Tag: rest

Closed 33 per cent of the time

Chef Andoni Aduriz (owner of Mugaritz, a restaurant near San Sebastian in Spain) is considered one of the most creative chefs on the planet. He has an interesting tradition – he shuts Mugaritz down for 4 months every year.

Chef Aduriz first shut down his restaurant for 4 months after a fire in 2010 and has made it an annual tradition. He has come to appreciate the need for a complete break to give the team the space to be creative.

Mugaritz, thus, is closed for business 33 per cent of the time and is consistently rated among the top 10 restaurants on the planet.

There’s a powerful lesson in there somewhere for me/us.

Post smartphone era weekends – a way to measure success

A way to measure success in post smartphone era weekends is to ask – how many times did you forget where your smartphone was? 

I found myself forgetting about my phone for hours at a time on memorable weekends. So, I’ve begun starting weekends by leaving my phone in obscure places within the home (e.g. under the pillow). The more obscure the location, the less I check it, and the better the weekend.

Prioritizing rest

If you’re like most people, the first thing that gets de-prioritized when push comes to shove is your own body. We are always capable of pulling that all-nighter, cutting down on sleep, eating take-out to save time, and canceling our exercise plans.

And, yet, our bodies never complain.

Well, until they do.

When I do fall sick or find myself down with a stomach bug, for example, I’m consistently amazed as to how I never even noticed my stomach when it was functioning well.

So, just for this weekend, let’s put away our plans for taking over the world. Instead, let’s appreciate this incredible machine – our body – treat it well and prioritize it over everything else. Let’s eat great food if we feel hungry, treat it to a great run or a fun game when we feel restless and, above all else, get as much rest as we need.

The quality of our lives is directly proportional to the quality of our health. And, we get just one shot at living well. Let’s use it well.