Rest vs. Persistence:

    When the world makes us feel terrible, we have a couple choices to make. In a normal, day to day job the choice is simply if we go into work that day or not. This choice gets more complicated when we are working on our own business and our own goals. What choice is better, which one is going to improve our lives instead of making them more difficult? Here are a couple thoughts on the matter.

    The choice actually comes down to the same choice as when we have a job, do we take the day off or do we push through and be productive. The first choice is one of immediate self-care and can be very valuable. The idea behind taking the time off is that you can rest, heal  and gather your strength so that you can dive back into everything faster and with more energy than you might have if you didn’t rest. However, this only works if it helps you improve for the next session.  Calling in, even when you work for yourself, because you have a case of the blahs will lead to the same results as calling in to a different job with the blahs, do it often and you won’t have a job anymore. Is it a better idea than the other choice?

    The other choice is to push through and get things done anyways. When you choose this path, you are making an active choice to take steps towards your goals no matter how hard those steps are to take. It is a test of will and commitment to make this choice and the advantage is that you keep your goals in mind at all times and never lose any momentum as you push towards them, a very important thing to keep in mind as it keeps your focus and doesn’t allow any chance of not being able to get moving again. It is also easy, in our culture and training, to look back at the herculean effort you spent to work through and be proud of ourselves, to pat ourselves on the back for overcoming adversity.

    Are you really good at taking a slow down and then springing forward with renewed energy? Many of us aren’t. Do you find getting that momentum going again to be a difficult thing? Most of us do.  Can you take the time and energy to redo something you are not happy with or accept it as it is? Do you have the time to redo it?

    So what choice is right for you in most situations? Are there circumstances where that will change, where the other choice is better for that one time?