The Jesus Way to a Life of Abundant Impact

by DRU PERERA, CCNI INTERNATIONAL COUNTRY LEADER & FOUNDER OF GLOBAL RESET

Jesus is the way to a life of abundant impact, and in the Gospel of Matthew, He reveals how we are to steer clear of the false identities and false narratives perpetrated by the father of lies. In the Message translation, of Matthew 11:28-32 Jesus says:

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

The question is, are you ready to lay down your heavy burden and learn how to live freely and lightly? If you want to start living a more fulfilling life of abundant impact, stop focusing on trying to improve your work habits and start focusing on getting adequate rest. It’s the Jesus way to a life of abundant impact!

How much rest is adequate? Science says you need to spend 42% of your time resting because that’s the percentage of rest your body needs to keep functionating at optimal capacity. If you think, “42% is ridiculous, I don’t have that kind of time”, you are not alone.

Last year, a mother of three children and a CEO from a bustling US city reached out to me saying:

I have all the signs of burnout; I am exhausted, empty, unhappy and I have now reached a point where I am literally unable to cope with daily living. I know I need more rest, but my life is far too demanding for that. Can you help me spend the next twelve months trying to simplify my life?

The Domino Effect. After spending several weeks focusing on the result she wanted, I helped my client (Let’s refer to her as Jane) shift her focus to how she could make small changes that would create a chain reaction of progress. It wasn’t easy but by going for The Domino Effect, Jane learned how to incorporate the 42% rest rule into her life and live a life of abundant impact in little under ten months.

Here are five tips that will help you start implementing the 42% rest rule into your life:

1. Beware – Your words create your reality. Psychologists have found that our subconscious mind interprets what it hears. So, for better or worse, the words that come out of your mouth have the power to shape your reality. Every time you say things like ‘my life is too demanding for me to rest”, you unconsciously sabotage your ability to rest because it perpetuates the unhealthy rest-work routines you have in place and chips away at your confidence that change is possible.

2.Change your thinking. George Bernad Shaw once said, “Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything”. The best way to address faulty thinking is to replace it with concrete facts. Here are several facts and a simple analogy that helped Jane change her thinking.

Fact 1: Complex systems need rebooting. If you ask an IT expert how to keep your laptop functioning at optimal level, they will recommend weekly rebooting, to help ‘reset” many of your device’s internal systems that will help speed up its performance.

Fact 2: Humans are vastly more complex than modern machines. Here’s an example to help you wrap your mind around that reality: a 2009 National Geographic publication says your brain is more complex than any other known structure in the universe.

Analogy: You need a weekly reboot to reset, just like your laptop! Science is clear. To keep functioning at optimal capacity, you need to spend 42% of your weekly time rebooting because that’s the amount of time all the complex systems that you are made up need to reset. So, it’s not a question of IF you need to incorporate 42% of your time resting, it’s a question of HOW.

3.Simplify your life. Living a life of abundant impact doesn’t come down to your willingness to accomplish more at any cost; it’s about how well you prioritise your time. In his speech at the 86th Oscar Awards, Matthew McConaughey explained how he keeps things simple by aiming to accomplish three things daily. Something to:

Look up to — he looks up to God and calls it a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates.
Look forward to — seeing his family; that’s who and what he looks forward to.
Chase —my hero, that’s me in 10 years.

What do you need daily to live more wholly? Start there.

4. Do it for a day. Aim for The Domino effect, because just like tipping over that first domino sets off a chain reaction, small daily actions will eventually set off a series of events that will expand into the result you are after.

Instead of thinking about the 42%, focus on the fact that you need to get 10 hours of rest every twenty-four hours. If you think that’s still too hard, here’s the good news, it doesn’t have to be ten hours every day; it can average out over a week or a month or more!

5. Easy as pie! Create a pie chart that represents how you spend each 24-hour cycle. Then make little daily changes until you get into a rhythm of ten hours of rest, fourteen hours of work.

• Quality sleep plays a big part in the ten hours of rest you need. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, look at how you can improve your sleep hygiene.
• While quality sleep is critical, you need an additional two hours of rest that focuses on your whole being, not just your body. So, consider how you can make small daily changes to include mental, emotional, spiritual, social, creative and sensory rest through activities like meditating, journalling, exercising, playing a sport, massage therapy, spending time with loved ones, pursuing a hobby, being out in nature, playing an instrument, listening to music, unplugging from your devices etc.).
• You have 14 hours left to get everything else done – work, chase your dreams, shuttle your kids to-and-from school, run errands, do laundry etc.

If you can’t find a way to include ten hours of daily rest, think about how you can average it over the week. For example, could you schedule a weekly, work-free family day that includes mental, emotional, spiritual, social, creative and sensory rest or free up some of the time you spend commuting by working from home one or twice a week?

Whether you think you can – implement the 42% rest rule into your life – or think you can’t – you’re right (Henry Ford). If you think you can accomplish it on your own, great; go for it.! If you think you can’t, reach out. You’ll gain far more from working toward proving yourself wrong than waiting to find out you were right.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dru is a certified coach with twenty years of educational leadership experience, and she has spent more than a decade of life experience learning how to implement the 42% rest rule into her life. Dru now leverages her experience to help people from around the world, discover their God-given identity and start living and leading with purpose and passion.

When you are ready to discover whom, God says you are and live and lead the Jesus way, visit her website for more information: coachmyreset.com