Prioritize Rest for a Productive 2024.
Our society here in the United States has ingrained in us a hustle culture philosophy. While I believe it's incredibly important to be a hard-working person, I don’t necessarily buy into the fact that we need to be working hard every moment of our adult lives.
I see so many people racing from Monday through Friday. I can remember the first time I watched the comedy, Office Space and heard, “Sounds like someone’s got a case of the Mondays.” What is a case of the monday’s you ask? From what I can gather it's when you are miserable to be back at work on a Monday, seemingly unmotivated and in general cranky to be back at your place of employment.
How about Hump day Wednesdays? The middle of the work week when everyone talks about getting over the “hump” of the day so they can get to the end of their week, so they can repeat their “case of the “mondays” again in a few days.
Then, Thirsty Thursdays. Thirsty Thursdays is apparently a day in the week when you go out for your pre-friday happy hour beverages. The ones that are supposed to help you get through the next day of work.
Then Friday comes. Everyone wishes the day away so their weekend can start. They spend Friday night celebrating their much anticipated weekend break.
They spend Saturday doing household chores and errands. Sunday they spend sad that the weekend is over and then boom… It’s a “case of the monday’s” once more.
During my earlier adult life, this was what “normal” was. Everyone was doing it. Everyone was supporting one another with a negative mantra that they tried to make sound positive because we were all in it together. We raced, numbly toward a “weekend” reward, which never quite seemed to refresh us the way we hoped.
A fantastic book that references a concept that I really took on as an entrepreneur is an Italian phrase, dolce far niente. Dolce far niente means roughly, the sweetness of doing nothing. If you’ve followed me for any period, this likely isn’t the first time you have heard me reference this. In The Atlas of Happiness, by Helen Russell , she introduces a man named Francesco De Carlo who shares, “There’s not so big a difference between working and not working for Italians and we don’t worry too much about the future - chissenefrega - we just enjoy the present.” (The Altas of Happiness, Helen Russell page 148)
There is a deep-seated pleasure in simply relaxing in the moment. Chaos still happens, and the difficulties of life still exist. At the heart of it all, Italians are masters of dolce far niente as a lifestyle. Still productive, still accomplished, incredibly close families. And somehow they relax!
As everyone ramps up to hit the new year hard setting giant goals some of which they will actually accomplish, I urge you to add a focused layer of dolce far niente into your lifestyle. Set the goals, sure…but also be mindful of cultivating daily moments of rest throughout your day.
Rest stretches beyond sleep into several areas of your life. Once you understand the gift that rest is, and how productive it can actually make you, you’ll wonder why it took you so long to prioritize and incorporate into your life.
Don’t just eat, dine. Don’t just sleep, rest. Embrace Dolce far niente as a lifestyle to aid in your productivity.
Rest is a gift.
While others race around burning the candle at both ends, embrace chissenefrega… a "who cares” attitude while you grant yourself 5 minutes of rest multiple times throughout your day. You’ll be one step closer to mastering dolce far niente when you do.
Give yourself, and your business that gift in 2024.
