You do not rest from your work. In fact, you work from your rest. As Dr. John Maxwell says, every one of his fourteen international bestsellers was written at 2:00 AM on a notebook by his bedside where he was woken up out of a sleep with an idea. However, there is this movement now where you’re looked down on if you took time off. If you’re a nine-to-five, Monday through Friday person and your thing with your wife is to go out to a night at the hotel, do not let your friends make you feel guilty because you’re leaving your children to go spend quality time with your wife. If you are divorced and it’s your weekend with your son, do not let someone make you feel guilty because of what replenishes you and your son during your downtime. Inspiration does come in the downtime and the only way to replenish ATP, the energy that runs your brain, is through sleep and/or certain types of food.
We’re going to title this episode Downtime Guilt. Some of you have heard me in the past talk about the very first day Pastor Kurt came into our church. His first sermon was making everybody that had a business or was a manager, worked a 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM type job, had weekends off, and could not wait for the weekend because they wanted to rest, to raise their hand. Through a series of questions, he got 70% to 80% of the congregation to raise their hand that they indeed look forward to resting from their work. The point of his sermon, which is definitely biblical but very much a business principle as well, is he brings up the point that he can find evidence both in business and in the Bible that you do not rest from your work. In fact, you work from your rest. It is during periods of rest wherein the church, to those people that are grounded, God talks to you.
In business, when you go silent, maybe on the weekends or meditating or yoga or in downtime, you get inspired. As Dr. John Maxwell says, albeit he was a pastor for 25 years, he says every one of his fourteen international bestsellers was written at 2:00 AM on a notebook by his bedside where he was woken up out of a sleep with an idea. He wrote it down and that idea became the seed of one of his great books. This episode is partly due to my beautiful, gorgeous wife, Kerri, as we have pow-wowed a list of a few bullets of how people take downtime. I want to list them off of how business leaders, when in my world, I’d like to say, “I’ve got to turn my brain off,” meaning I’m out of ATP. That’s the energy that runs your brain. “I have no more ATP, I must turn off the brain.” The only way to replenish ATP is through sleep and certain types of food.
Some people either make the comment of or the act of downtime in the following way. “Ken, I have got to turn my brain off.” That’s my signal to the world. I’m done. I’m shutting down. Sometimes recently, I’ve been found hiding out in my boat under my canopy. You can’t see me in there because the boats are lifted up all the way to the top. I physically hide away and listen to the birds and the fish. Some people, like an old mentor of mine named Brad, would run and sprint sixteen, eighteen hours a day for 30, 40, 50 days in a row. Then he would tell his wife, his kids, and everybody around him, “Do not call me. I’m watching six to nine movies in a row. I’m not sleeping, I’m just going to go into a movie coma.” That was his way of forcing his brain to stop. He said, “If I start reading books, I still think, it’s not the same. I’ve got to watch a movie that engages me.” Then he would come out of that two-day coma and go sprint again for 40 days.
Some people go three months in a row. My wife and I are a little bit like this. We go hard for three months and then we like to take three to five days out of the country. We like to completely disengage. We love cruise ships because the phone doesn’t work. We love going out of the country because we can’t be reached. It’s the only way to truly turn off the electronic leashes. Many people work out. I know my wife’s heart doctor, Dr. Martini, of all people, told Kerri that it is very healthy to have one glass of red wine per day. I’m reading now that it’s even healthy to have one glass of beer per day. I wonder if it says craft beer, but for sure we know from Dr. Mercola to Dr. Martini that a glass of red wine is great.
Downtime: When you’re jamming and your brain is full and you’re slamming it, you need to replenish. You need downtime.
Kerri reminded me of some great ones that I would have never thought of like meditating, yoga, running. When you’re jamming and your brain is full and you’re slamming it and you need to replenish, you need downtime. I forgot about the endorphins that kick in and the results that come from working out reminds the body of what’s going on. I love what Kerri said about some people, and I’ve seen this so many times in our office. When they’re done and you can see it in their eyes, they’re toast, they go on Facebook and sometimes even other sites. Facebook, specifically, is like a drug because unlike the regular world where there’s a lot of negative news and negative nellies, Facebook, by definition, I’ve heard 65% to 75% of Facebook streams are positive. There is a magnetic pull to Facebook. Kerri brings up a great business point that some of the business leaders we know put time limits on it. Most of you know that Kerri and I specifically are not on Facebook because of the life we lead. We’re a little bit afraid of going into that void and never coming back. That also speaks to the magnetism of Facebook.
If you can put a limit around it, maybe ten minutes, twenty minutes, a half hour, whatever your limit can be, know that Facebook is magnetic. It is positive. Kerri reminded me another one, and this is not a female one. I get sucked into this also. I love stopping and shopping. I love stopping and jumping on Amazon. I love stopping and jumping into Shopify sites. I love stopping in digging into Robb Report and following the links to these incredible stores with these incredible handmade things. Like Kerri, I do put a limit around it. Kerri goes ten to 30 minutes. I’m more in the five to fifteen-minute range. I do get a little burst of energy from online shopping a little bit.
The point of this show is I put it in the word guilt. There is this movement now and I’ve heard it from pastors and business leaders. There is some strange pull back, back to the 30s and 40s where you were looked down on if you took time off. I’m not talking about extensive periods of time, but there is a wave going on right now where people are looking down on people that are going fishing on a Saturday. It’s an odd thing. I want to put my two cents in that if you’re a 9 to 5, Monday through Friday person and your thing with your wife is to go out to a night at the hotel, do not let your friends make you feel guilty because you’re leaving your children to go spend quality time with your wife. If you are divorced and it’s your weekend with your son, do not let someone make you feel guilty because of what replenishes you and your son during your downtime.
If you do find yourself slipping and you’re sneaking it into Monday repeatedly time and time again and taking whatever they call PTO or something like that, if you catch yourself slipping time-wise to where you’re taking too much downtime, then you should feel guilty. This show is specifically to state the case that I do believe inspiration comes in the downtime. I don’t think we rest from our work, we work from our rest. This is Episode 231 speaking a little bit about growing business via downtime. Please take the time, get inspired, get filled, and come back stronger every time. I hope this helps. Take care.