Are you ever not busy?
Burn now.

Do you feel that you always have to be productive?
Burn now.

Are you constantly pushing to get to the next level?
Burn now.

Do you jump from one task to another?
Burn now.

Are your evenings and weekends crammed with chores?
Burn now.

Sometimes, you have to burn now to prevent burnout.

You don’t have to be busy now.
It’s okay to not be productive now.
You don’t have to push right now.
That next task can wait now.
The chores don’t have to be done now.
You could use some downtime now.

Occasionally, you have to waste now.
A wasted now is not a now wasted.

You’ll be happier if you don’t do anything now.
So be happy now.

It’s good for you now mentally.
Let your mind flow now to place it doesn’t often visit.

You’ll benefit now physically.
Give your body a break now from the whirlwind pace you keep.

You’ll be better off now emotionally.
Feel the experience of nothing now.

It’s good for you now spiritually.
Commune now with a power greater than yourself.

We know…there’s so much to do.
Don’t do it now.

We know…there are problems that need to be solved.

Let them go now.

You need a break now.
Slow down now.
Relax now.

Give yourself a time out now.
Get in touch now with your child-like nature.
Imagine a better time and place now.
Get in touch with your future now.

Burn now.
Give yourself permission now.
Now is the time to do nothing!

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Do you hibernate? Not like bears do. We don’t mean being holed up for the whole winter, sleeping the days away.

We mean occasional time away from the world. It may be an evening, a weekend, or a long weekend.

Hibernate at home

You could go away. Sometimes that’s just the ticket.

But why go to all the hassle? Hibernate at home.

Just get home, change into some comfy clothes, kick your feet up, and relax.

Hibernate with loved ones

Hibernate with your spouse or significant other. Hibernate with your nuclear family, if you have kids. But don’t neglect time with just your lover.

Don’t do a lot. Order delivery. Or get some appetizer-type foods or other finger foods that can be made in a flash with little effort.

Play games. Watch movies. Make some popcorn.

Above all, have fun, even if that means doing nothing. Rest. Relax. Doing nothing is not a waste of time.

Hibernate alone

Don’t make the mistake of not devoting some time to hibernate alone. Make time for yourself.

You need time to decompress. You need time to think. Fantasize a little. Escape. When you come back to reality, you can take these BIGG dreams and create an action plan.

But first, you need to just let your mind wander to destinations you don’t often visit. Because that’s where you will often find your BIGG ideas.

Hibernate in public

There are things you do in private that you can’t do in public. Well, at least not without getting arrested!

But you can hibernate in public without drawing the attention of the police. While hibernating in private is preferable to be sure, you can escape for a short time with other people around.

So when you feel like you need a break, hibernate mentally even if you can’t do it physically. Spend a few minutes in the recesses of your mind.

Don’t hibernate too much

Hibernation is a wonderful thing. However, you can overdo it. That’s why we defined it as “occasional time away.”

There are other relationships which must be maintained. You have to face the real world. You have to find your next dinner.

So you can hibernate again. It’s a key to success. To BIGG success, even!

Do you hibernate?

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Jon Swanson

No intent to convert here but just a warning – if you’re offended by the mention of Jesus (oops, that means we just offended you), you’re going to be offended (more)! Otherwise, continue reading.

Jon tells about a time when Jesus had been up all night healing people.

As dawn arrived, he walked away. He went to a secluded place.

But people came looking for him. They pressed him to continue his good work.

But Jesus said no. As Jon points out between the two posts, Jesus said no for three reasons:

1) Purpose

You have a reason for being. It’s your purpose.

You are meant to do something BIGG. It’s your destiny.

But there’s a magical word for keeping your life in balance – No! You must learn to use regularly if you’re going to fulfill your purpose.

It’s what Jesus did in this case. You will be well served to follow his example.

2) Decompress

You’re human. You need to rest. Even Jesus needed to rest.

Sleep – it’s what we sacrifice to maintain work-life balance. Or at least some semblance of it.

If you’re like us, you work and work and work. And you can’t shut it off like a light.

You quit for the day physically before you quit mentally. So in order to get a good night’s sleep, you need to spend some time decompressing.

3) Seclusion

Most of us work hard and long these days. You need to rest now and then. You have to know when to say when.

Jesus demonstrated this in this example. Sometimes you just have to stop and rest.

Just make sure you don’t fall into the trap with your free time. We often think craving seclusion is bad.

Being reclusive is a negative. It’s a sign of deep problems.

Spending time alone now and then is a plus. It will help you refuel and stay on course to your destiny.

Sometimes you just have to get away to be a BIGG success.

How do you know when it’s time to get away?

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We caught the Sergeant Bilko movie recently. There was a quote we loved.

Rita Robbins (played by Glenne Headley) thinks her relationship with Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko (Steve Martin) is over.

Bilko’s archnemesis, Major Colin Thorn (Phil Hartman) is wooing her.

But she still has feelings for Bilko. She is reminiscing when she says something like this:

“It was always so exciting with Ernie. Every day was ‘Anything Can Happen Day.”

Every day. Not just Wednesdays, like on The Mickey Mouse Club Show.

It got us thinking. Not about having an Anything Can Happen Day every day.

Structure helps you reach BIGG success. Routines are important.

But a routine can easily turn into a rut. And there’s a fine line between truly living and living dead.

So we vow to start having an Anything Can Happen Day now and then. Maybe once a quarter. We’re going to plan for it next year.

And that’s as far as the planning will go. Because anything more would lead to less.

We want to start the day with a blank page. Absolutely nothing on the agenda. A day to do whatever we want.

A day to be spontaneous. When’s the last time you were spontaneous?

You know you’re too busy if you don’t ever have time to be spontaneous. And we’ve been too busy.

So we’re going to do it. We’re going to schedule four Anything Can Happen Days into next year.

That’s less than 1% of the days next year. Surely, we can let life flow that much of the time.

Anything Can Happen Day. It’s a great way to get out of a rut. Or just shake things up a bit.

You can’t afford to miss it. But you can be late for it!

When’s the last time you had an Anything Can Happen Day?

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We’re testing a concept and thought we’d share it with you. If you’re a regular here, you know we think that work-life balance doesn’t work.

Our thinking has evolved over time. We believe life is a system. BIGG success is life on your own terms.

Work and play are two of the five elements of BIGG success. The BIGG idea behind BIGG success is synergy. Synergy begins with syncing work and play.

Just-in-time play

You may be familiar with just-in-time inventory management developed as part of the Toyota Production System.

The goal is to increase the return on investment by bringing inventory into the production process at the precise moment it’s needed.

So we’ve been testing what we call just-in-time (JIT) play. The goal is to increase our sense of fulfillment (i.e. our returns) by making time for play right when we need it.

Avoiding the crash

This is a response to what we’ve typically done. We love our work. But sometimes we push too hard.

We work and work and work. Followed by a crash.

We didn’t choose downtime. It chose us.

And it wasn’t very productive.

Your inventory of time

We all have a fixed amount of time. Unfortunately, we never know when we will be “out of stock.”

In the meantime, we all want to make the most of our time. In order to do that, play is essential.

Play is as much a part of BIGG success as work. The two go hand-in-hand. In fact, play makes you more productive at work.

Signals

With JIT inventory management, signals are sent to tell workers when to order parts. With JIT play, we look and listen for signals that it’s time to bring in some units of play.

For example, when we get stuck writing, we’ll take five minutes to rejuvenate. When we start having trouble getting started in the morning, we know a day off is the ticket.

By getting essential play on our schedule when we need it most, JIT play is helping us maximize our productivity and get away more often.

Our business permits a great deal of flexibility on when we work. If your schedule allows you to adapt, give JIT play a try. Now that’s win-win.

And it may be your ticket to BIGG success!

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