Have A Good Rest Ethic

People talk a lot about work ethic. It’s having the character to work hard, apply yourself, and do what it takes to make progress in your life. People work hard in their career, in their health, for their family and loved ones, and it’s celebrated.

What’s equally important is an idea that doesn’t get as much air-time, which is ‘rest ethic’. It’s exactly what it sounds like - it’s holding yourself to a higher level of discipline and commitment to rest and recovery.

One of the most counterintuitive things I’ve ever encountered is: Often the most powerful expression of self-discipline is honoring an early bed time.

It’s critically important that we give our bodies and minds enough time to rest. And the biggest limiting factor to the amount of sleep is the time we go to bed. Our alarm goes off around the same time every morning, so when you go to sleep is the variable that matters most.

Yet, how easy is it to stay up past your bedtime and do “just one more thing”. Wrap up one last household chore… Watch one more show… Respond to one more email… It all happens virtually automatically, and it’s often motivated by a concept called “Revenge Bedtime Procrastination” where people stay up late because it’s an opportunity for unstructured ‘me time’ that they didn’t get throughout the day.

What takes effort is to not give in to that, wrap up your day, and begin to wind down so that you get an adequate amount of sleep. The mind will try to fight against you with all of the things it believes to be incomplete and all of the things it wants to do. But you’re in control and you can enforce bedtime for yourself.

One of the most important pieces to having a good rest ethic is awareness. You can’t make a good choice without knowing there’s a choice to be made. And that’s where I have a little trick for you:

Just like setting an alarm in the morning for when you want to wake up, set an alarm at night for when you want to start winding down for bed. The alarm interrupts whatever you’re doing to bring your attention to the fact that it’s time to go to sleep. At that point it’s your choice to do it, or not.

Getting into a more predictable sleep schedule by responding to a night-time alarm is one of the 9 Super Habits. When you do all 9 consistently, you completely transform the energy, focus, and mindset you bring to everything you do. It’s a gateway to your fullest potential, and if you want to learn what the 9 Super Habits are and how to follow through on them consistently, you an watch a mini video-series here. In all they take only 10 minutes a day to do, but they unlock the discipline, focus, healthy choices that make you feel and perform at your very best all day.