MCENTIRE JOINT NATIONAL GUARD BASE, S.C. --
If you’ve ever deployed,
you know that many in the military assume that a lack of sleep is expected to
be a normal part of life and deployment. Even while stateside, many live for
work and constantly put their physical and emotional needs second. In most
cases, it’s not like they intend to overdo things. Because it’s a normal part
of our military culture, many don’t know they’ve fallen for one of the myths of
self-denial: You must push yourself hard to get the work done, and
eat/sleep/exercise/spend time with your family when it’s finished. The problem
is that it never is. We reward people with that kind of work ethic, and build
up the idea of the noble family that constantly sacrifices time with their
loved one. While a certain amount of sacrifice is noble, there’s a problem when
that becomes a never-ending way of life.
Think of each person,
yourself included, as a bucket full of water. (Our bodies are mostly water, so
it shouldn’t be too hard to imagine.) When you work, the water in the bucket
gets emptied into the job. When you rest, exercise, or spend time in recreation
or with loved ones, the bucket gets refilled. When your needs for those things
aren’t getting met the way they should be, the bucket doesn’t get refilled. For
many, it’s only a matter of time before their bucket’s empty. The really bad
part? We usually don’t know we’ve been emptied so we keep trying draw from
empty buckets.
One of the lessons I
learned before I went into ministry is that if I try to take care of someone
else when I’ve not been taking care of myself, I’m probably only going to mess
them up worse. When a minister’s overly tired, they miss important details, and
can’t think clearly enough to counsel correctly. If they’re not taking care of
their relationships, they’ll have relationship problems that keep them
distracted and unable to provide the best care. If they don’t eat right and
exercise regularly, they’ll have less energy. These things are a part of
effective stress management, and without them the stress builds up, leaving
them without the emotional capacity to deal with it. A minister in that
condition isn’t going to be too effective, are they? How does all of this apply
to you?
When I was overseas, I
was grateful that our maintainers worked in teams. Their workload made them
personal heroes of mine, as they put in 12 hour days (realistically 14+) six days
a week in what was often unpleasant conditions. I admired the commitment they
made to making sure the fliers had safe equipment (i.e., multi-million dollar
jets) that would bring them home in one piece, but I knew that they couldn’t
pull that kind of schedule every week without making mistakes. I learned from
talking with them that they knew that they were going to make mistakes out of
fatigue, so they covered for one another to make sure problems got fixed
correctly. They couldn’t take care of themselves the way they needed, but the
short-term fix got them through for a time. Most of them—and us—know that none
of us can live like that long-term, but many still try.
If you want to do your
job well, make it a priority to get a good night’s rest, eat right, exercise
regularly, and spend time in healthy relationships where others are
contributing to your well-being. Research is finding that those who engage
regularly in spiritual activities, such as worship, prayer, and devotional
reading, have less stress. You’ll find that you will do your job better if you
put aside the demands of work each day to make time for the 4 R’s: Rest,
Relationships, Reflection, and Recreation. (Yes, we chaplains like our
alliterations sometimes.) At first, taking the time you need to get the 4 R’s
can feel like you’re betraying your job or shirking your responsibilities. If
you stick with it, you’ll find that when you’re better rested, have healthy
relationships, are physically fit, and have a strong sense of purpose, you’ll
do better work in less time than when you’re physically, mentally, emotionally,
relationally, and spiritually exhausted. Your teachers were right: a
well-rested student always outperforms those that pulled an all-nighter trying
to study!
If you need help getting
things sorted out so you can avoid burnout, or need to talk with someone
confidentially for the problems that keep you drained, you can reach the
Chaplain Corps at 803-647-8265, or come by the office in the Wing Headquarters
building.