Three Things I Learned About Rest on Vacation

Hey friends!

This past week Luke and I visited Arizona and had such a great time to celebrate our anniversary. We flew into Phoenix, drove to Sedona and the Grand Canyon and then stayed in Scottsdale our last night! We would definitely recommend going in January because the weather was amazing [and not too cold for me, which is saying a lot!]. Pictures to come below!

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Biiiig side note though: we saw a HUGE, I mean HUGE spider in our Airbnb. 12/10 don’t recommend that. *internally laughing but not really!*

As any business owner probably knows, it’s really hard to take vacations [at least for me!] because things are still operating while you aren’t there. There are still deadlines to make, clients to tend to and operations to be done. Then, let’s not even get started on the anxiety and overload of emails that comes with jumping right back into work when you return.. #scary.

However, this vacation, I really wanted to respect my mental health. I’ve felt tired, rushed and just really ready to get away from work for a little. I put on an auto-responder and was good to go! Now, don’t let that fool you, I still got notifications from clients that really gave me some stress, but I was dedicated to not tending to it until I got back (unless it was a real emergency!).

Moving into the actual reason for this blogpost, I actually purchased and read my first book in over a few years.. probably 5+ years.

I recently stumbled upon this book suggestion from a blogger [whom is also a Christian] that deals with the anxieties of working for yourself. It was called, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. Let me tell you… this book [for me] was lifechanging.

In a nutshell, it’s a book that reflects on how our world rewards the “rushed” lifestyle. More clients, more business, more work, more money. However, in the eyes of Christ, we actually don’t need more, we just need less things that take away from our time with Jesus.

With that in mind, here are three things I learned about rest while being on vacation:

We [I] need to take some time to reevaluate the things in life that matter the most.

There was a little splurge in the book that stood out to me – it said that we are the things we give the most time to. Harsh, right? If you’re like me, you probably spend 8-5 working [and yes, I get this is normal working hours to make a living!] but there are days where I LITERALLY work 8-5. I skip lunch, I don’t get up to pee [TMI?] and my eyes slowly get more tired from being glued to my screen. This isn’t the life I want to live for years down the road. I’ve got to reevaluate some things in my life – I want my life to be about glorifying the work of Jesus and not so much the quantity of work I do. If that means taking on less work, then that’s what I’ll do.

Why the rush? Life is too sweet to hurry on by.

Kid you not, I used to get in trouble in Elementary school for rushing on my schoolwork in order to finish first. I walk super fast. I get angry at slow drivers. I HAVE to respond fast to my clients or I think they’ll hate me. Why am I like this? Our society rewards fast behavior and I know I’ve been trained to believe this way. I’m making it a priority to recognize when I am rushing myself and taking a moment to slow down – maybe taking a deep breath, going on a walk for a pause, or even just to drink some water will be a huge benefit to my health.

Put the dang phone away.

Yes, I am a Gen Z as to what professionals say.. I had my first phone in the 4th grade – mainly due to sports and being gone all day, I needed a way to contact my parents – and probably am on technology more than the average person. BUT, I do want to be better about this. I am determined to put my phone on Do Not Disturb after a certain time of day and/or turn off notifications at a certain time of day. Sometimes when I receive emails from clients at 7:00PM on a Friday night, I feel like I HAVE to respond immediately or they will think my business is awful.

Our phones also are a distractor from time with God. I spend every morning [about 20ish minutes] journaling and Bible reading, but it’s the first thing to go if a client urgently needs me at that specific moment in time.

All of this to say, I’m really dedicated to being a better Christ follower in 2022 – I’m dedicated to fueling myself better and serving clients with more intentionality. I want to run my business, not my business run me. Are you in?