22 Aug 2022 · 6 min
Brendon Burchard argues that high performers need substantial, intentional breaks to sustain momentum and prevent burnout. Over 80% of Americans fail to use even 40% of their paid time off, leading to health collapse. Elite athletes take infrequent, significant breaks rather than daily micro-resets.
Questions this episode answers
Every 90 days they stepped away for three or four days (approximate cadence).
80% of Americans over a decade period of time didn't even take 40% of their paid time off.
Chapters
Job one, reframe expectations. Job one. When you're down on yourself and you're wondering, I'm not doing this or I'm not doing that. Maybe that's true. But let's first start with acknowledgement and praise. Because to pick up momentum is superhuman. So the beauty is that kernel of power is in you. You can pull that off. That's incredible. And even if you're doing a strategic reset, or you're dancing or you're doing the thing once in while, because human performance is variable. When you're at that top, and here's the rule, as you start to feel that, you notice it, significant break, not daily resets. It's like, think about golfers, think about sports players, NBA. There's only once or twice a year that they're actually playing multiple games over multiple days or weeks. Instead, it's like one significant break, another significant break, another. We forget that as high performers outside of the athletic world, if you go and you're burning for three or four months, you need days off. And a day off means not. I did email for 4 hours and then I kind of took time. Like, you need a break. A reset that has nothing to do with work, that has nothing to do with. So like, I mean, you guys know Denise and I, when we were broke, every 90 days we stepped away for three or four. If for that at the time when we were broke, that meant like a staycation but no work. Or we would go to a friend or we would go over here, we would take a few days to reset for our relationship. Also, because when you're pushing that hard and you're that smart, no one's brain can go all the time. Now, we don't need to fix you psychologically. We don't have to talk about your childhood. It's not about, did your mom like you? It's about, hey, guess what? When you notice you're at the top crest of performance and you start feeling the dip, that is vacation signal. It is not. You're doing wrong. It's not, what did he do? I'm lazy. Guess what he did. He said, personhood versus practices. I'm lazy. Maybe I'm lazy. Who has the fear? Maybe I'm lazy. Maybe you had it exactly right. Maybe I'm burnt out. Maybe, man, we are grinding at work and I need that time. Amazingly, 80% of Americans over a decade period of time didn't even take 40% of their paid time off. Not even 40% of their paid time off. So most people have the ability But I'm storing it up. I'm saving it up. You're saving up for a crash. So I want you just now we're just going to notice. It's going to be, oh, look at me, I, I'm at the top. I feel myself losing. That means my mind's going, I can't handle it all anymore. And when I can't handle it all anymore, let's give away these things. Let's give away the planner today. Let's give away that reset. Let's just keep grinding through. And so we just kept grinding through. But what the mind was really saying is, hey, mental alert. We can't handle things, right? I need a break. Every great artist, they're famous for prolific output and then they disappear. Leonardo da Vinci, he'd do a major project, he'd disappear for 16 weeks before he came up with another genius project that he really owned, that he really put himself into. It's so important for me to say this because we all believe that we have to be machines, human doings versus human beings grinding it out all the time, being awesome. Okay? If you're not an awesome mom 24 7, you can't do that. You're going to have down days. You're going to need a break. You need the in laws or the partner or someone to step up and help with kids. It's okay that you've been a leader and you built that business for five years and now you're terrified to step away for two weeks because you think it will all come crashing down. No, your health will come crashing down. And if your health comes crashing down, you're not going to miss three days or get to take four days off. You're going to be out for three, four, five months to recover. So we need not just a strategic reset during the day. We're going to need a break.
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