Episode 8: Tired of Being Tired

Welcome to our podcast– The Jess Connolly Podcast!

This podcast is for you. It’s not my podcast, it’s ours. It’s for people who crave light-hearted conversations and deeply spiritual truths. It’s for those of us who are busy, tired, waiting, growing, dreaming, working, or praying about what’s next.

Every woman we know is tired. And it’s not getting better. On today’s episode, Jess announces ⁠‘Tired of Being Tired: Receive God's Realistic Rest for Your Soul-Deep Exhaustion’⁠, her next book, launching in April. Jess shares her heart behind the book, why she wrote it, what it’s about, and more! She believes that just because we are tired, doesn’t mean we need to continue to stay exhausted and defeated. That a shift in belief and behavior changes the world. 

Preorder your copy of ‘⁠Tired of Being Tired’⁠ today and we’ll give you your preorder gifts here! 

Let’s go!

Don’t Miss:

Are you ready for deeply spiritual truths and realistic daily practices to fight fatigue? ⁠Preorder ‘Tired of Being Tired today⁠ and get your preorder gifts here!

⁠We’ve got a free gift for you:⁠ Are you living fully awake? Take the Wake Up Your Soul Quiz + use these journaling prompts for a quick soul check-in. 

The Logos Bible Study app contains a powerful Bible study and sermon prep platform that allows you to study Scripture and consult commentaries, devotionals, Bible dictionaries, and more—all from your computer, tablet, or phone. You can get started with the Logos Bible Study app with an 10% off at www.logos.com/jessconnolly.

Episode Transcripts:

Hey friends, I'm Jess Connolly.

I'm an author, a coach, a Bible teacher and a local church leader.

And I love talking to real people who know what it means to have full lives but also want to walk in abundance.

This podcast is for you.

It's not my podcast.

0:18

It's ours.

It's for people who crave lighthearted conversations and deeply spiritual truth.

It's for people who are busy, tired, waiting, growing, dreaming, working, or praying about what's next.

Wherever you're listening from, if it's quiet, mundane, or busy, I am praying for you.

0:39

And I'm so glad you're here.

Let's go.

Every woman I know is tired.

In all the seasons, they're exhausted.

Whether their kids are little or old, whether they have kids or not, whether they work in the home or outside of it as well.

1:00

Every woman I know is tired.

My mom friends are tired.

My friends who just graduated college?

They're tired.

The newly empty nesters who thought their seasons of sleepless nights were gone forever.

They're still expressing fatigue.

1:16

Every woman I know is tired.

It comes out in different ways.

We blink back tired tears when a friend asks us how we're doing.

We swallow deep sighs in the morning and disbelief that the night is already over.

1:33

We watch social media wistfully, wondering how she gets to go on so many vacations.

It must be nice, we think.

We start to feel the anxiety rising as the weekend winds down and the Sunday Scary's start in earnest.

We make jokes about how we'll get sleep when we're dead.

1:51

We promise ourselves that it will probably get better after the next deadline, the next month, the next event, or the next season.

But it's not getting better.

The question is, are we tired enough to change our minds?

Tired enough to change our lives?

2:10

Tired enough to ask honest questions about how we got here and how we get out of this cycle of exhaustion?

The words you just heard are the very first words of my next book, Tired of Being Tired.

And today, I'm thrilled to finally share more about it with you.

2:29

I've been working on this book since 2022.

I've been praying about it for longer than that, and I have been itching to tell you more for months.

I want to tell you about how God woke me up from an endless cycle of exhaustion.

I want to tell you about how writing this book and applying what I found in my research changed my life.

2:52

And I've been wanting to tell you that there's hope.

Thanks for being here.

Let's dive in, friends.

I have been waiting for this day for so long.

I'm so pumped.

I'm so grateful I finally get to tell you about tired of being tired.

3:13

So the first thing I want to cover is why I wrote this book.

I'm going to hopefully answer some questions you might have about the book, tell you more about what's in it.

But first, I just want to start with why I got there, why I even opened the document and ever started writing the first sentence.

3:29

So with every book that I've written, with every book that anybody's written, there's always a back story.

And usually for each of my books I share a little bit about how I got there.

And to be honest, I've shared a little bit of this story online, but I haven't really shared the whole story of what was happening in my life until today.

3:47

So for me and my house, I've been tired since.

I don't know college, honestly.

If I really think back to when I first started living tired, it was probably college.

And for me, it wasn't just because I was up late studying or partying, which I didn't do in college.

4:04

But that was, for me, the first time that I started living past my own physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental boundaries.

That was the first time that I started subconsciously believing that I had to live tired, or that I should live tired, or that that was the way that I showed that I loved people.

4:25

Well, maybe even I thought that's how I showed I loved God.

Well, in some seasons in my life, moving forward, I couldn't help being tired in the same ways that you can't always help being tired.

Either I was having babies or I was up late studying.

I was building my business, I was serving at church, and all of these things were good things.

4:43

All of these things were God things.

And the problem wasn't that I would become tired.

The problem was I didn't know what to do about it.

I didn't know how to rest.

I didn't know what that meant.

And even when I tried, it didn't really seem to work.

4:58

So for me, it was just before 2020 that I became obsessed with books about rest.

I read everything I could get my hands on every Christian book, every secular book.

And the problem was, a lot of them really didn't feel relatable to me.

I didn't lead a quiet or hushed life where I could go on silent retreats or say yes to less work.

5:20

I remember reading one book and hearing the man who had written it talk about canceling a bunch of speaking engagements.

I thought, number one, who canceled them for you?

I guess you have somebody to do that for you.

And then the second thing I thought was, I can't do that.

This is how we financially provide for my family.

5:36

And I can't even relate to this in the same way that I believe a lot of you can't just stop showing up at work.

You can't just stop showing up for your families.

You can't just stop going to class.

You can't just stop serving.

I felt like that.

I felt like I couldn't stop doing the things that were making me tired.

5:54

I was called to leading our church.

I was called to serving my husband and my kids.

I was called to showing up for my friends.

That's who I wanted to be.

That's who God made me to be.

So not only did a lot of the books not feel relatable because I couldn't just drastically change my life, but on top of that, I felt like if they did address my physical exhaustion, I had so many other issues going on.

6:17

I was emotionally exhausted, I was mentally exhausted, and I was paralyzed, honestly, by a spiritual exhaustion and existential feeling that I couldn't quite do enough for God.

Or I couldn't figure out what made him happy.

Or I couldn't figure out how I would feel good or how I would feel acceptable.

6:38

My brain felt like mush.

My emotions were a mess and my spirit was weary and heavy laden, so I was already tired.

And then 2020 HIP and I think we'll all be talking about this for a long time, especially maybe once the shock of it has worn off.

6:55

But I think obviously we all responded to the global pandemic in different ways.

I like to say that my husband was built for it.

Some sort of peace, build wisdom.

Leadership rose up in him and he was like for such a time as this, we're going to love people, we're going to love our neighbors, We're going to slow down.

7:13

I did not have that same response.

I felt incredibly over responsible.

I've shared on the podcast before.

I think I even felt somehow responsible for the pandemic.

I thought it was my fault.

I felt responsible for all the people.

We were taken care of.

I felt like I had to hold it all together.

7:31

I went from being a local church leader to a video producer, essentially because now everything was online.

I was a mom who then also became a teacher.

I was trying to hold my business together with my bare hands and keep paying my employees who depended on those salaries.

7:50

I was trying to show up for everyone and ride every single wave that came.

And I know that you guys felt the same way too.

I know you had your own waves and your own responsibility and your own fears in that season.

I rested for sure some during the pandemic, but it didn't seem to help.

8:11

Even if I would take a day off, even if I would try to release my fears or my burdens or my responsibilities, even if I would try to do less, the next day was just more exhausting and it was more of the same.

And I'm going to spare you the whole story because I tell more about it in the book.

But what really was already a problem for me, pre pandemic became a absolute crisis in my life in the next two years.

8:36

By early 2022, I had what I would call a mental breakdown.

The first real problem for me is that I stopped sleeping.

I started experiencing rolling panic attacks at night.

When I would try to sleep, I actually became fearful of my bedroom and of my bed.

8:54

It didn't feel like a safe place anymore.

It felt like the place where rest was very far and where all my responsibilities came to haunt me, my spiritual, my mental, my emotional exhaustion was now screaming at me through my physical exhaustion.

9:13

I just couldn't pull it back together.

So in that season, and again, I share this whole story in the book.

I got help.

I talked to doctors, I talked to a spiritual director.

I was asking for prayer constantly.

I was praying for deliverance.

I was seeking healing.

9:29

Any of you have experienced that kind of debilitating anxiety and exhaustion, know that if somebody tells you like you should pray this first or you should pray this, that can be one of the hardest things to hear.

Because I mean, my husband would be awake with me, just contending for me every night, praying over me, praying with me and still my body was experiencing and anxiety that I couldn't spiritually manipulate or control.

9:52

And honestly, what I know now is that my anxiety and my sleeplessness, this was a symptom of the exhaustion that had been building for years.

Right around this time, I had a trip scheduled to go meet my new publisher, Baker Books, and this was my first book with Baker.

10:09

This is my first book with Baker, and this was my first big meeting with them.

And I actually think I sent an e-mail maybe the week before.

I can't remember if I sent it to just my editor or my agent, but I just said I need to give you a heads up about what I'm dealing with right now.

10:25

I am.

I'm not well.

I'm not a well person.

I cry at the drop of a hat.

I look tired.

I don't make a lot of sense when I talk.

And I know I'm supposed to be coming and we're supposed to be talking about this next book.

I want to write and tell you all my ideas, but I'm just not in a great place.

10:41

And they were so kind and they were so compassionate and they said, hey, why don't you just come and be here?

You know, we just want to meet you and get to know you.

And we can just sit in the room and talk.

And I felt so loved by that and felt so cared by that.

And what happened is that that's exactly what happened.

10:57

I went to go sit in their room and I do think I cried for like the whole of an 8 hour meeting.

But while I cried and while I talked about what I was feeling and really the kind of bigger questions I now had about my exhaustion, and also for all the women who were exhausted, we just started writing.

11:18

We just started writing things on a whiteboard.

I still actually had the notes in my iPad from that session and I started asking questions like if Jesus says in Matthew 11 come to me, all who are weary and burden, I will give you rest.

Why isn't that working for me?

If I've read every book on rest, if I'm praying all the things.

11:35

If I'm trying to take a day off.

Why is this not hitting and is this all God has for us as women.

And and also I had brought a ton of research to that meeting and said like this is all the research I'm reading about the levels of exhaustion that women are experiencing and something called an exhaustion gap where now statistically we're seeing that women are actually literally more tired than men.

11:59

It's not just something we propose or something, an idea that we have.

So I came in with all these questions and all this research and all these feelings and all these ideas, and essentially my publisher, my editor, and my agent just said, hey, why don't you go and just start writing and researching and studying God's Word and #1.

12:19

Take care of yourself and see God's healing for yourself.

But then also see what happens.

If this turns into a book, great, If it doesn't, you'll be better off.

So what came out of that is tired of being tired.

I spent really the next about 8 months reading, researching, studying God's Word, studying some more, trying some things, shifting some things in my own life, really more than anything, shifting some things in my own belief system, about rest and about the purpose of my life and about what I was supposed to be to God and to everyone else.

12:55

And then I started writing, and at the beginning, tired of being tired, was kind of written experimentally.

I really had some hypothesis about what I thought might be true for women, and specifically women of God.

But as I wrote and as I slowly and methodically began to apply what I was learning, things started shifting for me.

13:19

So that's the story behind why.

I'll talk a little bit more about that as this episode goes on.

But now I've really want to tell you what the book is about.

I would say it's about four core things.

Number one, it's about finding your fatigue, finding the source of your fatigue.

13:36

Because the problem is, for those of us who are tired, we can't find and receive rest until we know what kind of tired we are.

And the more I researched and the more I read, the more I found that physical exhaustion is not the only thing that ails us.

13:51

For many of us, it is the main problem.

But a lot of us are mentally, emotionally, and specifically spiritually exhausted, and we need to address those areas to find relief.

So the book is absolutely going to help you find the source of your fatigue.

14:11

The second thing that the book is about, it's it's really about the problem of spiritual exhaustion and how it permeates all the different parts of our lives.

I hadn't really thought a ton about spiritual exhaustion before I started writing the book.

14:27

And then I realized that what I thought was a physical problem, or maybe even I thought was a mental problem, was often, for me, a spiritual issue.

I needed new spiritual truths to actually change my mind so that I could receive rest.

14:45

I'm going to give you one really small example 1 corporate lie that many of us believe is that we have to earn our rest.

This is a cultural belief, but unfortunately it's a cultural Christian belief as well.

15:01

And even if we don't say we believe it, we live like we believe it.

The problem is it's the antigospel and it's killing us and it's not God's heart for us and it's not his love and his mercy and his goodness and his grace lived out toward us.

15:18

And so that's one example of many, many, many spiritual eyes and spiritual truths that this book is going to address.

The number three thing I want to tell you about Tired of being Tired is it is centered on Realistic Rest.

15:34

The subtitle of the book says Receive God's Realistic Rest for Soul, Tired Women and Realistic Rest for Me is about things that you can actually do in your life today.

15:50

There are practices in this book that are literally attainable and I believe life changing for college students, single moms and women working full time.

We're going to talk more about this in a second, but I want you to know that I am not ever going to write a book.

16:05

I pray in the name of Jesus and I want you to come for me.

If I do that you read and you think I could never do any of that.

Here's the fourth thing I want you to know about the book.

It's not just written to help you individually shift the way you receive God's rest.

16:22

It's written to help you collectively, so to lead your families and your friend groups and your churches.

Because nothing will shift if our culture doesn't begin to shift and we don't all get a little bit tired of being tired.

16:39

Okay.

Now I have some fun details I want to share with you about the book.

So the first thing I did when I started really writing in earnest, once I had all my research down and I thought, like, OK, these principles are actually helping me.

They're actually changing my life.

16:54

They're actually changing my mind, and they're changing the way I experience God in the world around me.

Then I wanted to gather other women because, again, I want this book to truly be applicable to women in all different seasons of life.

So I gathered 70 early readers in all demographics.

17:11

We've got different ages.

We've got women from all over the world.

We've got students, we've got working women.

We've got stay at home moms.

We've got empty nesters.

And what I asked these brave, courageous and generous women to do is to read the book as I wrote it and give me live feedback.

17:30

And so they did just that.

They read 3 or 4 chapters at a time, and they gave me immediate feedback.

And some of their feedback, I mean, massively shifted the way I wrote the book and the way I told stories and the way I gave insight and tips and advice.

17:46

But also, I included some of their feedback in the book for you because I really, truly wanted women in all different seasons to feel like these words were for them.

Another fun thing I want to tell you about the book is that there is a Bible study that you can do with a group and it comes out at the exact same time the book comes out, which I should probably tell you is in April, April 9th.

18:11

So I'm very excited about the Bible study.

I actually worked with someone else to help me write it because you guys, this is another one of my favorite things I'm happy to tell you.

Is that because again, after I wrote the book and had to apply the principles to my life and had to actually live it out, I had to start to live within some new limitations and boundaries for myself.

18:31

And I've always written every single Bible study that I've ever come out with.

And this time I said, you know what, I need help.

I wrote the book, but I need someone else to help me dive into these words and turn it into a really great Bible study.

And so you are going to see the name Abby Perry on the Bible study cover.

18:47

I got to work with her.

She got to use a lot of my words and use a lot of my writing, but it's one of my favorite parts is that someone else helped me with this Bible study because it was one way I could really live out the message.

OK, the book comes out in April, but I don't want you to have to wait till April to read or receive this message.

19:10

And I'm doing everything in my power to get you a lot of the book, if not all of it, before it actually comes out.

There's another thing you need to know about the book is it's deeply spiritual, and it's also incredibly practical.

19:26

It's got a lot of Bible study and Bible story so that we can use God's Word to understand our fatigue and his principles on rest.

But this is also the most practical book I have ever written.

The tips, the tools, the tricks and the ideas are literally again, I've tried to make them not so spiritual, but so tactical that you could read the book and that same day start to make some shifts and feel less tired.

19:58

The last thing you need to know that I think is a fun detail about the book is that it's written shame free.

If you read Breaking Free from Body Shame, you know I do not like shame and I want every space that I'm in to be a shame free zone.

But this is especially important, I believe, with fatigue and exhaustion.

20:16

Because I think one reason we're so tired is because we feel shame about our exhaustion, and so we can't be honest about it.

And guess what?

Feeling shame is actually exhausting.

So what I'm telling you is if you never take a day off, if you can't sleep more than 4 hours a night because you have a newborn, if you're the kind of girl who is always on your phone, if you're tired, stressed and busy, you do not need to come to this book and feel berated because you're tired.

20:43

I don't believe you're tired because there's something wrong with you.

I believe you're tired because the effects of a fallen world are pressing down on our bodies, our minds, our emotions, and our spirits to keep us living exhausted.

You don't need to feel shame about the fact that you're tired, but you also don't need to accept it as a reality.

21:04

I don't believe that we can eradicate fatigue from our lives.

But I do believe in the name of Jesus, that we can fight it spiritually, practically, intentionally, and we can stop accepting the defeated lie that we are always going to be exhausted.

21:24

All right, So what I really wanted to do was go to social media and say what questions do you have about the book?

But I couldn't because I haven't actually announced the book yet because I haven't shared the title.

I haven't really talked about it.

I've talked around it.

But that being said, I had to guess what I thought some of your questions might be.

21:43

So I am.

I'm guessing that this is probably the top question many of you will ask about the book.

Will you talk about Sabbath?

I think that this might be a top question because anytime I mention rest, anytime I mention Sabbath, I get a ton of questions in response.

22:01

Can you tell me how you do it?

Why do you do it?

How do you do it?

How do I make it work if I have little kids at home?

How do I make it work if I work a shift job?

And so I want to tell you this, yes, I do talk about Sabbath, but I intentionally did not bring Sabbath up in the book until 50,000 words in.

22:19

So for context, the book is 65,000 words.

And I didn't really talk about Sabbath.

And when I do talk about it, I talk about it in a really practical way.

But I didn't talk about it until that far end for this one reason.

And I actually think this is a tool of the enemy in our lives.

22:36

I think we get hung up on Sabbath.

And number one, we start thinking it's something we have to produce or earn or figure out or perform at, which is literally the exact opposite of Sabbath.

Like doing it right is not the goal.

Jesus literally says to us in the New Testament, Sabbath is for the man, Man is not for the Sabbath.

22:57

Like, it's not something you need to perform.

It's a gift for you.

The other reason I didn't want to bring it up until that far into the book is because this number one, if you don't have practical and realistic rest in every other spot of your life, a Sabbath is going to do nothing for you.

If you don't have mental and emotional and spiritual rest the six other days of the week, one day not working is not going to help you.

23:21

And I want you to take hold of all the possibilities for realistic rest while you love your family, while you show up for your job, while you take care of your friends, while you step into your calling.

And yes, absolutely.

I want you to have a Sabbath too, but I don't want you to get hung up on him.

23:39

So we do talk about Sabbath.

We talk about it in a really realistic way.

I love the idea of Sabbath.

I just don't think it's the only way we can rest.

And I actually don't think it will work if we harp on that as the only goal.

The second question I perceive that a lot of you are going to ask is, is it for blank?

24:01

Is it for Stay at Home moms?

Is this book written for stay at Home Moms?

Is this book for me if I'm a single mom?

Is this book for me if I'm a college student?

Is this book for me if I'm in grad school?

Is this book for me if I'm an empty nester?

Is this book for me?

24:17

If I'm in a season of grief, Is this book for me If I struggle with anxiety?

Is this book for me?

If I'm an extrovert?

Is this book for me if I'm an introvert and the question is so valid, and I so understand you not wanting to waste your time reading something that won't make you feel seen.

24:35

So I want to tell you that I believe that God's principles of rest that again, First of all, the truth that's going to change our minds and change our hearts is for everybody.

It's applicable for everybody, but I have been very careful.

As careful as I could be to not suggest a series or a standard of practices that would not work for most women.

25:00

And that's intentionally why I had the 70 women read the book with me and they gave me great insight and great feedback.

Now, again, it's a heavily practical book.

I can't even really estimate how many tips are in the book.

If I had to guess how many tips to help you experience spiritual, physical, emotional and mental rest.

25:20

If I had to guess how many tips are in there, I think I'd guess over 200.

So are all 200 going to be for you?

No.

Some are going to be for you, and I believe some are going to help you.

And actually the book helps you figure out which ones are for you, because not everyone is going to be for you and trying them all is going to exhaust you, but not every tip is going to be exactly right for your lifestyle.

25:44

But I'm going to pray and hope and really believe in the name of Jesus that there is some help in there for you, no matter your season.

Another question that I think some people might ask, and maybe not even want to ask, is, is spiritual, mental, and emotional exhaustion really a thing?

26:02

Is that really a problem?

And I want to say yes it is.

There's data and research and insight in the book, but I do think you're going to find that maybe if you come to the book just assuming you struggle with physical exhaustion, you might find wild relief when you start to address the other areas of fatigue.

26:24

OK, I also love this made-up question that I made-up for myself, so that fun how that works.

Then you come up with the title.

I feel like it's a fair question because you guys ask me that a lot.

So the title was actually something totally different, which at this point in my book writing life, I think all of my books have been titled something else until we changed it.

26:43

But tired of being tired became the title late last fall before I started really writing.

After I got done researching, I went and spent a few days with the incredible Lisa Turkhurst and her team.

And we got in a room and I said, can you really help me flesh out this book before I start writing it?

27:00

Because I want it to really serve women and I want it to be an effective book.

And it was an incredible few days of us just turning around the concepts and the research and the ideas.

And I came into those meetings thinking the title would be Risky Rest.

27:17

And I talk about this in the book.

And for years I've joked about saying I wanted to write a book called Risky Rest because I believe that resting actually costs us something.

But the more we talked about it, I didn't even feel like that was the main message because I feel like actually rest gives us so much more than it costs us.

27:35

And so the more I just sat with those incredible women and we talked and we turned the ideas around and the people for my publishers and my team, we were all in the same room and just really asking, like, what is this book about?

At one point I just said I think the women are just tired of being tired.

27:51

And I think somebody said, well, that's it, That's the name.

And I was like, wait, you're right.

Because honestly, it takes us getting to the point where we're tired of being tired, where we're no longer willing to accept it as a reality.

But also because I think so many of us are actually not just fatigued, we're fatigued from the fatigued, We're tired from the exhaustion and we're tired of it.

28:14

So that's how the title came to be.

Is this book for women?

The answer is yes and not necessarily so.

The book is definitely written for women.

The first line of the book is every woman I know is tired.

But that being said, I do know and perceive that men are exhausted too.

28:34

I obviously feel called to write to women.

I feel called to teach the Bible to women.

I feel called to compel and help women.

But that being said, in the development of this book and the writing of this book, and in thinking about how I want to serve people for the next few years, I have been brainstorming some resources that will be for men too, and Nick and I are going to be working together to try to provide those not just for women, but also for men.

29:00

What has changed in my life since the book came out?

One of my friends asked me this the other day and I love this question and the answer is really two things have massively changed in my life.

The first thing is that what I believe about rest has changed.

29:17

What I believe about exhaustion has changed.

What I believe about God and how he relates to my fatigue has changed.

And if you read Breaking Free from Body Shame at all, and if not, I can tell you that that was the same thing that was true for me about breaking free.

That first my mind had to be changed.

29:35

My mind had to be changed with the renewing power of His word, so that I could see him differently, I could see me differently, I could see the world differently.

And honestly, this is 90% of the battle, so the biggest thing that has changed for me is that my mind has changed.

What I believe about fatigue and exhaustion and rest has drastically changed.

29:55

This is where the real work takes place because you can't embrace realistic rest until you understand it from a Kingdom perspective.

But the second thing that's really changed in my life is lots of small fatigue fighting decisions.

I'm going to give you a few, but again, in this book there are literally hundreds I journal to process my emotions better.

30:20

I don't say yes to things without praying about it.

I make a list of what's undone at the end of each day so my brain is less overwhelmed.

Those are just three small tips.

So I would say there's there haven't been big drastic changes in my life.

I couldn't and you can't either.

Probably.

I couldn't quit my job.

30:37

I couldn't quit loving my kids.

I couldn't quit serving and leading at my church.

I couldn't quit writing books.

I didn't want to.

I didn't want to stop doing any of those things.

I believed I was called to them.

It's the small shifts that changed my life, and it's honestly the small shifts that I believe are going to change your life too.

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I have chapters full of ideas for you to try.

Question that you guys so kindly and so generously always ask about my books is can I preorder the books and also will there be gifts attached.

So if you don't know, here's why preorders matter and here's why it's a big deal.

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I am unashamed about wanting to share this message with as many women as possible.

Like I told you at the beginning of this podcast, every woman I know is tired.

And if God can use this book, and if God can use these words to serve women, I want as many women as possible to read it.

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So preorders help authors because when you preorder the book, you tell Amazon or Barnes and Noble or Target where you preorder the book from.

You tell them this book is 1.

To watch this book, you need a lot of copies of this book is going to help people.

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I want this book.

Other people want this book.

That's what you tell those retailers when you preorder the book and when that happens, because you know all of the world is now based on an algorithm, an algorithm now pushes those books to other people.

So without me doing anything, without you doing anything but preorder the book, we help suggest the book to more people over time.

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So that's why preorders matter to authors, because we want as many people as possible to hear this message and have their lives changed and the algorithm is all controlled by preorders.

So I am so deeply loved when you guys preorder the book, it makes my whole life.

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And because of that I like to give you gifts.

And what I am telling you is that the gifts I'm trying to work out for this book, if you preorder one or two or more copies, I'm trying to bless your socks off.

I'm working on some deals right now that I hope will literally just that you will feel so loved and you will feel so seen.

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I will tell you they are gonna be worth way more financially than the cost of a book.

So again, I'm just trying to blow your socks off and really gift you when you preorder the book.

If you preorder the book right now, what you get is my grateful thanks and a big hug for me.

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And if you DM me and tell me, I'll probably squeal and send you a voice memo and say thank you so much.

But if you preorder now, you still get the gifts when they come out.

So I'm going to keep you updated about when the gifts come out.

You can preorder it as soon as you want and I'll be so, so, so blessed.

Why am I so excited about this book?

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My team asked me to answer this question and I'm so glad because if you haven't already heard, I want to say it explicitly.

I'm so excited about this book because I think that it'll change everything for a lot of us.

Because we're living tired and overwhelmed and exhausted, and because we're missing out on our father's great love and mercy through rest.

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I think we're missing out on intimacy with him.

I think we're missing out on peace and presence in our life.

I think we're missing out on the abundance he purchased for us on the cross.

I think we're missing out on intimacy in our relationships.

I think we're missing out on expanded capacity in the potential to even do more in our callings and our jobs and in our work.

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I believe that a shift in belief plus a shift in behavior literally changes the world.

And I don't know if it's the dreamer in me.

I don't know if I'm just crazy enough.

But every book I write, I really do hope it'll change the world.

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I hope it's better for our daughters and our granddaughters and the women coming behind us.

I hope that ten, 20-30 years from now, they're not saying every woman I know is tired.

But the real reason that I'm really excited about this book is because it worked for me.

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Because I'm living in a state of peace and rest and wholeness and health.

That I wasn't a year ago.

That I wasn't two years ago.

Because I'm still doing the same job.

Because I still have all the same responsibilities.

Because I still have to keep showing up.

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And yet I am experiencing a real and true rest in my soul that is helping me feel more at ease, live more effectively, love people better.

I actually was at Bible study this week and this guy who goes to my church came up to me and he said, hey, I just want to tell you, you seem so at peace lately.

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I just was like, thank you, thank you.

A few months ago a gal from my church pulled me aside and she said you seem so much more present lately.

I feel it, I feel those things.

And again, not any of the big parts of my life have shifted.

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It's the belief, It's the truths I speak over myself.

And it's the small behaviors and small shifts that I've gotten to shift that I've made changes in that have helped the most.

Here's the last thing I want to tell you if me a woman who works full time and travels for work and runs a church and has four wild teens, well 43 teens and a 10 year old.

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If a woman like me who loves to love people well, loves to show up, loves to work hard, loves to watch TV in the shower, love social media.

If a woman like me can say, hey, God has healed the most exhausted parts of my life and he showed me new places of his love.

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If I can say all of this, I want to just invite you to give it a try.

I want to just invite you to take the space of one book to see what he might do in your life.

And not just me, but also the 70 women who read this book and said it served them well and helped them.

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In fact, in my book, you know, in a lot of books, at the beginning of the book you'll see endorsements from other authors and leaders and prominent people.

And we didn't do that with this book.

We just put endorsements from those women because they're the ones who matter most.

They're the real women living lives like you and I, and they're the ones who read it and said this actually helped me.

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I took some of these principles and it shifted things for me.

So I wanted you to hear from them.

They're the best endorsement I have.

OK, so what's next?

I've shared about Tired of being tired.

Number one, you could go look at the cover.

If you haven't already seen it.

I'm posting it on social media.

37:35

You can look at it on Amazon or Target or Barnes and Noble.

You can go to my website and see it on there.

I love the cover.

I want to thank in the Name of Jesus.

Not only my publisher, Baker Publishing, but Riley from Good Mood Design Co, who designed the cover.

She's incredible.

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This cover took us, no joke, about six months to land on, and we love it.

We wanted a cover that you would like to look at that would feel like a, you know, a fun piece of art in your house, on your coffee table, on your bookshelf.

But we also wanted it to feel restful to you and inspiring and exciting to you.

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So that's hard to hit.

And Riley did amazing.

So go look at the cover because you know a book cover's fun.

You can preorder the book now and again.

I will celebrate.

I will do a happy dance every time I hear somebody who's preordered the book.

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And if you DM me or you e-mail and tell me, I will probably tell you.

I am so happy and I'm so grateful and thank you so much.

If you preorder it now, I'll still give you all the gifts as soon as they come out.

Also, what's next is that you should get ready for lots of talk from me about rest and rhythms and peace and vision and purpose and exhaustion and fatigue and how we can fight it together.

38:47

Because now I'm going to be really talking about it.

But really, what's next is that I believe, and I hope in the name of Jesus, we're going to watch the world change, that we're going to shift the way we talk about women and their fatigue.

And we're going to stop accepting it as a reality because God gives rest to those he loves and we're his daughters and we can take what he's offering.

39:11

Let me pray for us real quick.

Father, I want to thank you for this work I get to do.

I want to thank you for this book.

I want to thank you for how you changed my life through it.

And I thank you for my friends, for being so generous and kind to hear about it.

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And I just pray for them right where they're at.

God, I think I just want to specifically ask for hope for the friends who are listening today and are exhausted.

I want to ask that if they feel like there is no way this is ever going to get better, that you would meet them right where they're at and that you would give them just a glimmer of hope.

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That you would show them your love for them and show them that you do not want or wish for them to live tired forever.

God.

But we also just ask that you would blow on this message that you would get it into the right hands, that you would get it to the right women and that it would serve them in the name of Jesus.

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I thank you that you love us.

I thank you that you give rest to those who.

You love and I thank you that we don't have to accept this defeat forever.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Friends, I'm so grateful you listened to today's episode.

40:20

Thanks for spending time with me.

It would mean the world to me to connect with you.

So you can send me a DM on Instagram at Jess A Connolly or head to my website, jessconnolly.com for more ways to connect.

If you have a minute to subscribe and leave a review of the podcast wherever you listen, it would massively help us reach more people with the good news that they can live fully awake.

40:42

Let's go.