Implementing rest in all facets of life is key for success as a freelancer or small business owner. Do you know why?
The end of the year for many, fuels action. It often comes sweeping with loads of inspiration for the year to come. However, for many, it causes loads of anxiety. We prioritize creating resolutions and begin uncovering goals. We take steps to expand our careers for the next year. Therefore, in the process, we often lose sight of the importance of rest in getting us to any of these goals. And as a result, the lack of rest impacts all facets of our lives and businesses.
Permission Granted to Rest
As creators, business execs, founders and more, we must rest. It is how we thrive and have the capacity to create. It is how we further impact the world. Earlier this year I decided to completely shut down my five-figure freelance business. In it, I helped several women market and brand their businesses. As a writer, mother and full-time manager this was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
The year prior I was completely booked between work and business, working long hours and slacking heavily on adequate rest. This may sound crazy… Though I decided to give up a large chunk of outside income, I in return learned that I had more than enough to live on and was rewarded with an uptick in rest. Trading some of my dollars for rest and relaxation has truly catapulted me into a more well and revitalized creative.
I want to encourage all the women reading this to create a practice of rest when solidifying your plans for the new year. This means rest in your daily lives, in your creative corners and in your careers. We can implement routines of rest more easily when we carve out the time and plan for it. So try this: don’t obsess over your goals for the new year. Instead, start looking into how rest will play into all of your achievements. Let’s have a look at how we can do that in certain areas of our daily lives.
Implementing Rest in All Facets of Life: Work/Career
- Plan for vacation days ahead – Yes even if you are working from-home in the middle of a pandemic, take the days. Utilize your vacation time to take a day of physical rest or put in your days ahead of time for a week off to read, journal, or tend to yourself.
- Rest from technology – Implement a new balance and routine for what your use of technology will look like from now into the new year and beyond. Maybe you can set a time daily where the use of technology is forbidden for yourself or implement a designated time slot for reading and responding to emails.
- Be more intentional about your career path and growth. This means that every opportunity doesn’t have to be yours or that every engagement no longer requires your time. Get more selective about the events you show up for, the opportunities you take on and niche down on where you want to be present so that you are not spreading yourself too thin. This, too, is key in implementing rest in all facets of life.
- Organize and utilize helpful systems. Whether it be people on your team or within your circle who have extended availability, do away with the “I can do it all” mentality. Take to support from others, utilize sites like HoneyBook to manage your clients, put content like newsletters and posts on an automatic post schedule if you can and more. These changes create room to rest.
Implementing Rest in All Facets of Life: Home
- Set and stick to a bedtime. As adults sometimes it seems we are more unable to adhere to a bedtime than perhaps our children. We can change that. Create a bedtime for yourself if you don’t have one and really make it your own. Put away the phones, maybe do away with the television before bed, draw a bath and really prepare yourself for a good night’s sleep.
- Take on naps. One good thing I have found amid the pandemic is the ability to nap. As doers who are always contributing to the world, our rest is essential. If you are allotted a lunch break and have the ability to work from home, carve out time for a twenty-minute nap. If you are not working from home try starting small and committing to one nap per week, maybe on the weekends. If you’re a parent, you know some of the best naps are when our littles are napping.
- Take time for your peace and sanity at home. Pick up a new book, commit to prayer time or maybe dedicate this new year to decking out your garden space or wine room. Create a quiet space for yourself in or around the home that is off limits to others if you can; make this space clutter-free and representative of rest.
Implementing Rest in All Facets of Life: Creative Process
- Step away from creativity and dive into inspiration. As often as we indulge in our creative practices, we should be seeking ways to frequent inspiration as well. Maybe for you this can be watching a relatable film, reading a book or taking a nature walk. Set forth a practice that allows you to rest from creativity as you need it.
- Rest in something new. For example, try a new creative hobby outside of your professional creativity or creative projects. This can mean picking up something that is totally outside of your usual creative process. So, if you are a painter, try learning the guitar. Or if you’re a writer, try learning to sketch. Take a brain break from your daily creative work and find something that yields exploration and newness.
- Take a sabbatical for creating. For example, if your creative project or role calls for a sabbatical… feel comfortable with doing it. This can mean informing others that you are no longer open for commissions for an allotted time or fully breaking from creating as you nurture yourself. If you are interested in continuing to develop yourself creatively as you step away, try enjoying a workshop you have always wanted to attend or simply doing nothing but enjoying the time away.
There are plenty ways we can begin to seek rest now and well into the new year while implementing rest in all facets of life. As a result, find what works for you and your current situation and be sure to reflect on what you truly need entering the new year. The more we are rested, well and nurtured, the more we can show up in innovative and impactful ways.
