I'm really enjoying leading the "Thriving Leader Blueprint," a training and support program to support busy people who want to up-level the impact
of their lives, and do it in a way that brings joy and fulfillment. Our next segment deals with how to create systems and patterns of living that help us function at a high level, but not feel stressed out and anxious. Here are some things I've come across in my preparation:
The bottom line principle for longevity in a high functioning life of service is what productivity expert Jim Loehr calls "oscillation." Having a pattern where you engage deeply for a time, and then draw back to rest and regroup. We are not machines. We don't do well when
we try to work in a steady state manner without breaks. We need a rhythm to our days, our weeks, and our years. Chris Heuertz puts it this way:
"My rhythms have become clearer over the years. I know I need: Sabbath for Rest. Retreats for Reflection. Vacations for Recreation. Sabbaticals for Renewal. And if I don’t make rhythms for rest, reflection, recreation and renewal then all of these opportunities will inevitably be wasted on recovery."
I recognize that most of us feel constrained by our work environments, and "Retreats for Reflection" and "Sabbaticals for Renewal" might seem like a privilege denied to us. That might be true of Sabbaticals, but the other things he talks about -- sabbath, retreats, and vacations -- are all within our control. Retreats and vacations need not be week-long (or longer) affairs. We can do this! The real issue is whether or
not we make it a priority, and get strategic about how we plan out our weeks and years.
According to the UK Daily Mail, Americans get the least amount of paid vacation days per year of any developed country. Sad. But what's worse, Market Watch reports that the majority of Americans not USE all their vacation
days! (a trend that has been holding for a number of years). Last year, 54% of Americans did not use all their vacation days. There are many reasons for this, of course, and some situations might require a person to eschew some of his or her paid vacation. But as a trend, this is not good.
Is it any wonder that we are also
among the most unhappy, stressed-out, and depressed people in the developing world?
If taking time for self-renewal is so important, why don't we do it? Taking time away is an act of trust. It's like tithing ... so many people don't do it because they think they can't afford to do it. They can't afford NOT to. So many
people don't make a priority of taking time for their own emotional and spiritual well-being because they think they can't afford to take that time off from work or other responsibilities. But they can't afford NOT to.
Do we trust that if we take the time we need to develop ourselves spiritually, that God will take care of us?
Listen to Eugene Petersen, author of numerous books, including "The Message" translation of the Bible, writing about "Sabbath." (Sabbath is the practice of taking one day off each week, and not doing any work ... just using that time for rest and spiritual renewal.)
"Sabbath is the time set aside to do nothing so that we can receive everything, to set aside our anxious attempts to make ourselves useful, to set aside our tense restlessness, to set aside our media-saturated boredom.
"Sabbath is the time to receive silence and let it deepen into gratitude, to receive quiet into which forgotten faces and voices unobtrusively make themselves present, to receive the days of the just completed week and absorb the wonder and miracle still reverberating from each one, to receive our Lord’s amazing grace. ….waiting provides the time and space for others to get in on salvation.
"Waiting calls a time-out, puts us on the sidelines for a while so that we don’t interfere with essential kingdom-of-God operations that we don’t even know are going on. Not-doing involves a means of detaching my ego, my still immature understanding of the way God works comprehensively but without forcing his way, without coercion.
"The restraint of passivity allows for the quiet, mostly invisible complexities and intricacies that are characteristic of the Holy Spirit as he does his work in us, in the church and in the world for whom Christ died. ‘Renunciation–the piercing virtue’ is Emily Dickinson’s phrase for it. It
couldn’t have been easy for the father to not go out looking for his son (in the parable of Prodigal Son) the way the shepherd looked for his sheep and the woman looked for her coin."
