Running on Reserves? Why Rest Is a Business Necessity, Not a Reward

I didn’t always see rest as something I needed. I used to believe I had to earn it. But what does it mean to rest? And how do you know when it’s the right time to rest in your business? In this episode, I talk about the importance of resting and how to balance it with hustle.

1:34 - What camels and too many entrepreneurs tend to have in common

3:36 - The business consequences of not getting enough rest

4:11 - What “work two days a week” advocates won’t tell you (but I will)

6:02 - Why an extended period of rest is a privilege and a day of rest a necessity

8:05 - My question to you

Find me on Instagram or LinkedIn or email me at hello@lesliedlyons.com.

As Mentioned In Running on Reserves? Why Rest Is a Business Necessity, Not a Reward

Leave a 5-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

Transcript for Running on Reserves? Why Rest Is a Business Necessity, Not a Reward

Hey boss, I am Leslie Lyons, your embodied leadership and sales coach, and this is Pleasurable Profits. This podcast is ideal for owners and leaders of tattoo shops, permanent makeup studios, cannabis businesses, movement studios, sex toy shops, and other industries that are too often left out of the leadership conversation. If you’re looking for a woo meets strategy approach to defining your strengths and values, designing a business that supports you, and creating a soul-driven, and of course, pleasurable plan for profitability, then let’s get started.

Hey, party people. It’s Leslie, your embodied sales and leadership coach. How y'all doing? I'm doing really well. Thank you for asking. I want to talk about rest today. I think I'm in that mode because I am on sabbatical. By the time you guys hear this, I'll be back but I'm literally prepping to go on a 20-day sabbatical. I am thinking about rest and what that means to be rested, and how I used to feel like rest was something I earned, as opposed to rest is something that I need.

I read this article that talked about horses and camels. Now both horses and camels, as we know, they're both considered beasts of burden. They are utility animals, they have purpose. Their purpose is work. The difference between a horse and a camel though is that when a horse gets tired, meaning you've run it ragged, you've overworked it, a horse is going to let you know. Right from the dough, a horse is going to slow down and a horse will try and buck you off of them. A horse will lay down and start to drag. The point is the horse gives you a sign that “Hey, I'm at my max, I can't go any further.”

Whereas conversely, a camel will be just as tired as the horse, be running on fumes, be super tired. But unlike the horse that starts to slow down, the horse that starts to buck or wants to lay down, a camel keeps going and it will just fall out and die. Wow. It won't give you any warning. It will just fall from under you. It will just die.

It got me to thinking about how as entrepreneurs, we can be just like that camel, especially those of you, like myself, who are Enneagram 8s, whose love language is work. I remember thinking about the sabbatical and just being like, “What am I going to do for 20 days of not being able to work? Who am I? What purpose do I bring to the world? How am I going to function if I'm not working?”

Working is such an ingrained part of my identity. I know if you're listening to this, if you rock with me, it's part of your identity too. We like to work and we like to contribute. We like money. We like being successful. We like all the things that come from hard work. But if we don't rest, we are not bringing our best to our work. We are not showing up as the leader that our team and our clients deserve.

Running on fumes helps nobody. You don't come up with your best ideas. You don't have enough energy to execute. I know, trust me, I know there are seasons where you need to hustle. I'm not the type of coach that's like, “Oh, yeah, you only need to work two days a week and you'll be fine.” Actually, I get irritated with people like that. I'm just going to be real because I just think that for people to think that they're going to run high-net worth businesses, high-income producing businesses, especially in the early stages of their business, seven years or less in your business, working just 12 hours a week, what do you do? That's fantasy.

Then you wonder why your business isn't growing. You're wondering why you can't seem to get ahead. Come real close to the speaker, come real close. I'm saying this in love, it’s because you're not working enough. You've bought into the internet lie. You know Tim Ferriss and The 4-Hour Workweek, y'all need to stop. That's just not how life works. You're tired because you're trying to keep up with some standard and you feel like you're failing because you can't get it all done because it wasn't meant to be done in 12 hours.

You're trying to do 60 hours worth of work in 12 hours, and then you wonder why you're tired. No. Having a reasonable schedule, having strong boundaries, I'm all for that. I am team for that. But I'm also team rest. I believe in seasons. That's what I tell people all the time when they come to work with me.

There is a season of hustle, y'all. There's a season of, meaning, they're going to be long nights, long days where you're going to have to work. I ain’t talking about for a couple of weeks, it could be a couple of years. But the point is for me to be able to take 20 days off and the only reason why I'm only taking 20 days off is because I didn't plan my year well. I had a couple of key dates that I had to work, but next year, it will be an entire month, Lord willing, it will be an entire month. Because I've worked so hard all those years so that I could step away from my business.

Now I know you think I'm contradicting myself because I started off by saying rest is not a reward. That can sound an awful like a reward. An extended period of rest is a reward. It is a privilege. Let's be very clear. It's a privilege that you've earned though. Unless you hit the lottery or something, but us as entrepreneurs, extended rest is earned, but the rest that is necessary is what I call a weekly sabbath, where there is one day, at least one day of the week that you do nothing, that you dedicate to your spiritual life, that you dedicate to your mental health, that you dedicate to your physical health, that you dedicate to your emotional health, that you just unplug.

That's what keeps you from being the camel. It’s not that, “Oh, I got to get this whole month off. I got to take a three week vacation.” No, I bet you from the average entrepreneur, if you just took one full day off or you completely unplugged, that would be enough to recharge your battery. That would be enough to keep you going. Then when you have worked and when you have established yourself and your revenue is at a place in your business is at a place, you can take extended periods of rest. You've earned that privilege.

But that weekly rest is not a privilege, it’s your right. You need it. My question to you is what day is going to be your day of rest? What is going to be your day of sabbath? Is it going to be a Sunday? Is it going to be a Monday? But I want to hear from you. What day are you committing to resting so that you can recharge and bring your best to yourself first, to those you love second, and to your clients and team third? I really want to know. Hit me back. You know you can find me on @lesliedlyons on Instagram. You can also email me at hello@lesliedlyons. Until next time. Get some rest. Put it down. You deserve it. I'll talk to you soon. Grace and peace.