Running a business is one of the most taxing things to do yet, one of the most rewarding experiences when you achieve success. Operating full-steam ahead, working past bed-time hours, through sweat, blood, and tears, being a CEO, Founder, or small to large business owners, carries the most responsibilities in making sure that the business operations are smooth sailing. It all comes down to the capacity and capability of a business owner to oversee the most critical to the slightest decision making, risk management, and designing unique ideas. But at the end of the day, they are just humans who require a healthy amount of rest. A reset of the mental and physical capacity to maintain the ability to perform at their peak, to deliver the best possible results. In this article, we will discuss the importance of rest as one of the factors of achieving business success.
The Importance of Rest for Business Owners
Have you read about the story of the goose and the golden egg? Where a farmer had a goose that produces one golden egg per day which earned the farmer a quick and easy way to get rich. One day, the farmer got impatient then he decided to kill the goose thinking that the farmer would get all the golden egg inside it, but it met the farmer with an unexpected surprise of a bloody guts and a dead goose that no longer supplies him with the golden egg.
If you ask, what has this to do with the importance of rest as one of the factors of achieving business success? Think of the goose as the business owner and the golden egg is their capacity to function and produce quality work. It is important to take care of the goose to keep producing high-quality golden eggs, which in this case a business owner needs to take a step back, take care of themselves and rest as much as needed to have the ability to perform high-capacity tasks and responsibilities to successfully run a business.
What Happens When We Don’t Take Rests
Higher Risk of Developing Health Problems
Well, if you haven’t figured that out, one of the risk factors of not getting enough rest is higher risk of developing health problems. Factors like work anxiety, depression, fatigue, high stress levels that can eventually lead to chronic diseases like heart disease and obesity that affects both mental and physical health.
Productivity Dies
Not getting the amount of healthy rest is one of the causes of overworking that can lead to fatigue, increased stress levels, and eventually unproductiveness. Rest is productive. Rest enables us to have time to replenish your energy and restores brain function to consistently deliver work that our body and mind requires every day to run a thriving business.
Quality of Work Diminish
Your brain is like a sponge, it can only soak up as much in a day. When you’re hustling at full load every day your brain gets so exhausted that it affects your performance gradually. When your brain gets exhausted it becomes numb to attention to detail, consistency, and creativity that blocks you from producing high-quality work for your business.
But if you’re really busy, what can you do?
As we have mentioned earlier, a business owner carries a lot of heavy responsibilities in running a business. As easy as it sounds, a lot of things can happen when you take a day off just to rest. But sleep isn’t the only way to get proper rest, it could be a small portion away from work activity, spending time with your friends and family, engaging in your favorite pastime like reading a book or any hobby you prefer. So, here are some things that you can do to maintain a productive yet restorative rest.
Ways to Get a Productive Rest
Go for a Walk
A canceled meeting, taking your 1-hour meal break, or while thinking of a business strategy is a great opportunity for going for a walk or even a light jog. It may be a physically tiring activity to do, but it is mostly beneficial with your mental capacity. Walking or jogging releases endorphins and serotonin or what we call “happy hormones” that allows you to refresh your mindset, allows you to think clearly, reduces stress levels, and improves rationalize decision making.
Take it easy
If the first thing you do once you start working is to fire all cylinders, try adjusting your work pace and build work momentum instead of firing all gears at once. Building work momentum allows you to work consistently while distributing equal amounts of energy, productivity and efficiency to your tasks and responsibilities. Take a deep breath, stretch, and meditate in-between workloads to circulate positive relaxation and energy in your body. Doing this enables a steady flow of work productivity while leaving you room to take breaks and rest even in stressful scenarios.
Plan a Weekend for Self-Care
Being a busy business owner means that there will be a great chance that you might have some workload on a weekend and that’s not something new. Especially when you’re still building your business from the ground up. But investing at least a day on your weekend dedicated to self-care like going to a spa, dining outside, or going for a drink with your best buddies can help you relieve your stress and tension.
Work in Different Places
Working in the same spot could get a little dull from time to time and as a business owner, you want to be exposed to different inspirations and creativity. Taking a break from your usual office space and exposing yourself to a different working environment stimulates creativity and innovation. If you’re thinking of creating something new and innovative for your business, taking your mind outside somewhere inspiring is a good choice. Places like a coworking space can help you focus and collaborate with like-minded professionals to help you curate the next big thing for your business.
Takeaway
Being a business owner is no joke. You carry the business on your shoulders if it fails or succeeds. There are days where you just can’t catch a break with all the responsibilities and urgent tasks at hand. Although resting is one of the best investments that you can make for yourself and as a business owner, you want to function at your peak capacity to bring out the success of your business.
