I have a new concept in my vocabulary that we are mulling over here at MOD – rest ethic.
We are all familiar with work ethic – as entrepreneurs, we are ambitious, disciplined, driven, and productive people. We can get a lot done in a short period of time, focused on goals and tasks and visions and strategy and organizing and prioritizing and and and….
This week I was lucky to have a coaching session scheduled for 6 am on Thursday morning. I had my whole day planned:
- Coaching session at 6 am
- Kids breakfast and school organizing at 7 am
- School drop off at 8:30 am
- Work 9 – 11 am
- Kindergarten pick up/daycare drop off at 11:30 am
- Client calls from 12-1 pm, financial review from 1-3, then school pick up ….
- And and and…
These are not impossible tasks, but I spoke to my coach about my overwhelming to-do list, asking for strategies to reprioritize and organize my to-do list … and she asked me to pause and reflect on one question:
“What kind of life are you trying to create?”
We then talked about rest ethic, a concept that is new to me. We focused on how rest is required to be productive. Being productive isn’t an issue for women like me … the issue is not “work ethic” … the issue is that we don’t practice resting so that we can maximize our full productivity.
This month we are focusing on cleaning up processes and systems. We’ve pulled so much out of the closet in preparation for the next season in our business so to speak and as we all know, cleaning up can result in more clean up and projects to plan for. As part of this clean up, I’m making a plan to tackle what is sitting in front of me and packing up some pieces to work on next week, next month, next quarter, or next year. As part of this, I’m working to build in rest in my structural time blocks as much as I focus on building in business development, financial analysis, HR management, etc.
Taking rest is not only a way to practice compassion, it’s a structural requirement that the business needs to ensure that it is functioning optimally. Recharging the battery fully allows my team and I to operate more efficiently and for longer.
Rest creates sustainability for the business.
Rest is a practice. Rest is a discipline.
Today, after a full 9 hours of sleep last night, I felt recharged to tackle small bits of business work, house work, and family work. This weekend, I am also building in blocks of time to rest so that I can operate at maximum capacity for myself, my family, and my business.