There’s this attribute I noticed among my students as a
teacher in a secondary school some years back. I remember also having this
attribute as a student. The students often anticipated break time. If I dared
stole into the break time, my students would scream and move for an adjournment
of the class. They valued break time as it allowed them time away from serious
work to relax, refresh, and have fun with their friends. For the more serious
ones, it was time to find solace in the library or challenge other gifted
talented friends to academic duels. The beauty of the break time was that the
students solely managed it.
We can’t continue hour-in hour-out without taking time to
relax our minds over the task that we are handling. One may consider himself
superman, but even superman often found time to rest. The value of rest cannot
be overemphasized. Our body needs enough rest to make us stronger and
healthier.
Like our local adage that says, “body no be firewood”, our
body isn’t firewood. Firewood can burn off and be useless afterwards but our
bodies do not deserve such treatment. The prevailing tendency in us is to stay
alive and afloat.
Companies value the welfare of their workers. People
managers understand that if they want to keep workers working for longer years,
they have to manage the time of work and allow for short breaks at intervals. These
companies provide leave periods in which their staff do not work yet are paid
full wages and special allowances. They believe that their workers deserve this
break times to enable them regain strength, build on their incompetence, and
come back stronger. No company would want to lose her best staffs.
The love of money is one lure whose effect could be evasive.
I once found myself in a situation. I wanted money really much and I had the
opportunity from the home lessons I organized. I was being paid my allowance
from my school and made extra lucre from the lessons. It happened that I had many
home students and taught from house to house often returning home by 9 pm having
left before 7 am every workday. My weekends were clogged with lessons and on
Sundays, I had to be in church. At the start, I enjoyed the home classes and
the money that came through them but as they increased taking more of my time,
the joy traveled and I increasingly became prone to headaches, fever, and
other stress related illnesses. i grew thinner and looked pale that finally I
decided to quit them, and soon I regained myself.
I’ve learnt over time the value of having breaks in between
work. Now I do ensure that as much as possible I make my work in a more relaxed
environment creating a good ratio between work and rest. I’ve learnt that money
doesn’t come because one works hard; rather, it comes to those that work smart.
I’ve developed a working habit with rest always behind it acknowledging that
the essence of my work is to give me a good rest.
Some persons think the title “workaholic” is some great
title. While people may hail what you may consider as good work ethics, the
same people know that someday you’d break down at the pace you are going. Check
the manuals of vehicle engines or generators; you’d observe that there is
certain time frame or distance covered that the engine must be rested. It’s not
that the engine cannot work beyond that frame. It’s that the engine has a
greater chance of breaking down when it works without resting.
Man produces his machines with rest time for them in
mind. If he does this to his creations, he too must recognize himself is a
creation of God that deserves rest. Many souls are not dying because they lack
money or food. They are dying because they don’t rest. They thus become easy
prey to ailments such as high blood pressure, heart attack etc.
Our body has a mechanism that helps check us though, if we
over run. That’s often when we get down ill. We get ill because our body needs
to regain itself. You feel the pains of the recovery process because you have
hurt the body through your troubling its capacity to work.
The body does not deserve all that troubling. Let it work to
its capacity and refresh it often with good food and a beautiful environment.
Keep your body, give it some break.
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