You’re Not Lazy if You’re Resting
“We don’t have to earn rest. Rest is not a luxury, a privilege, or a bonus we must wait for once we are burned out.”
The Resting Revolution
In 2019 I did something revolutionary with our track and field team: I emphasized resting. I thought the girls would embrace the change, but for most of our highly-skilled athletes, the shift felt abrasive and uncomfortable. Some would even ask, “Shouldn’t I be doing more,” or “Do you think I’ll be ready to run?” I assured these athletes that if they gave 100% during their workouts, did not run when injured, and rested on the weekends—I would have them prepared for their events. For some, it was just too different than the world I and many other coaches created for them.
I suppose many of us are similar. Even during and after the covid pandemic, many of us tied our worth to our productivity. But I’m convinced we’ve gotten it all wrong, especially since I’ve started reading Tricia Hersey’s book, Rest is Resistance: The Manifesto.
Hersey is the founder of the Nap Ministry—an organization that helps everyday people make rest a priority. Throughout her book, she encourages readers with truths about rest not given much thought. “We falsely believe hard work guarantees success,” Hersey states at the beginning of her book. I’m sure you can attest to working hard for something, putting your best effort forward, and still falling short of your intended goal. Working without rest is futile when we look at resting this way.
But we praise “the grind” because we attach our value to how hard we work. Again, Hersey pushes back against this idea. “You are worthy of rest,” she writes. “We don’t have to earn rest. Rest is not a luxury, a privilege, or a bonus we must wait for once we are burned out.” You deserve rest because you are a finite being who entered this world with value without having to earn it.
For many, we skip out on rest because we are leaders and are responsible for groups of people or projects. We don’t want to be caught not having the solution or answer to a problem. We want to be everything to everyone. But this is impossible. Centering rest allows us the “space for the unknown,” as Hersey writes. “There is space for curiosity and mystery. There is space to just allow rest to settle and answer the questions for us.”
Resting is not meant to disregard hard work. Working through difficulties and building mental toughness is essential for many tasks, especially in a profession like mine. But we don't prioritize working so hard that we “burn the steak” until we have nothing left of ourselves.
For example, there are days when athletes lift weights, and you could walk in and assume some are lazy because they’re sitting down between reps. However, this is a small example of the larger goal of what we are trying to achieve so they can develop explosive and responsive muscles when the time comes. This training requires proper rest times.
In sports, resting makes sense. But in life, though it should be a logical concept, our culture doesn’t always prioritize it. “We are born knowing how to rest and listen to what our bodies need,” Hersey writes. “It’s second nature…”
So instead of resisting the natural bodily response to rest, we use it as an essential tool in our track and field program. We have the results to show it works. The athletes who’ve pushed back against resting saw insignificant changes in their results, while those who embraced the regular routines and rhythms of resting experienced positive results they didn't think were possible.
The positive changes resulting from increased rest and recovery periods inspired me to incorporate more rest into my daily life. It’s often a struggle, and I find myself falling back in line with our culture of “grind.” However, I can now feel in my body when I’m doing too much and when it’s time to slow down and rest.
Coaches Challenge:
Now I challenge you to do the same. What areas of your life are you constantly engaged with? Work? Parenting? Serving? How can you incorporate more rest in these areas specifically without feeling like you have to “earn” that rest? Where can you deliberately take time to say “not right now, not today”? It’s difficult and you will let people down, but you are worth the rest.
For more information on resting, check out this book and this podcast: