rest before you need to

I've learned the importance of resting before I need to resting even when I don't feel like it. Resting on a regular rhythm rather than what a lot of people do is they work themselves to exhaustion and then they rest. And in my opinion and in my experience, that's resting too late. So if I feel very tired, I've already rested too late. So it's more important what I do. And I'll tell you the several types of rest that I take. I take micro breaks. Now this is interesting. I think a lot of you know, well, yes, I need to take vacations or I need to, you know, sleep well at night, et cetera. Yes. And those are all important, right? Taking regular breaks during your year and sleeping well at night. Those are the kind of the what a lot of us know to do that's important as rest. But what a lot of us don't know. I'll tell you about two things, two kinds of rest, love. One is during the working day, I work no more than I only work for an hour and a half to two hours before I take a long break. Even when I feel like I want to keep working. And that's the key. Just like I've learned how important it is to work and create even when I don't feel like it. That's I think, honestly, true maturity as a professional to work and create even when I don't feel like it. Right. For example, I didn't feel like doing this video. I don't feel like doing any of my videos. Like if, if truly if, if everyone in the world were fully self actualized and I need, I don't need to help anybody. I would be sitting on the couch, eating popcorn, watching videos all day or playing video games. That's what I would prefer to do really. So. But I know that there's a lot of things I can do to contribute. I know that there's of course my own livelihood, my own career that I need to work on. So when I don't feel like it, I work. So for example, this video, I just, you know, I did my energy reboot, breathing. I showed up, you know, the first minute I probably still didn't feel like doing it, but now I'm enjoying it right now it's effortless action. Now it's going with the flow, right? So I work even when I don't feel like it. Same thing I've learned about rest. I rest even when I don't feel like it. So after an hour and a half to two hours of work, I Rest. Even if I'm in on a roll, I rest. I rest and I take at least half an hour and twice a day I take two hour breaks. So if I only take half an hour, then I'm doing a little bit of snacking and I'm doing a 15 minute nap. I don't usually fall asleep during the naps, but at least laying down and resting is very, very helpful. And then my two hour breaks, I, you know, do the dog walk, sometimes an errand to the post office or something like that. So that's the type of break that a lot of you probably need to institute more into your day is midday breaks I take, let's see, I take a midday break, half an hour in the morning after an hour of work, that's basically nap. I take another hour and a half after in the mid morning for breakfast, you know, nap and dog walk. I take a half hour during lunch. I don't really eat lunch, I just take a quick, quick snack and I take a nap. And then in the afternoon, afternoon I take two hours which is, you know, snack, nap and dog walk. So I take four naps a day, 15 minutes each. I don't fall asleep usually, but just laying down is extremely helpful. So midday breaks, are you doing it? If not, please, I hope you will start doing it as soon as possible. So that's the, that's the type that I. And then there's a second type that a lot of you aren't doing that I want to encourage you to do micro breaks which are during every working hour. Remember I said I worked for 90 minutes to 120 minutes at a time. Well, even during that time I'm taking multiple micro breaks. Micro breaks for me are 30 seconds long. And I do this every 15 to 20 minutes religiously. Religiously. I've been doing this now. Micro breaks. I've done it off and on for years. But I've started doing it religiously in the past month, month and a half and it's been huge difference. So micro breaks are 30 seconds every 15 to 20 minutes, which means you need to look at the clock every few minutes. I look at the clock every few minutes. Why don't you? I mean it's, it's really like time consciousness is really like the bottom line here. Like you have to build a time consciousness. You can't just lose yourself. Yes. What about flow? What about psychological flow? George, isn't, aren't you supposed to lose yourself in your work? Yes, I do. At the same time I've also Practiced a habit, even if I'm in creative flow, to look at the clock every now and then just to be aware of what time. So what do I do during those 30 seconds of micro break? Okay, here's what I do. I close my eyes. Gently. I put my arms down to my sides, both arms down to the sides. Off the keyboard, down to the sides. I relax, okay, my arms down. And then I. In my mind and my heart, I'm thanking God for having brought me here to this point in my life. All the creativity that God has helped me to create. And I know, and I trust that God will bring me through everything else as well. All the challenges, all the problems, all the ups and downs, all the creativity, God will bring me through all of that. Use a different word. If you don't like the word God, you can use source or whatever it is that makes sense, you higher self. So that's what I do for 30 seconds, I'm thinking and I'm trusting, I'm relaxing. And then part of my 30 seconds, I look into the distance. I happen to work by a window, so I'm grateful to be able to look in the distance. So I open my eyes, I look in the distance, I stretch and yawn. And then the very last thing of the 30 seconds is I look at the clock again and say, okay, my next time for a micro break is at what time? So I set that intention, okay, at, you know, 1:15 or whatever. I'm gonna take another micro break. And then that kind of intention helps to remind me, okay, okay, time to take a micro break. And this has helped prevent me from repetitive stress injury. I've dealt with carpal tunnel repetitive stress in the past, and it's not fun and it's scary. But because of frequent micro breaks, I solved that problem. I no longer have it. I still work. I probably work more hours now than I did in the past. But because of all these breaks, I no longer have carpal tunnel repetitive stress. And I'm healthy. I haven't gotten sick in over a year, actually, so it's amazing. So I really hope you'll take this to heart. Take those midday breaks, take the micro breaks. Practice, that kind of discipline. Rest before you need to. I wish you well. My name is George Kao, authentic business coach, and I look forward to seeing the next video. And thank you for joining me. Thanks so much.