Did you know Cheetahs are experts at preserving their energy? When I think of a Cheetah, I think of this majestic, fierce, and fast animal blazing through grasslands, chasing down its prey. Did you know that most of the time they are actually, resting, preserving, and saving their energy for the hunt?
My mind was blown when I read this. I thought they just ran fast all the time. Living in a fast-paced society that rewards achievement and accomplishment and looks down upon rest and play, doesn’t help.
The truth is most of my life I lived by the motto hustle hard and the rest will follow. I would work hard and when I got comfortable with that, I would level up, work harder and harder, until my body would eventually bottom out. I would rest through my burnout, get my energy back and then return to the hustle. It never occurred to me that I had the ability to flip the script and rest to preserve energy and exert it when I needed to. When I figured this out, everything changed for the better.
Granted, being motivated and having a hustlers’ mentality works for some. But not everyone is built this way. I am not built this way. Through years of trial and error, and many burnout cycles on my entrepreneurial journey I am now finally preserving my energy for the hunt. The crazy thing is when I did this I actually accomplished more. The ultimate oxymoron: speed up by slowing down. When you make rest a priority, you are pouring from a full cup rather than an empty one.
You can do it too. It is okay to stop and rest. It is also okay to make rest a priority. My guess is if you are reading this and understand my burnout story, you are or have been an overachiever at some point. It is okay if you take your feet off the gas and coast for a little bit. Even if you are operating at your 50% – 75%, it could be someone else’s 100%. No one will know the difference, but it will be all the difference in the world for you.
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