Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of performance through strong human relations, team building, and goalachieving. This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fello Aledo. Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast. It's episode three oh nine. Today's episode is called rest is Progress. So let's take a moment to think about something we've been taught since we were kids.
Work hard, hustle, grind and push through ensure. Those things have value, But at some point they can start to work against us if we're not careful. We confuse being busy with being productive and we forget that rest. Real rest is not the opposite of progress. It is progress. As leaders, we carry a lot decisions, people, plans, problems, and sometimes the weight of it all tricks us into thinking that if we're not constantly doing something, we're falling behind.
But here's the truth. If you're always on, you're actually putting your performance, decision making, and leadership at risk. Rest is where recovery happens. It's where clarity gets restored, It's where creativity is reborn. You ever notice how your best ideas don't come when you're staring at a screen, or sitting in a meeting. They come in the shower, on a walk, in the quiet moments when your brain finally has the space to breathe. When we talk about rest,
I don't just mean sleep, though that's critically important. I mean intentional pauses, real breaks, saying no to another task so you can say yes to your own energy. Think about this. If your phone battery completely dies, black screen, what do you do? You plug it in and wait. You don't keep swiping and tapping hoping that it magically powers back on. Yet we often treat ourselves like we can run on empty and still deliver excellence. So let's
put this into a leadership lens. If you're burned out, what do your team members see? A tired leader, a frustrated one, a short tempered boss. You set the tone, and if your tone is chaos, exhaustion, and burnout, it will ripple throughout your team, whether you realize it or not. Now imagine instead being the leader who says I'm taking a day to rest and recharge, and I encourage you to do the same. That's not weakness, that's leadership. That's
modeling a healthy, sustainable pace. That's showing your people that we're not machines. We're humans, and humans do their best work when we are all well. And let's be honest, when you take time to rest, you come back better, more focused, more creative, more present. That difficult conversation you've been putting off, you'll handle it better after rest. That strategy meeting next week, you'll walk in sharper, clearer, more confident. That's not slowing down, that's preparing to speed up in
the right direction. So how do you build rest into your leadership? Start simple, schedule it, don't wait for rest to find you. Block it off like you would any other meeting, and protect it if it's on your calendar. Treat it like it matters because it does, and encourage it. Tell your team that rest is not only allowed, it's expected. So let me say this a different way. Rest is not the reward for great work. It's the foundation of great work. It's critical that you believe and plug into
that concept. So if you're feeling worn down, stretched thin, or like you're spinning your wheels, hit pause, step back, take a breath. Rest isn't the enemy of progress, it's part of the process. And remember, your leadership will never be stronger than your personal well being. Rest like it matters, because it does. This has been the seven minute Leadership Podcast, and I thank you for listening. For more Paul fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com