Optimizing Fun & Rest

One thing you need to ask yourself is if you're being the best version of yourself when you get no rest. And so that's something that this, this book pointed out, that daily fun was an important part of that formula. And Ashley, when we were talking off camera, you talked about how obviously with our faith, we believe that, that rest is a commanded component. We believe that that's true. And if we were created for rest, then this hustle culture needs to have a— I don't like to use the word balance because every entrepreneur is going to You're right. But, but there has to be some sort of intentional grounding. Welcome to the Optimizing Beyond podcast. I'm Josh Negron. And this show is all about sharing lessons, ideas, and strategies that sharpen your thinking, strengthen your habits, and push you to grow beyond comfort zones. Let's dive in. Welcome back to the show. On this channel, we talk a lot about optimizing productivity and being disciplined, and it's not often that we necessarily talk about rest and fun. And I found it challenging when I read a book recently about leadership and productivity and ended up being challenged the most by a chapter that was dedicated to fun, scheduled, timed fun, which made me realize that I did not have structured fun in my life in certain ways in a long time. And I actually had started developing some rather unhealthy negative emotions around this, like superiority, and maybe some ego and pride were involved as well. So I brought along Ashley with me to discuss how high performers can sometimes not have the best structured relationship with fun and share with you how we've navigated this topic. So Ashley, welcome back to the show.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely. So on this, I'll start out by sharing kind of my own journey. I used to be a gamer and This was part of my life for ever since I was a kid. So playing on consoles in the early '90s, we had the original Nintendo and on to different consoles throughout the years. And even after we got married, we structured in gaming time in certain parts of the day where it made sense, where I didn't feel like it was as disruptive to our time together. But I would say it still had a significant part of my life for many years. I'd say 10 years in our marriage. Is that about accurate?

Probably.

In addition to that, I had another hobby of working on cars. I would do a lot of upgrades and repairs in my garage on my various vehicles over the years. Both of those things were what I considered fun or therapeutic. And I'm not saying that they weren't, but I remember feeling a lot of times more frustrated at the end of those activities than I was going in. And so it was interesting just starting to recognize that they weren't as maybe therapeutic as I thought they were. I would have a Frustrating gaming session. I would lose a bunch of rounds and I would be annoyed and frustrated playing online especially. And then we all know in the car community, you go out and just do one small upgrade, should only take 20, 30 minutes, 7 bolts break and you're almost done and you drop the 10mm socket into the engine bay. It doesn't fall through to the bottom. So, you know, it's stuck in there somewhere. You don't want to leave it. You got to find it. It's your only 10mm because you've lost all the other ones. And it is just an absolute nightmare and a 20-minute thing turns into 3 hours. You're working into the night, you're frustrated, your hands hurt, they're bleeding. It's a whole thing. So I just remember multiple things kind of starting to eat at me with both of those things. And as I was getting more into the entrepreneurial space, there was a lot of business leaders and gurus and people on YouTube talking about how gaming was useless, right? And so it doesn't— what does it offer you in the real world? It doesn't give you anything. And so it really started. I don't know if convicting is the right word in this context, but it started making me feel like maybe that that wasn't the best use of my life. I would say, and I had to be honest with myself. Was this something that I was willing to give up? This was very personal to me, and so I was careful, especially discussing that with my gamer friends because people can get defensive real fast. Like you know what whatever you want to apply to yourself. You you're like I'm not trying to push this on you or anything. And I realized that that I was gonna make this decision to quit. This was over about two to three years. That I, that I made this decision to do that. And I liked the time that I got back. It felt freeing. I didn't have the frustration tied to the particular games that I was playing. And so I was like, this is a win, overall win, and I'll take it. And so I even took it a step further and deleted all, all the games off my phone. The only one I left was Sudoku and all these games that I had accumulated, you know, Clash of Clans and Boom Beach and All of these like games that made you get into them every day so that you could build something or do something. I was like, nope, let's, I'm out. Let's just cut these out. I want my time back. And that was good. And I started noticing over the years that it kind of built, for lack of better words, a sort of like superiority complex of like looking at myself if I considered maybe playing a game where I would get really aggressive with myself and go, no, that's a huge waste of time. And I would have like a really no grace response to that thought. And then also towards others, just in my head, I wouldn't say anything mean or anything judgy with people who are, quote, wasting time playing games. Or, you know, social media is also a huge, huge time suck for everyone, for all of us. And so I noticed that was starting to kind of grow, and it kind of reminded me of when someone used to be super overweight. One of the tendencies that they can have, one of the temptations, is when they can feel judgy with people that are where they used to be years ago. I have a friend specifically who was, was pretty judgy last year when, when he had gotten healthy. So, and so, Ashley, I want to ask you, like, throughout this, basically, at this point, we would be at like around a 5 to 7 year arc here. What were, what were the things that you noticed the shifts? And, and what did it look like from the outside of watching this transition?

Yeah, I think, you know, for a large part of it, more interested in pursuing, you know, entrepreneurial things, starting side hustles, kinds of things, starting to just realize like, what are the things that other top performers are, are doing? And what do they more importantly not do? All right, what habits do they have and what habits do they not have? And so how can we emulate some of those for people that we look up to? And so for, for those couple of different reasons, that, that transition felt natural. But also knowing that like you had to be the one to make that decision. I couldn't nag you into trying to do that or be frustrated when you did, because the reality is that I had my own version of things that I, you know, enjoy that maybe took up just as much time as those other 2 things as well. And so, um, I think the other thing that I probably noticed too is like specifically when you, yeah, gave up the gaming and maybe not as much the car thing, but like how you weren't as easily prone to frustration. I think sometimes those video games can really— we can get frustrated so quickly because things happen in them and that just keeps— that would keep building over an evening. And so I think there were times that, you know, I felt like I had to kind of like— you know, kid gloves kind of a thing. Because if you'd had a bad gaming evening, like, then you were frustrated the whole evening, or, you know, whatever that might look like. And so emotionally, like, I— it definitely affected mood, your mood in that kind of a way. And so learning to go, okay, well, this isn't— this has nothing to do with me. This is about this other thing, whatever. But also like trying to learn how to not let it affect more than just whatever time frame that you were spending doing that. I think it's important to separate those things as well and to not let that frustration, maybe from the game or whatever, or the working on the car or whatever, seek into the rest of the day or the rest of the evening. Being able to, in that instance, compartmentalize those emotions.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I remember those, uh, remember those times well. And what's, what's funny in transitioning into, you know, in the, in the current time, in the current age, is that now I used to, I used to laugh. There was a guy at work who had always He says he carries at any given time 150+ unread text messages. And I was like, dude, that's crazy. I could not fathom having that many unreads. And I'm looking at my Mac right now and I have 64 unread text messages. Who's the crazy one now? So, so it's funny transitioning into a time where spare time is less available. I always feel like there's, there's something else to do. People who have a lot of things going on, you'll know what I'm talking about. And so there's this, this thing where, I mean, you really do have to prioritize and execute like we've talked about in previous episodes. And there are going to be some things on your list that are likely not gonna get done because there's only so much time in the day and you can't get 3 hours of sleep because we're not Napoleon. And, and so you, you have to figure it out. And so if fun is on that list, it's likely gonna get knocked off. And that's what I started finding out. over time that the fun things would just go to the bottom because this is the phrase, there's always something else to do, right? There's always something else to do, right? And so that's the challenge that we've been talking about. And it's funny because you and I kind of do the same thing, but for like different reasons. And I want to kind of play around with that a little bit. So for me, I've been recognizing that I constantly am taking advantage of the atomic habit where I'll reward myself with something good. That's how I got myself to do devotional 6 years ago every single day, that I can't touch my phone or go into any other app until I do my devotional. Well, then that motivates me because let's face it, I wanna open my phone. So see who loved me this, like the night before, right? So I have to do my devotional and then I can get on my phone. So I wanna use that reward mechanism, which is great. And so it's like, well, I'll do all these tasks and then I can do insert fun task or Let's call it a task. See, the fun thing or whatever it is, relaxation time, whatever. And what I have found literally over months and months of playing around with this is oftentimes I don't get to it because I run out of time. And even if I structure it to where like, no, mathematically I will have time, a lot of times what you don't anticipate, especially in the middle of the day, are interruptions that keep shifting things and shifting the timeline to where you don't have time. And so for you, you shared that you wanna do the task that you have written down, but you You do it for a slightly different reason. Can you walk us through that?

Yeah, I think for me, I have learned about myself, probably specifically in the last couple of years, when there is time to rest. So on a weekend or in an evening where we don't necessarily have a lot to do or we don't have prior engagements, I need to finish whatever tasks need to be done before I sit down in my chair or before we turn on the TV or before I open my phone. If I don't get those things done before I sit down, the likelihood of me being motivated enough to get back up and do the task later are very slim to none. And this is specifically probably more like on a weekend, on a, on a day of rest. I would much rather get up, get my stuff done, and then be able to sit down and go, cool, I'm gonna watch this whatever on Netflix, or I'm gonna research for this trip while this is playing, or I'm gonna be looking and working on our grocery list for the next week, or like trying to Still multitask and accomplish things, but not have to necessarily be like up and moving to do them. But yeah, I've really learned if I don't, if I don't do those things first, I'm not gonna accomplish the things that I actually need to do and to still make our household function and to still keep things moving. I can go, what did I say? I can go from like 100 to 0 really, really fast, and then I stay at 0. Like I can hit that sloth mode really fast when I know there's rest days available because they don't happen often and because it's like there's A Saturday a month. It's like yes, we get to stay home and do nothing. But also in the back of my brain, I'm like oh, but I need to do this and this and this task is still outstanding and I didn't get this done this week and I need to do da da da da da da da da right? So it's deciding okay, I'm gonna allow myself or I'm gonna you know take three hours and accomplish all these things around the house or work on whatever for our our outside businesses and then I'm gonna sit down and enjoy. And so trying to figure out that balance has definitely been something that I'm working on.

Yeah, absolutely. Like I said, there's like, you framed it perfectly. There is always something else to do. And in our case that we also have business partners in the picture, there's a colleague I have at work that also loves working out. And he's mentioned recently, he's like, man, we've always made fun of him for like maybe skipping leg day and those kinds of things. And he said to me recently, he's been putting in the work to doing legs. And he's like, Man, I'm pushing myself real hard because I imagine when I'm in the middle of a set and I'm thinking about not going up in weight or maybe dropping weight, like, well, Josh wouldn't do that. And so he's like, so the fake version of me in his head is pushing him to work harder. And it's kind of like that Michael Jordan effect, you know? And so, you know, where he was like playing tricks on himself even when people didn't trash talk, so he would play harder. And so for me, it's— there's an aspect of a truthful guilt component in there where I know there's stuff that our business partners are doing and they're working really hard. And so I feel if I rest, then that's not fair to them. And so it's always pushing me to just do the next task, get the next task done. Don't wait till Monday. Don't wait till the next day. Just get it done. Right. And so, but one thing you need to ask yourself, guys, is if you're being the best version of yourself when you get no rest. And so that's something that this, uh, this book pointed out, that fun was— daily fun was an important part of that formula. And Ashley, when we were talking off camera, you talked about how Obviously, with our faith, we believe that, uh, that rest is a commanded component of, of how we're supposed to live our lives. And so we believe that that's true. And if we were created for rest, then this hustle culture has an end to it. It needs to have a— I don't like to use the word balance because that, that's— every entrepreneur is gonna be like, you're right. But, but there has to be some sort of intentional grounding. I like that better because balance just kind of is like, oh, I think I found the point. You know, it's like balance is probably not a real thing. You have to be the one to choose to ground yourself in that rest, in that fun. And so, Ashley, you talked about earlier how, while you were describing watching me go through these different transitions, now that things are— I asked you just point blank how it was now that I'm constantly in like productivity mode. I don't, I don't know if I'd use the word uptight, but there's always something that I'm working on. I've got my laptop and I'm working on tasks. And so maybe it is uptight. And I asked you, what's the biggest challenge now with doing all those things? You want to share what you told me?

Yeah, I think for me, it was the realization of that shift has allowed us to not have as much spontaneity in like going to do little adventures. Like we used to be like, hey, let's go do, you know, let's go run, let's go run to Northwest Arkansas and let's go eat tacos and let's go for a drive or let's go out I don't even know, 25 different things that we could go do, right? And so I think now that it just feels like there's so much to do and there's always all of these tasks and, you know, our businesses keep growing and there's all these things and we have to keep all this stuff going, that we don't have the flexibility and the freedom to do that anymore. I do think a genuine small part of that is like our schedule at work has shifted. And so where we used to go do that in the middle of the week where there wasn't as many people around, or it kind of felt like it was a little more like off-seasony, now our schedules are a lot more like everybody else and We're both like, I don't know if I want to go be around and be out with all of the, all of the crowds and all of the people, right? So I think there is that tiny component of that as we've gotten older. Um, a little bit more homebodies. But I also have noticed like I don't feel as comfortable in being like, hey, we need to go do this. Like, let's go. What would you think if we went and did this? What would you think if we went and did like a little overnight thing here? And what would you think if we went and did this here? And so I think there's that lack of spontaneity and just silliness. Maybe silliness maybe isn't the right phrase, but like that lack of spontaneity that's kind of been, been missing. And I don't think until we started talking about that that I kind of realized the— a little bit of a hole that that was leaving in, in that, that those are times that there was another level of connection. And that was time, even back to the things that we've talked about of like being intentional with your time together and being intentional with maybe even like little, little date things. I think that as a byproduct has kind of shifted to we're just, we're spending our time at home more for a myriad of reasons, not all of them bad, but that has become a shift, if that makes sense.

Yeah, for sure. We learned early on in our marriage through like even in premarital counseling and then afterwards that, that there is a connection that's built when even when you're doing separate things in the same area, right? We remember learning about that. So sometimes we leverage that by, by I'm working on I'm working on tasks in the living room, you're working on tasks in the living room, and we're together working on tasks, you know, at home or whatever. And so it's just been a— it's been definitely been a transition and a shift to things like that and less of those spur of the moment. And you're right, some of it's seasonal with schedules and things like that. And there have been times where I've also reflected back to you where sometimes it's like if we had felt like we were constantly running around, not getting a lot of like Physical rest and, you know, always leaving the house. You have— we all have those seasons where you're like, there's— you have zero nights at home until like 2 and a half weeks from now. You know, you're looking at the calendar, you're like, and you have some friends who want to play some, you know, play board games. And you're like, well, I can get you in in October. Uh, and so in those seasons, I think I also recognized where a few times you were like, hey, why don't we go and do and whatever? And I've been listening to some language in that season where it's like, I'm just really tired and we're going around and doing this stuff. And And, and I tend to be more of the homebody and more of the brakes on those kinds of things anyway. I have to be aware of that for sure. And so sometimes I would ask the question like, hey, maybe we should consider planning some non-activity. And so those are, those are just some of those things that we've been, like you said, we've been kind of meandering through in these changing shifts, right? In these seasons and in these transitions. But that's really what I love about this book and when we read it. And the book is The Elite Leadership Blueprint by Brandon Thornton Hill. He's a Navy SEAL. Um, the part of this book that I said at the beginning, it totally took me by surprise. A lot of this other stuff, it was a very practical, dense book. We read it back to back because it was so rich and full of like practical application. But there was a chapter in there about fun, structured, scheduled fun. We will have fun at 5:00 PM today, you know. And the general idea was to plan 15 to 20 minutes of some kind of fun activity, That is not on any planet productive whatsoever. It can be playing a game, it can be learning an instrument, whatever you love to do, engaging in that on a daily basis, which is something I hadn't even considered before, which is crazy because I say all the time, daily anything changes everything, right? And so it was just, it blew my mind of like, hang on just a minute. If that is something that you do daily, Then, and it is like, I'll be vulnerable for a minute. I think when I look back and ask myself why I have those judgy feelings towards how I used to be, I think there's some of that where it's like, if it's not structured, you kind of worry about backsliding back, right? So someone that used to be overweight and they got to a better weight by avoiding carbs, I talk to them a lot of times when they reintroduce carbs, they get a little nervous 'cause I'm like, they're like, I'm afraid like it's gonna, magically explode me up. And it's like, hang on, you don't eat the same things, you actually exercise, it's not going to have the same effect. Carbs aren't the most evil thing. But you get into these thoughts of those ruts that contributed to what we used to be and where we moved away from. There's natural concern where you're like, if there isn't structure around that, will it get out of control again? Will I game for over an hour a day like I used to when I was young?

Yeah.

So if it's 15 to 20 minutes a day, that's a very small structured aspect that doesn't get out of control. So for me personally, who had that concern, games by their very definition are gamified to keep you playing. And so, you know, you can have your little cell phone game and you can get those little rewards and they want you to keep playing. And before you know it, it's been an hour and a half. You're like, holy smokes.

Mm-hmm.

And so like you have to, If you're going to do this in a structured way, you're going to, you have to set a timer or you have to engage in something that you know is a constrained time. But even just that, if you're looking, if guys, if you're looking for a practical application, giving yourself permission to do something like this 15 to 20 minutes a day has been very, very interesting to play with. I think we've been, we've been doing this around 3 to 4 months now after reading the book, and I'm still not doing it every single day. Weekdays are the hardest. Because we get home around 5:30 to 6. You know, you get the, you know, you have dinner, that's 30 to 45 minutes. We go to bed wicked early, not because we're old, but because we wake up early to go to work out and do our 4 Gs and our devotional before the gym and before work. And so getting ready for the next day and the bedtime routine's 45 minutes at least, sometimes even an hour. And so you're left with like an hour of flexibility. Like, what can you do with that? You know? And so it seems it's tough to sometimes fit in 15 to 20 minutes of whatever, something you wanna do when you only have that much of a sliver. Weekends is a little bit different. You, you're like, okay, where can I fit this 15, 20 minutes? And those kinds of things. So, and for me, it's easier now to justify not keeping it until the end, the end that never comes, right? Because there's always something. Uh, because now I know, well, let me do these 4 things and then after that, I'll have my 20 minutes, and then after that's done, then I'll keep working or keep doing whatever. And so I've been kind of playing around with the timing, and it's been really, really, really rewarding, I think.

So I think fun, just like a lot of other things, it's so easy to make an excuse to not do it, right? It's the same, same concept of if you don't do the gym first thing in the day, there's every reason at the end of the day to not do it. You had a rough day at work, your kid needs Something else is going to come up, or I need to do this, or I need to do that. And so that gets pushed to the wayside. Or even, you know, I mean, there's a million other things that could come up. Same things, excuses can happen for anything. And fun can be just that same exact kind of way. Where the balance has to come, and, and it's hard to find that balance, is between having no fun and then only doing slothy kinds of things on an evening and a weekend. I'm not saying that we don't need those things. I do think That we do need rest. And we're still trying to figure out and play around with like, what does it look like to say we're gonna schedule a weekend of just rest, or we're gonna schedule a day of, you know, no, nothing that we have to do. We're gonna take a break from the tasks that we have to do, knowing that like it will still be there. I think that's for me, like that this concept has really been floating around a lot in my brain and been really challenged by it. Honestly, like since Charlie Kirk died and, and, and And Sabbath and rest was one of his big core values, and have really been challenged by the way in which he lived that out. I'm like, okay, if a man who ran a crazy big company like Turning Point USA can put his phone on silent, on do not disturb for 24 hours, and everybody knew it, and life still went on, how, how is it that we can't do it for 12 hours, for 10 hours, for 8? Like, even just— I think it comes down to communicating. With people in our lives saying, hey, we're, we're taking a break. We have some family members that do that, but I know on Fridays that that's their Sabbath day and I'm— their phones are off. I'm not going to hear from them. So if I text them on a Friday, I'm not going to hear from them until Saturday, maybe Sunday. And that's okay, right? So I think it's, it's giving ourselves permission to live in that rest, to disconnect from the utter chaos that can be our lives. But to do it in a way that brings purpose and that isn't just this unstructured day of nothing. It's, it's okay, I'm gonna put my phone on do not disturb and we're gonna play a game today, or we're gonna watch a movie that we've been talking about. Or you know what, you know, we're, we're Formula 1 fans, and so maybe it's that today for these 2 hours we're gonna put our phones away and we're gonna just sit back and enjoy qualifying or the race or whatever that, that looks like. And so you have to find what that rhythm and groove is for you and your family. And I think everybody's level of comfortability and maybe even conviction around that can look completely different. And for you and I, like, we're still navigating what that looks like in our marriage and, and in our, you know, in our, in our businesses. And, and how, how do we take care of ourselves in regular rest that doesn't just wait for the big vacation, right? Um, that doesn't just wait for, oh, when we have a free weekend. If we don't plan a free weekend, it's Not happening. You just— rest becomes important when you make it a priority, just like any other habit in our lives. And so I think that's the biggest thing that we've been mulling over and trying to figure out in optimizing that and realizing like it is so important to our mental, physical, emotional, spiritual well-beings to take that structured fun and rest individually but also together.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. And I love how you touched on that because it's We've identified things that we like to do individually, and then those things that we can do and have fun together, right? And so because we car— because we're fortunate enough to carpool to work, one of the things we love to do is to listen to a fiction book, especially on the way to work. On the way home, we're usually debriefing from, from about work stuff. And so it's not always something we get to do on the way home, but on the way there, usually around 15 to 20 minutes. And so that's been awesome, whether it's Harry Potter or Project Hail Mary were some of the most recent ones. That full cast edition of Harry Potter, amazing, by the way. So much fun. So yeah. And so those kinds of things, those are the things we do daily. And then F1 is a weekly thing when it's not, you know, canceled. And then you reflected that another, another thing we do together a lot is intentional time with friends. friends. And so we have standing days of the week where we have people over or we go somewhere. And that's been— we've been doing that for over 10 years. And it's been a huge impactful thing where it's relationships. You know, you got off of Facebook during Lent, and then it was so enriching for you, you realized like, I'm continuing this. And just the increased connection you talked about, because you're connecting with people now, and you're learning to control the things that you can control, and you're not assaulted with a bunch of things that you don't have control over. And so those are just, those are awesome things that we were running through of like just recognizing the different ways that we have discovered that we like to do this and how important it is to have your own thing. And also the things that, like you said, draw you closer together and keep you connected. And while, you know, while we talk a lot about discipline on this show and optimization and discipline go hand in hand in a lot of respects, that's why I talked about in the most recent episode about how discipline can be a prison and it can, when it's taken too far, it can actually limit you in certain respects. And so definitely give that episode a listen because that plays in right here and you have to have enough discipline to be disciplined about fun and space and rest. And like you said, for the right reasons. And intentionality are important because we've all wasted time. That's not the same thing as rest and fun, right?

Right.

And so sometimes you look like, man, where did the, where did the last 4 hours go? And you don't feel any more rested. In fact, you might feel worse, right? And so that's where it becomes even, especially if your margins are thinner, I think that's when it becomes that much more important to be really intentional with the times that you do have. And one cool thing that you said today was that Regardless of how busy or stressed or any combination thereof, that joy is still a choice, right? I Choose Joy. That's the book that we do every day with the 4 Gs. And so, it's an intentional choice daily to be joyful. And that is not circumstantial and it's not based on how busy or not busy you are or how much rest and fun you've had or not. know, if things are not going well and not ideal, joy is really something that is a choice of that. And so I think that fun and rest can be a component of giving you something to be joyful about. But like you said, I do love how you made that point that, that joy is a choice.

Yeah. And I think, you know, that got to play out actually really practically this week for me. There have been some crazy changes at work, and as a byproduct, I'm short some staff and had the realization on Thursday late afternoon that we didn't anyone to work in the office on Saturday. And the only person that was available in any remote kind of way was me. And I had this whole vision in my head of like, just make it to Friday afternoon. Like, all you have to do is get yourself to Friday afternoon at 5 PM, and then we're gonna be great. We can chill at home, we could do a movie night. Saturday morning I can wake up, it's supposed to be rainy and kind of cool, make a cup of coffee, sit at home in my chair, and I'm gonna just relax because it has been a very good but hard week. And Thursday I was hit very hard with, I am gonna need to work 6 days this week, right? I— taking off Friday was not, not an option in any way, shape, and form. And so that realization of like, okay, well, initially I was really frustrated and I was really emotional and I texted you, I think I'm gonna cry right now. And then I went, you know what, this is a choice. Like, you can go into Saturday and you can be really frustrated and you can be really grumpy and you can And make everybody miserable around you, or you can figure out how to go, okay, how do I make the best of this? How do I figure out how to maybe rest next week? And we figured that out, and we're gonna be able to take a day next week unexpectedly and be able to spend some time together. And, you know, I think we're probably gonna go on an adventure. And so it's one of those things that, like, I could have chosen to have been so frustrated and so mad and been out of shape and mad all day on Saturday, and instead I went, okay, cool. Well, now this is going to be an opportunity to hang out and spend some time with some people at work that I don't always get to see because I'm in a different role and I'm in a different space. And it gave me some time to get caught up on some things heading into this week. And I'm just— I chose in that moment to find joy and to find the positives in what might be possible in the day rather than being super frustrated and super angry about it. And that practically for me was probably one of those moments lately that it was literally an I choose joy moment. I wanted to be so mad and so frustrated, and I went, nope, it's gonna be great. And, you know, we, we figured it out and we made the— we made the best of the situation. And then today, that meant today we were going to be intentional with the time that we had at home. You know, I'd already made some commitments at church, and so that meant that I was busier today than I would have planned on being. But finding rest and relaxation in those moments that we did have at home today, and even being able to reflect and talk about and plan for podcast. Like, it's, it's crazy just how all of those things lined up of we— yeah, joy is a choice, and the way that you look at circumstances is a choice. And so rough week, still chose joy.

And you were rewarded by Lewis Hamilton winning today. Hey, first win. Go Ferrari, right?

Like, we're Ferrari fans, and so I was very excited for that to be a reality. And yeah, Yeah, just, yeah, getting to, to relax and cheer him on and like watch that and enjoy that and just that fun, that, yeah, just that fun of watching that together.

Yeah, and that's it. There's nothing productive that came out of that except—

I did nothing productive during the race, nothing. And I needed that, and that is totally okay. You know, I didn't even like, I wasn't even spending time on my phone during the race, which sometimes can happen. And I, you know, I was, I was engaged and locked in, but like, am ready to go into this week, like, rested. And that was because it was something that I enjoyed doing and I enjoy filling my time with it. Like, I genuinely feel rested and ready to go tomorrow morning. Yep.

And I've taken 20 minutes yesterday and 20 minutes today where, you know, I pulled up the track of the week and did it last week with Monaco, this week with Barcelona. And I was like, I'm going to sim race a little bit and see what I can do. And it's— there's something— there's a cool connection with the race week when you do the track That they're doing, you know? And then you're like, oh yeah, I, that's, that's where I, that's a corner I was having trouble with too. Sweet. So that's the thing, guys. Like that's, that's the 3 things I would challenge you with. Sleep. We talk about sleep a lot because it is something that we don't have perfected, but it is so, so critical in the foundation of rest. And so that's why it's so important. That's why our schedule is so, so routine around sleep because it is that foundation. It is the, the, the cornerstone of everything else. And then after that, if you can just Schedule. My challenge to you is scheduling 15 to 20 minutes. You can probably, if I say, what do you want to do that you've not had time to do? There's plenty of things that pop in your head. And so whatever that is, do it for 15, 20 minutes every day is my challenge to you. I'm doing that alongside with you and trying to remember to do it on the weekdays because the, like we said, those are more compressed. And then also find that time to connect with, uh, with the people that are most important to you. So whether that be your spouse, your kids, Or all of you together. Dinnertime can be— and that's one thing, try to find times that you're going to do anyway. For us, it's driving to work or from when we're carpooling. That is, we're going to spend that time together anyway, so how can we do it intentionally to connect and have some fun? That has been really helpful, again, when your time is compressed. And so when you have crazy schedules and you're not always with your spouse or your kids or your family or whatever, What are some things that, you know, like, okay, right here we're all gonna be together. How can we be intentional with it? And that, that can be a challenge when others are involved, like, dang it, we're gonna have fun right now. But, uh, so bringing them around this idea, uh, might be, might be helpful to communicate that. But I challenge you to do those 3 things, uh, this next week and see how you can reintroduce rest and fun in a different way to try to optimize that. 15, 20 minutes isn't very much. And so that is something I think can be Not very— it has not been very disruptive. It's been more just trying to remember to do it, right? And so let us know how that went. We'd love to hear. Thanks for listening to the Optimizing Beyond podcast. Remember, growth happens when you take action. So subscribe, share this with a friend, and most importantly, put what you learned into practice. Until next time, keep moving forward because daily anything changes everything.