Rest is a necessary form of motion

Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad! Happy Holidays! Good Tidings of Joy, Peace and Prosperity!

The holidays are here! Time has run out. You've bought it all and the gifts are wrapped and under the tree. It's now time to sit back and take a moment to feel the glory of having shared love, peace, and happiness with family, friends, employees, clients, and so many more.

If you are like me, this moment is the reward at the end of the rainbow.

You've done things all year long with the objective of creating opportunities for others to achieve their goals and realize their wildest dreams.

It's now time for you to rest, and I do mean rest.

I look forward to taking a mental break. In fact, every year for my first 19 years in business, I took the week between Christmas and New Years as a vacation week. Mainly because my daughters were off from school for a long break, which meant it was a really good time for me to settle down and spend some quality time with them.

However, when they both went off to college, I didn't continue to honor that time. Because they were busy crafting their lives, I felt I didn't need the time off as much. So I made the HUGE mistake of working during the holidays, and for the last four years that's what I've done.

But let me tell you, I've felt the difference. Staying in overdrive ALL year long without the mental and physical break between years has taken a toll. Even thought I've honored taking time off throughout each year, I've felt somewhat depleted, out of balance and out of control as I've entered each new year. But because I've had goals, I kept it moving. I realize today, that was a HUGE mistake.

Leaving paid time off on the table is a sin!

Those words come from the Reverend Doctor Howard-John Wesley, Head Pastor of Alfred Street Baptist Church. He shared this in an interview on WHUR FM and the Daily Drum recently following his controversial announcement that he will be taking a three and a half month sabbatical starting in January.Wesley,

This comes on the heals of celebrating his 11th year as senior pastor of the church. During his tenure, he has quadrupled the church membership taking it from 2,500 to 10,000 members. In addition, he has over 50,000 viewers who watch his sermons digitally each week. The number of programs offered through the church have also increased significantly. Finally, he has grown the church enough financially to give $1 million to the National Museum of African American History and Culture and give $100,000 to Howard University seniors to pay off their student loan debt. The total amount of revenue earned by the church over the years could not be found publicly. However, I would imagine their revenues more than quadrupled.

But here's what I know for certain. Growth comes at a price.

Wesley discusses in an interview with James Brown and CBS This Morning, "there hasn’t been a day in the past 11 years when I haven’t woken up and had to do something for the church. That I have to be available for a call. That I have to see people through the highest and lowest throws of life."

Does that sound familiar?

As business owners, we’ve been taught through modeling others that working 24 hours a day and 7 days a week will help us achieve our goals. That excellence means always being available. That sustainability means to constantly be on call, to stop what we are doing and answer the cries of our customers. We have to stay constantly in motion in order to protect our businesses from the competition.

But here's what I want you to remember.

Taking dedicated time off to free your mind and create brain space for creativity is ABSOLUTELY necessary! It's something I encourage my clients to do often!

Without rest, you start to feel:

• Stressed
• Overwhelmed
• Overworked
• Overloaded
• Burned out
• Disinterested
• Resentful
• Unfocused
• Unclear
• And ultimately, compromised.

These are all signs of fatigue and to be effective, fatigue requires rest and recharge in order to do and accomplish the things you desire.

Taking a break is logical science and rest is actually a form of motion. Ask Einstein.

According to Einstein’s law of motion, an object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will stay in motion. These conditions will remain until an unbalanced force of velocity comes into play, forcing the object to act and respond differently.

For there to be success, there must be a balancing of motion.That’s what the forceful velocity is designed to do. It’s purpose is to disrupt the status quo and force objects to move in a different direction.

As a business owner and an object that is in constant motion of building a business, forging growth, and realizing a legacy, we just keep going and going. While the train we’ve built is constantly in motion, without balancing out the motion, we are headed for a train wreck.

The unbalanced force that will eventually materialize comes in the form of life circumstances, illness, someone important leaving our lives, something blowing up. There’s a loss of sorts by way of money, talent, and resources. Because we are so focused on constant movement, we miss a lot of extremely important details that if not attended to cause a major crash.

My prayer for you this season, is that you take a break! Take some time to rest and recharge before you put that train back in motion!

And, because, I like to practice what I preach, I will be doing the same.

For the first time in my business history, my entire office will be closed starting December 25, 2019 until January 2, 2020.

You see, I've got big plans and goals for me, my team, and my clients in 2020. To execute effectively, we've all got to take a break before we step into the zone of breaking records!

As I close out this reflection, I want to wish you, your family, and your business a very happy holiday season! May you come back refreshed, recharged and ready to build your legacy!

PS.
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