I interviewed my dad a while ago about his journey being a business owner himself and one of the things he said was that as an entrepreneur “you only eat what you kill.” What he meant by that is you only get what you work for and it’s up to you. Which is both awesome and hard.

As a business owner myself, I’ve learned it means you probably work more than you’d like because there’s this pressure of it being all on you and that can easily lead to burnout.

This means you NEED to rest and you need to actually build it into your business.

 Don’t let rest be an afterthought or only happen when you’re about to quit it all because, let’s be real: if it ain’t scheduled, it ain’t happening.

If you don’t have a REST PROCESS, implement it now and thank yourself later.  Remember: What is scheduled happens.

Here’s how you can create your REST PROCESS for yourself:

1. Determine when you need the rest.

Think about when you typically feel like you want to quit it all. Seriously. What are the times of year that you notice this feeling comes around or feel just burnt out and that you don’t have the energy to do anything?

Those are the exact times you need to have some rest.

2. Schedule it!

Go ahead and schedule this time on your calendar of when you’re going to be out and block it. It doesn’t matter that you don’t have plans yet or don’t know what you’re going to do. Just block it off. The details can come later.

For me, I take Fridays off every single week. And I take a week off at the beginning of the year, a week off in the spring (this is usually a family trip with the in-laws and extended family), a couple of weeks off in the summer, and around Christmas.

Your rest process is completely up to YOU. Maybe it’s taking a day off every week (like me) and then doing a few longer stretches throughout the year. Or maybe several smaller stretches. Do what works for you and your family but Nike up and just do it.