Volume 09, Issue 17: It Worked!

Late last year I wrote about changing my approach at a time when I knew I had to make some drastic changes in how I went about work and rest. I am glad to report that it worked! Several months down the road, I can't remember the last time I felt seriously fatigued or overwhelmed.

Working with a calendar and being realistic about how much I can take on at any given time has made all the difference for me. I am much more present with my tasks and productive. Letting my constituents know that I am only going to tackle one objective at a time rather than juggling several balls all at once has kept me focused and effective.

I took a break from work and home with my family last week to relax and recharge for the next quarter. I have now become very religious with these routine breaks, having learnt the hard way from a bad experience of not resting well. I work hard, but I have learnt to rest hard too. I know when to take a break now. I have learnt not to wait until I am drowning in fatigue to take a break.

A few years back, I would push myself until almost at the end of the year before taking a real break and change. Whenever I took short breaks from work in between, I would stay home, where I wound up preoccupied with tidying up, organizing and running errands. By the time my break was up, I wasn't all that rested. Now I physically take myself away from my familiar environment to guarantee complete rest from professional and domestic work.

Although I think it's important to step away from our work every now and then to experience rest, we need to appreciate that rest is more than absence from work. Rest and work are not opposites, they are friends that need one another in order to function well. We need to realize that we need to rest well in order to live well. We also need to rest efficiently in order to work effectively. Let's explore more of that next week from EMS Hancock's work in "Finding relaxation in a non-stop world".

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi