Resilient Leadership: Busyness is Not a Badge of Honor

If your calendar looks like a game of Tetris with a vendetta against your need to use the bathroom - you’re not alone.

In nearly every aspect of our lives today, we have been conditioned to equate busyness with value. Full calendars = importance. Long hours = commitment. Exhaustion = achievement.

But let’s be clear: busyness is not a badge of honor. It’s often a red flag, a sign that we are not operating at our best.

And if we’re serious about resilient leadership – if we're serious about stepping into the best of who we are – we have to release the myth that chronic busyness and exhaustion are the keys to success.

Sometimes the most powerful move isn’t to keep going.

It’s to stop. To recalibrate, and to make time for rest.

The "More is Better" Lie

The myth of exhaustive busyness thrives on one critical ingredient: fear.

Fear that we’re falling behind. Fear that we’ll be seen as lazy, replaceable, or less-than if we slow down.

But what's wild is that research tells a completely different story.

According to studies by the National Institute of Health, The Lancet, and cognitive performance researchers like Diekelmann & Born, overworking and multitasking degrade our decision-making, memory, and creative thinking.

In fact, multitasking alone can reduce efficiency by up to 40%, with each switch between tasks costing the brain as much as 20–30 minutes to regain full focus.

So that go-go-go mindset we’ve been taught is the key to success? Answering emails while in a meeting, drafting tomorrow’s deck while half-listening, "quickly" responding to those Slack messages while at dinner – it's not making us better.

It’s literally shrinking our ability to think clearly, prioritize, and perform in almost every capacity.

And the longer we sustain that pace, the worse it gets.

Rest Isn't a Reward - It's a Superpower

So while chronic overwork and busyness literally break down your body and hinder your best performance, cognitive research out of Stanford University shows that strategic rest does the opposite.

Strategic rest improves executive function, focus, and memory recall.

Occupational health studies have linked intentional rest with lower cortisol levels, better immune function, and reduced risk of burnout.

And from a psychological perspective, rest supports emotional regulation and empathy – just in case you were wondering why you had an increasing desire to throw your chair in those monthly team meetings.

So if you have been holding your rest hostage until your to-do list is “done," let’s be very honest with each one for a moment: the list is never done, and it never will be.

We are human, and we will always find something to add to our list.

But rest shouldn't be what we use to reward ourselves when your work ends.

Rest is our superpower – the very counterbalance to busyness that allows us to do better, more meaningful and impactful work.

My Rest Journey

Before I understood this, I wore burnout like a weird badge of honor.

Just 6-months ago, I was juggling an exhausting schedule: a behind-the-scenes role with my previous finance firm, an executive coaching certification, an intensive leadership program, and building my own coaching business. Oh, and trying to stay married.

I was exhausted, overextended, and convinced the only way out was to wake up earlier, try harder, and do more.

Spoiler alert: it didn’t work.

It only took a horrible case of COVID, a weeks-long anxiety attack, and my marriage evolving into more of a situationship to realize something had to give.

During one of our sessions together, my executive coach Pam asked, “What might it look like to approach rest like a more meaningful goal?”

Always up for a challenge, that's exactly what I did.

I built myself a Rest Regimen – literally. I researched types of rest and their impact, designed an approach that fit with my needs, and added rest into my calendar.

Then, hilariously, I failed at following through with nearly anything I schedule the first week – fearful that if I prioritized rest, I would fall behind.

Oh fear...

But I kept going. Building out a weekly set of reflection questions to add flexibility and an extra dash of awareness.

And then something shifted.

It started small: morning yoga, intentional walks, 60-second deep breathing breaks, or screen-free nights. I planned for rest the way I planned for meetings or projects, with dedicated and respected time.

And within just a few weeks, I didn’t just feel better – I performed better and watched as my productivity, creativity, and efficiency soared.

(Side note: If you are at all curious about implementing this approach, I turned that process into a journal you can use, too. Not a pitch – just an invitation: The Rest Regimen Journal on Amazon. It helped me in ways I never could have imagined, and I hope it helps to support you too.)

Leading with Rest

Start adding a 30-minute nap into your afternoon every day.

Just kidding! Although that sounds lovely, it's not realistic for most of us, nor is it necessary.

But don't worry: rest isn’t a synonym for just sleep or even a passive collapse.

It’s a recovery practice. A return to your self. A deliberate act of both self-love and leadership.

Inspired by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith’s seven types of rest, here are a few intentional ways to start building rest into your day, no matter your role or level:

• Mental Rest: Block out 15 minutes in your day where nothing is expected of your brain. No screens. No problem-solving. Just space to breathe and be. It may at first feel like a panicked waste of time, but just breathe through it and watch as your energy shifts.

• Sensory Rest: Take a few minutes to unplug from technology and to allow yourself a sensory reset. Going for a quiet walk, turning off your camera and ring light, and even pausing to journal with good ole fashion pen-and-paper can have profound impacts on your physical and emotional health (not to mention adding this to your evening ritual can profoundly improve sleep).

• Creative Rest: When you are feeling stuck, uninspired, or like you haven't had an original thought in weeks, it's time for some creative rest. Listen to music that feels great and actually listen to the music. Consume art in whatever form evokes energy within you: journal, creative writing, theater, or a museum. And for that pesky project that's just not coming together, find some of your trusted friends or colleagues and have a "no bad suggestions" brainstorming session – no judgment, no expectations. Just pure, playful creativity.

• Emotional Rest: We'll dive more into vulnerability and embracing your humanity in the next post, but emotional rest is one of the most underrated and under-prioritized of the list. For those of us feeling emotionally exhausted, at the brink of breakdown, or feeling so irritable you might just let those intrusive thoughts win? It's time to consider making time for therapy, guided meditations (oh hey, Calm app!), and speaking more openly about how you feel with a trusted friend, family member, or colleague. No trauma dumping – just honest admission of where you are and inviting some support.

• Spiritual Rest: Whatever “higher purpose” means to you – faith, prayer, meditation, nature, volunteering, spirituality – the impact to our mental health and sense of well-being is critical. So when you are feeling like there has to be more than this or that you aren't connected to anything that feels meaningful, create some space for your higher purpose and watch your perspective shift, and your motivations become clearer.

• Physical Rest: We all feel the effects of sitting or working in physically demanding ways, often compounded by gym or childcare or seasonal allergies. Rather than just pushing through, carve out time for stretching, physical down time, yoga, or even a massage to allow your body to repair and recover.

As you can see, you've got options.

So just start with something – anything that feels right for you, right now, right where you are.

Even five minutes of deep breathing a day is better than nothing.

And now that you know chronic busyness and "just pushing through" are literally counterproductive to your health and success, aren’t you at least a little curious what prioritizing rest might just unlock for you?

Final Thoughts

You were not built to be endlessly available, constantly productive, or emotionally invincible.

You were built to be human – and that means you need some input to pair with that output.

Resilient leadership doesn’t come from burnout, it comes from intention.

So please take a quick moment, and take a breath.

Ask yourself: What type of rest do I need most right now?

Then take just one small step – one meeting you could cancel or shorten, a 15-minute walk you could schedule (and not skip), a yoga class that's calling your name, an exhibit you've been dying to see, or a 60-second deep breathing break before your next email.

Because this is how you cultivate resilience. This is how you cultivate lasting, sustainable leadership.

Not in what you sacrifice to get it all done, but in how you take care of yourself in the process.

Remember: you don’t have to earn your rest. You just have to choose it.

You've got this.

--

Resilient leaders don't drown themselves in work; they create the space to truly thrive. If you're ready to learn how to become a more effective leader – with time to breathe – I'd love to support you on the journey.

Schedule a Consultation