Being "always on" isn't heroic, it's reckless. You owe it it everyone in your life to create downtime for yourself.
There's a saying floating around Linked In based on a Rollins Band song "Shine."
"No such thing as spare time, no such thing as free time, no such thing as down time, all you got is life time."
At first glance, it's a nice, motivational saying. Go out, tackle the world! But, in our 'always-on' society? I can't help but think that there's a bit of "shaming" going on here too.
Think about the last few people you've talked to. When you asked "how was your weekend" what was their response? My guess? "Busy." People are legitimately busy, but why? How many of us sit down to read a book, only to find we are completely distracted by the list of twenty things we "should be" doing instead?
In our society, the concept of 'downtime' is on life support. We have to "crush it" at work for 10 or more hours a day, run our kids to their 10 weekly activities, get in our Pilates class, run to book club and find time to finish that painting we want to submit in the local art fair.
Whew. Imagine if you came in to the office on Monday morning and someone were to ask you "what did you do this weekend" and you said "nothing!" What would the response be? More importantly, would you feel comfortable admitting you did "nothing?" Doubtful.
Downtime doesn't mean having time to get your to-do list checked off. Downtime is unplugging, recharging, taking care of ourselves. We are losing the ability to relax and unwind.
We have many responsibilities during our lifetime: employee/boss, parent/child, sibling, friend, coach. The list is endless. The one responsibility we constantly forget about? Self. We have a responsibility to ourselves. "But, doing Pilates IS for myself!" Perhaps. But examine why you do it. Is it to check yet another 'to do' off the list, or is it truly to disconnect and recharge? You see, that's what determines downtime. Our attitude and approach to the activity. Are we doing it to take care of "self?" Or to keep up appearances?
Our value to our employer, our employees, our children, our friends increases when we engage in downtime. Our creativity increases. Our energy increases. Our attitude brightens. But wait, isn't focusing on 'me' the very definition of 'selfish?' Let me ask this, if you're tired, run down, 'out of gas', and you aren't able to offer the best version of yourself to those in your life, isn't that more selfish?
The real value in downtime is that it allows us to continually offer the best version of ourselves. I think that's worth 30 minutes a day, don't you?
Comments