“It’s not a balance…This work-life harmony thing is what I try to teach…I get asked about work-life balance all the time. And my view is, that’s a debilitating phrase because it implies there’s a strict trade-off…It actually is a circle.” –Jeff Bezos: Founder of Amazon
By the time you read this article, you might already need a vacation. Perhaps you just finished vacationing. Maybe your vacation felt more like work than rest. If any of these scenerios produce fatigue, I share the Jeff Bezos quote above.
Bezos made these comments at an awards event hosted by Business Insider in April of 2018. They are words that can benefit both yourself and your family.
Life and work rightly pushes us to be our best. Be it physical, emotional, professional, or more, we cannot escape doing things we otherwise wish we could avoid. While life’s expectations are correct, these expectations require rest.
Now reenter Bezo’s words about rest. At times work versus rest is viewed as a “trade-off,” but as Bezos suggests, its really a circle. Another way of understanding his point is to see the relationship between work and rest as a rhythm. Similar to our hearts, when our lives, relationships, even our health, when they are out of rhythm, everything else suffers.
It is essential then that we know how to push ourselves while identifying how to rest. Clinging to the adage of “I’ll rest when I’m dead” is not just unhealthy; it is the enemy of pushing ourselves towards our future potential.
Earlier I mentioned that rest could benefit both “you and your family.” Friends, when we learn how to rest than just pushing ourselves, our families will be thankful, and we will be glad too. As a result, a great place to discover useful rest techniques is with our families. Yes, we might need time to ourselves for personal rest, but including our families as part of our rest multiplies the renewed energy we obtain from overall rest.
Remember, regular rest is essential. Rest is healthy, it renews our energy, our families will love it, and rest will give us the strength to push harder in our occupations. Therefore, the next time you think, “I don’t have time to rest,” correct yourself. You do, and you need to find time to rest, it should be apart of your job as time away will increase your performance potential.
That’s a truth you can “rest” on!
