The Match | Rest
Word: Rest
Sentence:
The best gift you can give yourself is the space and time to rest.
Passage:
Exercise science has come a long way. We know now that muscles do not grow from the weight we lift. They grow in the rest and recovery that follows. Without enough rest, muscles get overworked, and over time you can actually lose strength instead of gaining it.
Our purpose and passions are no different than biceps and triceps. When we work them, they get stronger. But they also need time to recover from the grind of life, people, and work.
When I was younger it was work hard and play hard. There was always one more event, one more late night email, one more game or gathering. Rest felt like a waste of time. Looking back, I can see the toll it took when I did not give myself space to recover, reflect, and reset.
Thirteen years in, when I finally got the principal job I had been chasing, I found another gear I did not know I had. But it came with a cost. Less time with my kid. Less time for me. The job pulled me further from the center of who I was. My sense of worth got wrapped up in how many hours I could log and how much I could carry for the school. I kept giving everyone else more access and gave myself less.
It is hard for many of us to rest. The digital world is always calling. The to-do list never ends. And if we slow down, we might have to sit with feelings we would rather avoid. So we keep moving. We tell ourselves that constant work equals value. We even take vacations and still check our email, just to prove we are needed.
As we move into the one stretch of the year when the world actually slows down and many jobs pause, we have a rare chance. We can choose real rest. Not just scrolling. Not numbing out. Actual recovery. Time with people we love. Time with ourselves. Time where no one needs anything from us.
Rest is not selfish. It is how we make sure we still have something to give when the hard moments come. When we protect our recovery, we protect our purpose.
Your Turn:
What would it mean for you to see rest as part of the work, not something you earn after the work is done?
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5 Comments
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5 Comments
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on December 19, 2025 at 8:38 am
You are so right, rest isn’t selfish-but hard for us to do.
Thank you so much for this!
Get some much needed REST over the holidays, Chad
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on December 28, 2025 at 1:51 pm
Amy, it’s your responsibility to rest. You need it to show up for your community, for your family and, most importantly, for yourself.
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on December 19, 2025 at 7:22 pm
Thanks for sharing Amy! I think as you go into 2026 building this rest into your normal routines will sustain through the year. Our world is incredibly fragile and frail right now, and your (our) leadership is what keeps our communities together during times like now. Leaders their rest, so they can continue show up for their communities.
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Chad, your story is one that is most familiar to school leaders in Chicago, and throughout the field. Somehow we have equated the needs of others as more important than our own. Those needs take time to address and to get them done we forego what we need, and that is rest. There is no reward for a lack of rest. We don’t get a gold star for being tired. The commitment must be for us to include a one word sentence into our vocabulary. That word is “No!” If we are not well rested we cannot be effective in the work. Rest, first. Support later.
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Thank you for this. You are so right – there is no gold star for being tired.
I love how you named that we have quietly decided everyone else’s needs come first and then wondered why we are exhausted and resentful. That one word sentence “No” might be one of the most important tools a school leader ever learns to use.
Rest first. Support second. When we are rested, our “yes” actually means something and has some real energy behind it. Grateful to be in this work with people like you who are willing to say this out loud.
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You are so right, rest isn’t selfish-but hard for us to do.
Thank you so much for this!
Get some much needed REST over the holidays, Chad
Amy, it’s your responsibility to rest. You need it to show up for your community, for your family and, most importantly, for yourself.
Thanks for sharing Amy! I think as you go into 2026 building this rest into your normal routines will sustain through the year. Our world is incredibly fragile and frail right now, and your (our) leadership is what keeps our communities together during times like now. Leaders their rest, so they can continue show up for their communities.
Chad, your story is one that is most familiar to school leaders in Chicago, and throughout the field. Somehow we have equated the needs of others as more important than our own. Those needs take time to address and to get them done we forego what we need, and that is rest. There is no reward for a lack of rest. We don’t get a gold star for being tired. The commitment must be for us to include a one word sentence into our vocabulary. That word is “No!” If we are not well rested we cannot be effective in the work. Rest, first. Support later.
Thank you for this. You are so right – there is no gold star for being tired.
I love how you named that we have quietly decided everyone else’s needs come first and then wondered why we are exhausted and resentful. That one word sentence “No” might be one of the most important tools a school leader ever learns to use.
Rest first. Support second. When we are rested, our “yes” actually means something and has some real energy behind it. Grateful to be in this work with people like you who are willing to say this out loud.