A Day Off For Harmony

A Day Off For Harmony

I’m finally starting to feel like myself again.  The stomach flu took me out of commission for a few days.  One of the hardest things about being sick was allowing myself just to rest – no work, no side hustling, no making Christmas presents, and no chores.  I think my body was telling me to take a break.  After too many days of caring for three children, working a full-time job and side hustling at every possible moment, I couldn’t fight off the bug.  It took me out.

Sometimes, you just need to give yourself a break to recharge.  Taking one day off is not going to set us that far behind in our goals.  Yes, it was hard to notice the laundry baskets on my way to get some toast, yet crawl back into bed instead of putting away the clean clothes.  Yes, I felt guilty having the laptop there, but not on.  I could have easily sat up and clicked for money on Swagbucks or drafted another blog post.  Yes, I probably could have managed to do a little bit of work for my job to get ahead and help in my efforts to get a promotion.  I chose rest.

Uninterrupted sleep is a special luxury for most parents.  With a seven-month old baby, it had been a while since I’d had an opportunity for some extra rest.  I slept for hours (thanks to Mr. Smith) and woke up in darkness, realizing that the entire day had slipped by.  At first, I felt lazy and wasteful.  But now, as the cloudy head is gone and the stomach is calm, I feel energized.  We are not machines.  We need a break once in a while.

I recently (finally) read Dave Ramsey’s book, The Total Money Makeover and enjoyed it.  The book didn’t contain anything too novel as far as the advice, but it was very motivating.  His mantra is to “Live like no one else, so you can live like no one else.”  It is a great message.  But I had to remind myself, when deciding whether to rest or do something productive, that one day off is not going to derail all of our progress.  We are living like no one else.  We are making good decisions about money, paying off large portions of debt, and building a better future for ourselves.

This brief illness has really reaffirmed the fact that we need to make our health a priority.  While our extreme goals require hard work, we also need stamina to keep going.  And what good will semi-retirement be to us if we are out of shape and worn down?  We simply won’t be able to enjoy it.   Rest to recharge is an important tool on this journey to early semi-retirement, and beyond.  Now that I’ve taken a break to get better, I guess it’s time to get back to work.

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