This morning I woke up and pulled my gear together to go for a run. While running, I thought about what I’d do later in the day. Tinker on a project I am working on with a friend? Play Playstation with a friend I met online in the chatempanada site? Go for a walk? Tick off something else on my to-do list?
As I went through the list, I realised all my options were active tasks. None involved sitting around in ‘receiving’ or ‘resting’ mode. I had to ‘act’ to complete all the options I was giving myself.
This made me think. People like me often relax by doing things. My wife, an exceptionally talented lady, is the opposite. For her, when she has downtime, she likes to rest – sit on the sofa and watch TV, or drift in and out of a nap. She is a ‘rester’. You could call people like me a ‘doer’.
Both doers and resters have their advantages.
Resters are more balanced individuals. They know what they want and are content with who they are. To be a rester requires the ability to be satisfied with what you have and happy with what’s around you.
Doers, on the other hand, are restless souls. They are less content with what is around them, and want to change things in their free time. Doers often seek additional, optional discomfort in life and are, generally speaking, the entrepreneurs of the world (but not necessarily leaders in general).
Being a doer or a rester is not mutually exclusive. We are all both, sitting on a continuum that changes each day. But you’ll probably be one more than the other. Which are you?
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