest. Learning to take care of yourself will only make you more productive in the future.
Source: Jacqueline Whitney, All That You Deserve
The reason this jumped out at me is because if generally suck at this, as many probably people do. Why? Partly because of the constant messages we get regarding how to achieve success in life such as:
You have to grind it out.
Never quit because quitters never win, and winners never quit.
Sleep is overrated. You can sleep when you are dead.
·The top performers only sleep a few hours a day and make effective use of every waking hour.
While you are resting your “competition” is putting in the work to beat you.
We glorify people who make it through Special Operations selection in the military, but never talk about people who were unsuccessful and went on to have very successful and fulfilling lives and careers.
While movies like Rocky may be entertaining and inspiring, they send the message that you need to be willing to sacrifice your mental and physical health to achieve success in life.
Some in the fitness space promote the mentality that you push yourself to absolute failure in every workout if you want the best results.
For the most part social media, advertising and Hollywood fail to glorify the importance of rest and recovery. We often talk about the work ethic of the best athletes, and rarely, if ever, talk about their rest and recovery rituals. For me, I am always thinking about all the things I need to get done and feel guilty about not doing them.
We are, however, starting to see a shift. There are more people talking about the importance of sleep for health and longevity than ever before. Dan Dworkis MD PhD, an emergency room physician, author of The Emergency Mind and host of The Emergency Mind Podcast has a 4-step model to perform at your best under pressure – Prepare, Perform, Recover and Evolve. Dan talks about the importance of both micro recovery and macro recovery. Sport and Performance psychologist Alex Auerbach PhD recently wrote about the important elements of mindset, including the Recovery Mindset where you view recovery as an investment. Steve Magness is his must-read book Do Hard Things challenges us to rethink the concept of “toughness”.
There are times when you just need to suck it up and push through and get the task or project finished. If your life, however, is a constant barrage of suck it up and push through, it will come at a significant cost physically, mentally and emotionally.
What’s Important Now? Learn to rest without guilt. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is rest.
Take care.
Brian Willis
www.lifesmostpowerfulquestion.com
ONE QUESTION BRINGING FOCUS AND CLARITY IN THE CHAOS AND COMPLEXITY OF TODAY'S WORLD.
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