In 1929, things are a little different than they are now in the working world. Sunday's We're a day off and most establishments were closed on Sundays. Most restaurants, gas stations, people on the whole just didn't expect to be working on a Sunday.
But in a very controversial and now legendary move, Joseph Stalin in what was then the Soviet Union, decided that Sunday was a wasted day. He was scheming ways to supercharge the productivity of his population and to eliminate what he considered to be like the pointless recreational time that Sunday brought about. Machines were sitting idle on Sundays and people were working.
People were going to church. They were worshiping, which was something that he saw no value in. And so in 1929, Joseph Stalin canceled Sundays. For real? You should look this up. It's a very interesting story that I won't have time to go into today. But Joseph Stalin effectively got rid of weekends. And for 11 years, the Soviet Union wrestled with a schedule that forced people into a sort of always on workweek, dividing up time off so that a lot of times husbands and wives didn't get the same days off and families didn't get to hang out together when they did have time off.
And the impact of the changes as a result of Stalin's new laws is now legendary. We need time off. And if we didn't know it before, we certainly realized it. After their experiment, people started feeling unmotivated. Machines started breaking down because they were always going 24 seven. People were discouraged that they didn't have time off. That coincided with their friends and with their families, so they didn't really get quality social time on the days when they were off.
And overall, things just didn't go well. They ended up changing up the system multiple times over the course of those 11 years and then eventually completely abolished the system that Joseph Stalin set up. We need time off. It's just a fact. And in America, we are nothing like Communist Soviet Union, right? I mean, we get time off. Everybody who works for somebody probably has a certain amount of days off or vacation days a year.
And when Americans were polled, that was actually one of the things that they cared most about when they were looking for a new job. They wanted to know what were the paid time off options. Were they going to be able to go on vacation? Were they going to get regular days away from the office? We say we care about these things and yet pulls from the last couple of years show that we don't do so well at actually following through on those.
In fact, in 2019, there was a poll done that showed that 768 million days of paid time off in America went unused. That means there were 768 million opportunities for someone to take a day off and they just didn't do it. In fact, polls show that Americans really struggle with unplugging when they take time off so that sometimes when they take time off, they're actually sneaking work in while they're on vacation.
There's even a trend that's been going around that's been documented on social media and in research that shows that it's not uncommon for people to actually lie when they take time off about where they're going or what they're doing. This is really interesting. People have a tendency to lie and say they're going somewhere where their connection isn't great or their phone isn't working because they're concerned and that when they take time off, they're going to get pulled back into work on accident, or maybe that they won't even have the willpower to stay away from their device.
And when we look at what Stalin did in the Soviet Union and think how awful that is, do we realize that even though the government imposed it on those people, we in our culture are sometimes self inducing a crazy level of always on torture because we don't know how to rest. So I'm asking myself, why is that? Now there is a lot of good research done on this and there are a lot of potential answers.
And I'm about to give you what I think are some of the most interesting, but definitely not the only reasons that we have these issues in America. But I see these as definite problems, so hear me out. I think we have been duped by the hustle culture. We have been duped into this way of thinking that says it's super cool to be always on your grind.
24 seven Nothing but the money. And that's what we care about. In fact, that's driven home to us in media, both in music and in movies that we have this respect for people who just never stop and never quit. And we think to ourselves that in order for us to achieve our dreams and to, you know, make the money that we want to make or be able to get the education we want, we just can't stop.
We've got to go 24 seven. And the truth is, we can't always be on the grind. The truth is, the research just shows that our bodies don't function like that. And if the Soviet Union weren't a good enough reason, we see it in our own culture that the more we stress, the more we work and refuse to take time off, the worse we actually do it our jobs.
The truth is that time off allows our time on to be more focused and to be more productive. So if you really do want your hustle to be top of its game, you're going to have to let your rest and your relaxation also be on the top of its game. Here's something else I notice about our culture. We see non-work time as wasted time.
In fact, we term it. Things like free time and I think free insinuates that there's not a high value on the time, but actually there is. And the truth is that playing that exploration, that those faith traditions and those casual social interactions really have huge health benefits that are part of a fulfilling life. Not to mention, they help you be a better worker, employee, leader, manager, whatever it is that you do when you're in your vocational status.
But, you know, it's not just about being good at work. It's just about being a good human being. And that's not wasted time. That's vital. You need that time. So don't see your time off as wasted time. And maybe it depends on how you're using it. So make sure that you are looking at that time as valuable and giving some intentionality to those days off.
Here's another thing that I think hurts our willingness to take rest, and that is that we don't want to go home. I mean, sometimes let's be honest. Home is where more problems are. Problems that no boss and no team is helping us fix. So it's easier to stay at work to avoid our personal stress, to avoid people, to avoid our mental health problems.
And the truth is that we often categorize our family, our friends, our personal life, our health as top priority over work. That's just across the boards. When people take surveys, that's what they say. All these things come first and then work. But if that's true, our passionate investment should start there, and then it's going to spill over into our workday.
We've got to start at home. And if you're working a lot because working is easier than fixing what's going on at home, I'm telling you that it's going to come back and bite you. You need to spend some quality time in your off days making sure that the life you're creating for yourself is amazing and that if that job changes or goes away entirely, your only reason for living didn't just vanish.
Here's another thing we struggle with. We are afraid of being expendable. So we think that if we don't show up, maybe things will go well in our absence, and then they'll realize they don't really need us there and we'll get fired. But, you know, that's a really selfish way of looking at the work that we do. The truth is, a good leader.
They can leave. They can go on vacation. If everything falls apart when you're gone, then you're not doing something right at your job. You need systems in place and the world should keep turning without you there. Don't self aggrandize. It's okay if you intentionally vanish for a while and relax and have intentional rest time off. If you can't, if you've built a world in which you are constantly needed, you probably have an inflated sense of self.
And you just need to keep in mind that even military generals take days off. Brain surgeons take days off. The president takes days off. How important do you think you are to that position? You make sure you don't put yourself in a position with your work where you can't take time off. Everybody needs it. And then I honestly think we just don't know how to relax.
We are determined to have stress and emotional issues because it signals that we have a need for attention and appreciation. And sometimes we tie that drama into our identity so that when the drama vanishes, we don't know what to talk about when it comes to our life. Ever known somebody like that where you just feel like they wouldn't have anything to say if they didn't have drama?
And sometimes we just don't know how to relax. We think the drama makes us important, but the truth is being okay is okay. We need to learn to enjoy our lives and appreciate our blessings and stop rushing from one thing to the next. Don't be determined to be dramatic. Don't be determined to always have an emergency or a crisis or something going on because that gets you the attention that you want.
It's okay to breathe. To chill. To have a day that's beautiful and no problems. And trust me, I understand that there isn't a day where you can't find problems. I'm saying that you have decided this is a day where I will not focus on problems. Rest is not this optional leftover activity. That's something that Alex Soojan-Kim Pang said in his book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less.
I love this quote. Rest is not an optional leftover activity. He goes on to say, Work and rest are actually partners. They're like different parts of a wave. You can't have the high part without the low. The better you are at resting, the better you will be at working. Do yourself a favor. Recognize that being off is as important as being on and take it just as seriously.
Make rest sacred. Step away in every way possible. You are not the only superhero on the planet. And you need rest. And when you rest, when you play your work can be that much better. Thank you for joining me on this episode. I'll see you next time. And until then, live like it matters.
