The Power of REST

I come from a background where all the people in my family WORK. Work from the ages of 14 years old and never stop working. Long hours, 8 days a week (no not a typo), and even at home there was me typing away, working on my side hustles and dreams. Just hours and hours of work. You may be from that same mentality, where you prefer not to ask anyone else to help you do anything especially when you can just learn to do it yourself. Right? In your mind, if you take a rest or a break, you were deemed lazy or not as serious about your work.

While I was in Corporate America, I never unplugged. I was a high producer in IT recruiting, and I constantly wanted to outdo my last achievement. I thought that if I never unplugged or stopped to rest, that I could achieve the success that I desired. I ended up with achieving success but not in the areas that I wanted to be successful. I was successful in stress, anxiety, and low work esteem (I was never satisfied). I would bring my cellphone with me to the dinner table, be talking to my children and husband while emailing candidates at the same time. If Hindsight is 20/20, what a horrific view!

After leaving my job, I proceeded to bring that same "No rest, more stress" mindset into my  coaching business. I worked every minute, every hour of every day and went into double hustle mode because now, my livelihood was depending on it (so I thought). My marriage suffered, my friendships that I had started to foster diminished, and my hobbies and passions were non existent, my daughter which was barely talking would reach for Daddy because that's who she "counted on". I was gaining a little traction but not nearly as much as I did when I was working both my full time job and side gig business. Now that I was full time business owner and giving FULL time hours, I wasn't seeing what I thought I should see.

As a woman of faith, I started to doubt what I was called to do in business. I began to feel as though I just made a mistake! And I thought, "Wait a minute, where is GOD?... I thought I was doing what I was called to do."

I went into heavy prayer and meditation. I fasted from social media and emails and phone calls and blogging. I took a REST. In that rest, I began to SEE better. Meaning, my mind was now unplugging from all the busy work that I was previously doing and I began to have thoughts that were clearer and more streamlined to my purpose. I started writing more about my aspirations and then the writing began to spill over to podcasting (I still don't even know how that happened). But I began  podcasting about being more intentional about 7 key areas in your life: Self, Home, Collaboration, Business/Career, Influence, Finance, & Belief/Faith. Those exercises and mindset shifts literally came from a season of rest.

In my rest, I wasn't thinking about my skewed idea of success. My previous idea of success meaning I only equated success to money. That was my first mistake... In my rest, I realized how MUCH success had nothing to do with money but more or less it was the freedom from it for me. Now, here's a disclaimer, my success is going to be different than yours and your success will be different than my own. So for me, I realized that having a strong relationship with my husband was success for me. Being able to wake up every morning and homeschool my two children was success for me. I realized that having time to help volunteer and serve at my church was success for me...(have you noticed I still haven't touched money??). I realized that truly making an impact in other people's lives and showing them how to be intentional in their careers and business was my idea of SUCCESS.

Once I rested, I understood success. The next thing I knew, I was auditing my time. I began to learn how to say NO, and when to say yes. I began to work a schedule of 2 days a week and the rest of those days focus on my family, marriage, and ministry. That's the place I am in now and I feel more happy now than I have ever felt in life. So if you feel as though you are over stressed and underpaid, re-evaluate where you are putting your energy. Relax, Release, and REST.