Simple Secret to Success

Rest. Some of you won't allow yourself to rest, and you're wondering why you don't have the full bandwidth, full brain power, and full energy to do what you want to do. It's time to take a break! 

When I was 21, instead of doing all the crazy things a 21-year-old does, I decided to start a business. I was so obsessed with growing a business and being successful and I believed that in order to achieve this success I needed to go, go, go all the time. I worked every single day, weekends included, with no days off and no vacations, averaging about 110 hours a week. 

I believed you needed to struggle to be successful. Our hustle culture made me think we had to go, go, go and get on the edge of burnout. Well, I did burn myself out and I ran my business into the ground. Now that I am 36 with a lot more knowledge, experience, and wisdom about how to run a successful business, I know that rest is a huge part of being successful. There was a point in my life where I remember thinking to myself that I did not deserve a break or rest because I wasn't where I wanted to be yet. I could not have been more wrong.

The world has four seasons. Humans also go through seasons. Your day can be all four seasons in one. If you look at nature as I like to do, it is not spring forever. It is not constantly grow, grow, grow and conversely, it’s not winter forever. It’s winter for a little while. Plants need to contract in order to expand and grow in the spring. When spring comes they grow bigger and more expansive than they were before. Everything expands and contracts but we as humans who are overachievers think we can always be expanding. That doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t apply and fit in with the laws of nature. So what does contraction look like?

It looks like rest and rest can be a lot of different things.

You don’t have to take a month off, it can just be a 10-minute meditation a few times a day observing your thoughts. It can be a three-day weekend trip with your family without answering emails. It can be switching off at 6 pm. Sometimes the better you reset, the further you'll fly forward. It’s like shooting an arrow. It is impossible for it to go forward unless it is pulled back. 

The further that you pull the arrow back and then let go, the further it's going to fly forward. 

10 or 15 years ago, this would have seemed ridiculous to me, but I was also a lot poorer, and a lot less happy than I am now. I know for sure now that you have to be on when you're on and you have to be off when you're off, completely off.

When you notice yourself not a hundred percent, not mentally with the program, and maybe feeling a little tired in the middle of the day, assess the situation. You will probably realize that you have been in expansion mode since you woke up and all you need to do is take a 10-minute break. 

Check out new episodes of The Mindset Mentor Podcast every week here.