Rest really, really matters. 2 reasons why.

What a weekend!

I’m writing this late Monday morning after another long weekend of activities (soccer, dance, birthday parties, church, more soccer, friends, meetings). I’m tired after my weekend of “rest.”

I attempt to work a traditional week (Monday through Friday) taking Saturday and Sunday off. It doesn’t always work out that perfect. On top of keeping up with the activities of 4 children and doing chores around the house, Kia and I do occasionally have to do “work.” Email, social media, phone calls, emergencies, catching up, and more are always waiting for us.

I’m sure what I live is not too different from your world. The details may change, but the essence is the same.

Identity and Success.

Within the last 12 hours, I read 2 articles reminding me of how important rest is. I wrote about it recently (the Crash and Burn post), but it isn’t always that easy to live. After another long weekend, I needed this reminder.

1. Identity. It’s not being a photographer.

Josh Graves wrote an article/commentary for foxnews.com about the value of a “day of rest.” He quotes author, professor and Episcopal priest, Barbara Brown Taylor. She tells this story of growing up in Atlanta –

When I was a junior in high school, my boyfriend Herb played on the varsity basketball team. He was not the star player however. The star player was a boy named David, who scored so many points during his four-year career that the coach retired his jersey when he graduated. This would have been remarkable under any circumstances, but it was doubly so since David did not play on Friday nights.

On Friday nights, David observed the Sabbath with the rest of his family, who generously withdrew when David’s gentile friends arrived, sweaty and defeated, after Friday night home games.

Following each Friday night game, David’s friends came to his house to describe the game in great detail. “Blow by blow” the gentiles were allowed to speak and create worlds in David’s living room. Someone in the room asked if it bothered him to sit at home while his team “was getting slaughtered in the high school gymnasium.”

“No one makes me do this,” he said. “I’m a Jew, and Jews observe the Sabbath.” Six days a week, he said, he loved nothing more than playing basketball and he gladly gave all he had to the game. On the seventh day, he loved being Jewish more than he loved playing basketball, and he just as gladly gave all he had to the Sabbath. Sure, he felt a tug, but that was the whole point. Sabbath was his chance to remember what was really real. Once three stars were visible in the Friday night sky, his identity as a Jew was more real to him than his identity as the star of our basketball team.”

The truth is you aren’t first a photographer or business owner. You are first a son, daughter, husband, wife, mother, father, friend, aunt, uncle, grandfather, grandmother. You are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, nothing or something in-between.

These make us who we are. It’s what makes us a photographer or business owner.

We need to stop and rest to remember what and who we really are. Reconnect with what our identity really is.

2. Success. It doesn’t come overnight.

When you own your own business, it is so easy to get caught up in this particular lie –

This client, email, phone call, Facebook post or Tweet will put my business over the top. Everything is vital.

It will crush you.

The TRUTH is your business will build and become a success over time. It may feel others are an overnight success, but actually it is years of unseen work which finally becomes visible to others.

I was reminded of this again while reading today’s post by Michael Hyatt – 4 Insights I Gleaned from Building my own Platform. He shows a graph of the blog traffic he received over the course of 8 years. I took 4-5 years for him to build it into something that truly had traction. It took another 2-3 years for him to be able to quit his “day job” to blog, write and speak full-time.

Substitute this graph with the picture of your success. Now figure out where you are on that graph. No matter where you lie, accept it and choose to build something over time…not overnight.

Choose to rest.

Your identity and success don’t depend on working yourself dry. In fact, the opposite can be argued. You success depends on being fresh and prepared week in and week out.

So choose to rest. Choose to find days of the week and hours in a day to be ready for the long haul.

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