Who doesn’t love Sundays?
I know I sure do…it’s the lazy day of the week. It’s the day when we get to do what we want to do. Sleep, eat, watch TV, relax, swim, anything and everything…that is until you have kids.
Now Sundays are no longer our day but the family day as it’s the only day my wife and I can spend together with our son. Now it’s less about what we want, and pretty much all about what he wants.
I’m of course talking about our 4-year old son.
He’s a great kid but like every other kid in the world, he has energy…and a lot of it. I swear there must be something that we have in our brains as a child that says, “Hey, this is the day I get to spend with my parents so wake up early and keep going till late.”
It’s like he’s got a constant adrenaline high on the weekends while during the week, in the morning, it’s like waking the sleeping dead.
I remember there were days when I stayed in my jammies till noon but that is a pretty much a thing of the past…that is until this past week.
From Monday to Thursday my wife and I were off thanks to the Obon holidays here in Japan and we took full advantage of the break.
Unfortunately a few of our plans fell through due to weather and a friend’s illness, but we made the best of a bad situation and went to a local amusement park one day, caught up on some shows we’d been meaning to watch and basically took it easy.
Maybe the best of all was being able to simply stay in my jammies till noon.
It’s true what they say, sometimes the simple pleasures are the best.
Work is hard. Studying is draining. Playing with young children is exhausting. And so we need time to simply just relax.
A while ago I came up with a simple formula for success: aptitude + attitude + hard work = success but what I left out of the equation is R&R.
Rest and relaxation is what keeps us sane in an otherwise sometime insane world.
Each and every day we face challenges, some more difficult than others. And it’s important that we all take the time to recover in order that we’re able to operate at optimum efficiency.
In Stephen Covey’s landmark classic, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” his 7th habit is “Sharpen the saw” which talks about not continually working but taking time out to sharpen our skills to make us more effective.
Planning is one such thing. Planning saves time, it’s a proven fact. And yet most people spend very little, if any, time planning.
Studying’s another, as it allows us to get more done in less time. At first people feel that the time involved isn’t worth the investment, but if we keep at it we’ll start to see remarkable progress and change in our lives.
Rest is needed simply because we’re not robots. We all need a certain amount of time to allow our body to recover and return to full strength.
Relaxation on the other hand is for the mind. Too often our minds get too full of information that we have trouble keeping track of it all. In spite of the best planning there are times when we can become overwhelmed simply because of amount of work or responsibilities we have.
While most of us are able to kick back and watch a little TV each night or squeeze in some recreational activities here and there, in today’s high speed world, the one in which we’re always in touch, it’s getting harder to just relax.
Even God took the seventh day off, so maybe that’s something we should remember.
Life is all about achievement and growth but in order to do so we need to make sure we take the time to, at times, rest.
Jammies, naps, massages, sleep…never underestimate the power of taking it easy.
Simple advice, but one that many people forget in their drive for success and must pay the price later on.
Adrian Shepherd