Does rest = failure?

Does rest = failure/quitting to you?

I was a college rower. And crew is nothing if not intense: 4:30 AM practices, bleeding hands, never-quit-on-your boat-mates ferocity.

After college, I’ve been steadfastly committed to fitness. My motto was to never miss a workout.

But before all of that, I was a mediocre young soccer player who faked injuries (“my knee hurts”) in order to ditch out on high school workouts.

And I hated that version of myself: the quitter, too weak to keep carrying on. And so, I was always pushing harder, faster, fearful that if I ever stopped, I’d shrink back into the 16-year old version of myself.

It was all too much. After pushing myself into injury and disease, I’ve come back to the beauty of rest.

Because cycles of rest are essential for good work, for lasting health, for smart training. And I no longer have to despise and punish that younger version of me.

How do you view rest right now? Because if you can’t allow yourself to rest, you won’t allow others to rest either. And that is the road to burnout.