It is okay to be tired and content

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash

(Finals Week is almost over)

George Washington is my favorite president and the one I rate the highest in terms of the office. My students figure this out quickly. I have a gag that they can guess my top two presidents too, but they will struggle to figure out my third.

One thing I note about Washington is that he allowed himself to feel tired and to know when he had done enough. The first time was December 23, 1783 when he resigned as commander of the Continental Army. The Army continued to exist after the war with Great Britain, and would fluctuate in size in the years before Washington became president in 1789. But, had he wished, he could have continued to command the peacetime army and exert influence that way from 1783—89. He did not. He was tired, he missed home, and what he had accomplished was more than adequate and he knew it.

Later in 1787 and 1789, he took two jobs for the benefit of the country: President of the Constitutional Convention and President of the United States. Washington could have served for life, but he did not. In 1796, feeling he had accomplished what he could to set the country’s new federal government on a stable path, he chose to step down. He left the presidency in 1797 after an exhausting eight-year term, and because he did not want to make America a country that depended on one personality to lead it. The Father of his Country knew how to let us grow up. And he was satisfied in what he had accomplished.

A lot of mistakes today in business and politics come from doing too much, a lack of contentment, and not knowing how to pass the baton. The Walt Disney Company appears to suffer from a Bob Iger-induced lack of creativity after what seems like a false retirement and later sabotage of his successor. The American people are ill-served by a political elite that refuses to hand over power to Generation X. I could go on, but one theme I have noticed from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Joseph Robinette Biden, is that American leaders struggle to admit when they are weary, and need to say their time is up and the next generation’s time is now.

Beyond retirement, in fact, before retirement, Americans suffer stress and burnout because they will not take needed breaks, such as vacation and sabbaticals. We convince ourselves that everything will fall apart if not for us. It is unhealthy, and if the thing cannot run without you, have you done your job to make it the best and most resilient it could be? Furthermore, retirement does not have to equal idleness.

George Washington rested from public burdens, but he kept active at home at Mount Vernon in Virginia. We learn a lot about his courage, character and wisdom, but not sufficiently, I think, about his self-honesty. He knew when to say “good enough” and take ample satisfaction in his deeds, and walk away, for a while at least. We—or rather, President John Adams—called him back to lead the US Army in 1798 when he thought we might have to defend the Eastern seaboard from a Revolutionary French invasion. It was the original American, “If you need me, give me a call.”

He answered, but that was a choice, not a demand.