Jacey Verdicchio - A Children's Author

In light of the upcoming holidays and my recent posts on checklists and goals, I thought I’d take some time here to reflect on rest.

We’ve all heard it: get 6-8 hours of sleep each night.  If you don’t, you’ll spontaneously explode.  Okay, maybe not.  The effects of too little sleep are much more subtle, but over time affect the quality of our work and lives.  There is also something to be said for going to bed and getting up at about the same time every day.  But how many of us really do it?  Even if we know it’s healthy, there is no social value placed on rest.  Our culture places more value on being busy and important than it does on taking care of ourselves.  Overcommitting and saying “yes” to everything compromise our ability to be our best in all those activities.

Taking time off, particularly time away from your normal environment which will tempt you to be busy and productive, is not a luxury.  At least, it shouldn’t be.  How can we perform at our highest level when we never get a break longer than a weekend?  If we’re honest, we usually pack our weekends full of other types of work and social obligations so that they’re not exactly restful either.

I’ve been battling with the idea that I don’t “deserve” to take time off for Thanksgiving.  I’m not as close to my goals as I wanted to be by this time of year.  As Mike has said, you don’t have to “deserve” rest and time with your family.  You need it to do all the rest.  I just had to put that paragraph in here, because maybe someone else struggles with the same thoughts.

It is harder now than ever to turn things “off” and actually rest because of our addiction to constant connection with the world.  People are used to being able to reach us anytime.  What I’m going to attempt, and I invite you to join me, is to be present with the people I’m spending time with in person during the time off.  Even people we see everyday could benefit from our true attention without the distractions that define us the rest of the time.

It is during times of rest that our minds can slow down enough to acknowledge all the good things in our lives.  We can return with renewed thankfulness that it takes time to cultivate.  If we’re going through a tough time, a break can help us calmly and rationally reflect and devise our next move for a better 2012.  Too often, challenges make us reactive and frantic.  If we take some time to rest and be peaceful, God can direct us and we can go back with renewed energy to take the next step.

Darren Hardy has written two great blog posts relating to this topic.  I’ll post the links here.  The second one in particular was eye opening for me during a “I don’t deserve it” moment: