“I constantly remind myself that resting takes confidence.” – Ryan Hall
Megan Guilbert, ProSeed Forward Life Coaching, LLC
Here in America, we live in a go, go, go mentality and lifestyle. We are constantly rushing around, fighting our own battles of committing to too many things, adding to much to our plate, and not saying no. We feel the societal pressure of being busy, always having something to do and somewhere to be.
I’m not saying that the go, go, go lifestyle and mentality is going to change and I am not saying that it is a bad thing either. The point of this blog post is to help you to understand that you need to take a break and allow yourself to rest. You need to be able to value break and rest time, you need to prioritize it, you need to give yourself permission to slow the heck down and re-charge.
I think of life like a pendulum. When you’re in the middle you’re at zero, you are balanced. You’re cruising. However, at some point your pendulum is going to swing one way and it may stay on that one side for a while, it may get even higher as you continue to push hard and take strides forward in specific areas of your life. That can be a good thing and it is necessary!
However, when your pendulum swings that high to one side and stays there for a while, it is even more necessary and more important to let the pendulum swing back to the other side just as high as it got on the opposite. Just like you experienced extreme work, extreme growth, and extreme productivity on one side. Allow that pendulum to swing back just as far on the other side, but on this side, you experience extreme rest, extreme recovery, extreme break time.
We are human beings. One person can have higher ‘work rate’ threshold then then the next. But no matter who you are, no matter what you do, no matter what you tell yourself – you still need to rest, and you still must take a break.
Professional runner, Ryan Hall said, “I constantly remind myself that resting takes confidence. Anyone can train like a mad man, but to embrace rest and allow the hard training to come out takes mental strength” (Quotefancy, n.d.). When you allow yourself to take a break and rest, it might feel uncomfortable, especially if you have been pushing very hard for a long time. It is important to realize that it does take strength and confidence to give yourself that permission and time ‘off’. It takes recognizing and accepting that you have put in time, effort, energy, focus and now it is time to re-charge so you can continue to do that in the future.
If you are reading this and you are thinking to yourself, “No, no – not me. I can’t take a break, I need to keep up, keep moving forward” well then this part is definitely for you.
Taking a break allows you to gain a new perspective, it allows you to find solutions to the problems you have been facing. It gives you the space to refuel and recharge and then move yourself forward with larger steps in less time.
When you don’t take a break, you can become stagnant and slow to figure things out. Frustrated, tired, and burnt out is no way to work, be productive or move forward.
I’m not saying that you must take a break for six months of the year. I’m just saying that you need to take some weekends off and put your work to the side. You need to take some time away, time for yourself, time to connect with other people. You need to take a day off. You need to take a minute to catch your breath and breathe.
Taking a break and resting is more important than we realize. Schedule a weekend or day off. Do something for yourself.
Take a break and rest!
- Megan Guilbert MSW, M.Ed, CPC
- ProSeed Forward Life Coaching, LLC
- Email: proseedforward@gmail.cm
- Website: https://proseedforwardlc.com/
- Instagram: @proseed.fwd
References:
Quotefancy. (n.d.). Ryan Hall Quotes. Quotefancy. https://quotefancy.com/quote/1634643/Ryan-Hall-I-constantly-remind-myself-that-resting-takes-confidence-Anyone-can-train-like
Wikimedia Commons. (n.d.). Pendulum Gif. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pendulum-no-text.gif
ProSeed Forward Life Coaching, LLC 
