Rethink Hustle: The Power of Strategic Rest

In this episode of the Investor Evolution Podcast, we explore the vital role of rest in achieving business success. Discover the science and strategy behind rest and learn how it fuels productivity, creativity, and resilience. We discuss practical ways to integrate rest into your daily, weekly, and yearly routines. Understand how rest can enhance your focus, decision-making, and overall well-being. Learn about different types of rest, including sleep, active rest, and mental breaks, and how they contribute to sustained success. Implementing strategic rest can transform your energy, mindset, and business outcomes. Tune in to rethink the way you work and embrace rest as a competitive edge.

00:00 Introduction: The Power of Rest

01:12 The Misconception of Hustle Culture

02:28 The Science Behind Rest

05:03 Types of Rest and Their Benefits

13:02 Implementing Rest in Your Routine

20:24 Conclusion: Strategic Rest for Success

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Transcript

0:00

What if the secret to achieving more in your business? Wasn't grinding harder, but resting smarter. We live in a world that glorifies hustle, but the truth is the most successful entrepreneurs, no when to step back recharge and refuel. Rest isn't just for recovery. It's your competitive edge. In today's episode, we're exploring the science and strategy of rest. Why arrest fuels, productivity, creativity, and resilience. How to integrate rest into your daily, weekly, and yearly routines. And practical ways to rest guilt-free while still driving forward in your business. This isn't just about taking a nap. It's about learning how to rest, recharge and rise to your full potential. Ready to rethink the way you work. Let's dive in. Hey everyone. And welcome to the investor evolution podcast. So as we dive into this topic, I want to ask you a question, are you pushing harder and harder in your business, but feeling like you're not getting anywhere? Maybe it's not that you need to work more. But maybe you need more rest. Now, this is kind of counter-intuitive and maybe contrarian to the popular belief that you can work 28 hours a day. And get all the things done, sleep for two minutes, and have endless energy. There are some people out there who are like that. More power to them. For the rest of us, that is where burnout comes from. In today's hustle driven culture, rest is often misunderstood. Maybe some people see it as laziness or wasted time. And entrepreneurs in particular. Face the pressure to always be on. Equating constant busy-ness and activity with success. However, this mindset is not only flawed. But it can be counterproductive. What if rest could be a tool for you? Far from being unproductive, rest actually helps enhance your focus, your efficiency, and creativity. Short breaks actually allow the brain to reset, improve decision-making and problem solving. So some of the research actually shows that the brain's default mode network. The place in your brain, that's responsible for linking ideas. Actually activates in rest. And that allows you to start building strategic thinking. It also helps with innovation. When you're sitting there, for me, it tends to be the shower. Or when I'm Going to sleep at night. Where like these things just pop into my head. It's because when your brain has that moment to relax, it starts putting all the information that you've been gathering all day long together, and it starts making connections. And those ideas may seem like they come out of nowhere, but your brain is finally pulling that information in that you need. Another thing we're going to talk about today is how rest is a necessity for our health. Chronic overworking is what leads to stress. It can weaken your immunity and it truly will lead to burnout. I can tell you from experience. I have definitely been in that spot. Rest actually reduces your cortisol levels. It protects your mental health and it improves your physical wellbeing. Better rest and better sleep or actually a critical for memory, emotional regulation, as well as sustained energy. So these things are important. Rest fuels sustainable success. Continuous work without any breaks will lead to diminishing returns. Those who prioritize rest will avoid burnout and maintain energy over the longterm. So rest isn't the reward for success. It's actually a requirement for it, by treating rest as a vital component to your routine, you position yourself for clarity, creativity, as well as resilience. We've kind of set the tone for what today is going to be about. Rest really is a tool for productivity, it's a necessity for our health and it is key for our sustainable success. So what actually is rest. Rest really is an activity or the inactivity. That allows your body and your mind to recover, to rejuvenate, to recharge and to rebuild. That is what rest does for us. There's different types of rest. Obviously. There's the first one that you would think of when we think of rest is sleep. Of course. Why is sleep good for us? What does it do? What happens? So when we sleep for our mind, It helps us consolidate memories. It helps us process emotions. It flushes toxins out of the brain. It helps with our cognitive function. And helps with emotional regulation. It is essential for learning. It's essential for decision-making and mental clarity. Right? We all know this when you don't have a good night's sleep or several nights in a row. Your brain foggy. You don't feel good you're quick too. Jump to conclusions. You may be snappy with your family. That's why sleep is important for our brains. Of course, it helps in our bodies as well. During sleep, our tissues repair. It strengthens our immune system. Sleep helps balance our hormones. And those hormones help with all kinds of things, right. Helps with regulating stress, our hunger, our metabolism, sleep supports our overall physical health and recovery. The next type of rest is active rest. This may be activities such as light exercise, jogging, weightlifting, maybe some of your hobbies or engaging in something that is not work related. Have you ever had a moment when you were working out and this amazing idea pops into your head? Or you gain some clarity on something that you've been debating and thinking about a lot recently? I know that happens for me. And I think when we are moving our bodies and allowing our minds to just wonder, again, those connections are made and that can be an incredibly powerful form of rest for us, even though physically, you may not be resting. Another form of rest is mental rest. This is stepping away from the cognitive demands. The mental load that you might have. In your day-to-day work and doing something like a mindfulness practice. Meditation. Or even sitting in silence. And just allowing your mind to wander. Other forms of rest are recreation or leisure. This would be something, an activity that brings joy to your life. Something that's relaxing, maybe that's going and getting a massage. Maybe that's sitting on the beach for an hour, reading a book. Those things are incredibly important for us to just rejuvenate right. And then we have our extended rest. This might be time away. Think of a vacation or a sabbatical that you may be taking to step out of that daily grind, into a new environment, usually to help reset this helps us gain clarity as well as perspective. Here's my favorite part. Let's dive into the science behind rest and why your body and your mind needs it. Now we alluded to it a little bit before when we talked about sleep, but there's other forms of rest as we just discussed. And they can provide different benefits for us. So for example, creativity and problem-solving. During rest. The brain's default mode network starts activating what this does is help link ideas and starts fostering creativity. It helps you find creative solutions, maybe to the things that you've been struggling with. And isn't that so true when you're not thinking about the problem? Usually the solution comes to you and it's because your brain has that moment. To link information together that cognitively you haven't been able to do. Right? The subconscious is working in the background. That's starting to put information together until it brings something to the forefront. That's like, oh, ta-da! You know, that light bulb moment. That's why that happens. And that rest is important. Another thing that's really important with resting and especially taking breaks. Is it allows our decision-making center of the brain, our prefrontal cortex, and allows that area to reset a little bit. And this helps with better focus when we come back to our work. And it helps with innovation. One of the things in Jim Kwik book, limitless that he talks about with learning is recency and primacy taking breaks throughout when, especially when you're learning something new our brains. Remember the first thing more, the first things that we learn. Better. And it also remembers, uh, things that we recently went over. So when you take that break and you come back to it, That can help with learning. It can help with, uh, innovation. It can help again, with better focus as well. Another thing that can happen with rest is neuro-transmitter regulation. So thinking about our neurotransmitters, dopamine, serotonin. Rest can actually trigger our dopamine release, which is interesting because we think dopamine is typically stimulated. Um, by novelty. Uh, you know, think about scrolling, right? But rest can also trigger dopamine release and that can actually help your motivation levels when you come back to work. And it also helps with happiness. Rest helps us regulate our cortisol levels, which help reduce stress and improve emotional regulation. Just like we talked about with sleep. Any form of rest can actually help with our physical health as well. So improved. Immune function is one of the benefits. Chronic stress and overwork can suppress your immune system. So if you're going at. 1618 hour days, 20 hour days, you're suppressing your immune system. So rest will restore that balance or help you keep it in balance. It helps reduce inflammation. So when those cortisol levels are down, inflammation is down. And it helps reduce your vulnerability to illness and being sick And of course, like we talked about earlier, sleep is recovery for our body and for our brain. Remember, as we're in those deep stages of sleep, we consolidate our memories helps us regulate our hormones and help with tissue repair and those kinds of things. So again, all of this rest is super helpful. So rest on our emotional wellbeing. As we've talked about. Rest reduces irritability, and it helps manage your emotional responses. Helps with that emotion, emotional regulation, and it can help with preventing burnout. Research shows that regular breaks and downtime. Reduce burnout rates significantly. So the next question becomes, how often should we be resting? And I like to think about this in cycles. There's daily rest. There's a weekly rest, there's monthly or an annual rest periods that we should be implementing. So on a daily basis. One make sure you're getting good sleep. You should be getting seven to nine hours of sleep. If you want to split it in the middle and get that eight hours. Fantastic. Your body needs that rest. So make sure that is a priority for you. So for daily arrest, these can be short, small breaks. What this does is help improve your focus. When you come back to work. And it helps combat decision fatigue. One thing you can do to implement those short breaks in your day is implement something called the Pomodoro method. So when you do the Pomodoro method, you set a timer for 25 minutes. And during that 25 minutes, you're working on a specific task and you work on that solely focusing on that task until the timer rings. Maybe it's 25 minutes. Maybe it's shorter. Maybe it's longer. You guys decide. And then what you do when that timer goes off is you stop what you're doing. You take a five minute break. And then you come back and you do another Pomodoro session. And. Again, maybe focusing on the same task or you may be changing it up. You may be working on something different. And so you're working for 25 minutes, taking a five minute break. Working for 25 minutes. Taking a five minute breaks. After three or four of those sessions. You want to stop and take a 15 minute break, a 30 minute break. And really reset your self. So that you come back to those sessions, refreshed and ready to go. Other things that can be helpful for your daily rest is scheduling times for your non-negotiables. Maybe that's for your meals, maybe that's for your exercise, maybe that's for your mindfulness practices. But you want to have a schedule, and that way you can look at it as a whole and see where you need to put those rest sessions and are they scheduled in there? And it may be very helpful to actually put them in there so you know exactly what you're doing. Some people create an evening routine and wind downtime to help prioritize relaxation and preparation for sleep. Some people really need that time an hour, maybe two hours before going to bed to really help decompress from the day. So those things can be helpful. Mini breaks throughout the day, trying the Pomodoro technique, making sure you have a schedule that's set. And having a wind down time or, uh, an evening routine tell, prepare you for sleep. Now. This one might be controversial. We're going to jump into our weekly rest. Is it possible for you to take a day off every week to dedicate to. Your family, your personal time and to disconnect from work. Is that possible? I mean, I guess I think about it this way. The Bible tells us that God created the world in six days, whether it was literal days or figurative days up for debate. But if God could rest after his creation. Can we can, we afford to, I think we can. I think the thing that happens is we feel like we're working, but what you need to do is step back and look, are you working and be getting stuff done or are you just busy? What I have found is when I can focus and truly be productive. I totally have the time and the ability to take that day off. That has become a big priority for me, especially for my family. So that might be something you want to consider that may feel really uncomfortable and really scary. Like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna lose out on that momentum. I bet you, you won't, I bet you will find it really helpful. And you'll probably come up with those ideas that have been just circling beyond the surface that finally come, come through because you had that ability to take some time off. Now monthly rest, maybe once a month, you, instead of take one day off, maybe you have a long weekend or just a weekend away. Maybe that's with your family, with your spouse. Maybe it's by yourself. Maybe it is a weekend of self care. Maybe it is a weekend dedicated to some hobbies, perhaps you're a runner. I have a friend who loves to run and she makes it a priority. She sets up activities. And plans for weekends where she's going on trips to do runs with friends. And that is a great way to decompress to rejuvenate, even though it's physically demanding for her it's restorative. And so that can be something you can try as well, find something that you love to do and spend some time doing it. And then of course, we've got our annual arrest. Maybe you need that extended amount of time to. Decompress and just get away from it all. Vacations can be incredibly helpful. And we find that when people. Are struggling with burnout. They go on vacation and they come back. They do come back with a renewed sense of energy and purpose. It helps boost creativity. And of course it reduces stress and it helps with our overall wellbeing. Having that time away is incredibly beneficial. Rest prevents burnout as we've talked about, and it sustains long-term productivity. Because you're continuing to have that ability to refocus and keep moving. Rest fosters idea generation. Giving the brain space to connect different concepts and bring it all together. So it fosters creativity. It helps with resilience. Regular rest strengthens your ability to bounce back from setbacks. And it helps your decision making ability, creating clearer thinking. That leads to better decision-making especially in business, better strategic decisions in business. So as we've reiterated multiple times of how good rest can be for you. So how can we put this all together? What can we do to implement strategic rest throughout our day, throughout our week, throughout our year, so that it's moving us forward in our. Businesses. And helping with our emotional regulation, our decision-making our creativity, all of that stuff. So start small. If you're not, if you're working and you're burning the midnight oil or burning the candle at both ends, however, those sayings go. Maybe you need to start with just a five minute break per day. Maybe implement that Pomodoro technique and really structure your time, have focused work time and a small period of rest. And just repeat that and see how that does. Try it for a couple of days. And see what you think is that getting you. Better results. Is that helping you be more productive? And feel less stressed? If so, keep doing it. Maybe you start by planning a day off. Maybe you're like, I can't do that. I have too much to do. Okay. Maybe start with half a day, maybe start with a couple of hours where, you know, At this time on Saturday night, turning everything off and I'm having movie night with my family. Starting small and then working your way into it. I think you're going to find is really beneficial for you overall, both in your personal life, as well as your business life. Maybe you want to start thinking about that big vacation or that extended time off, start planning for it and dreaming for it. Because what's interesting is if you start thinking about that, okay. We're close to the end of the year, right? So maybe you want to plan for it in a year. You can start putting into place those supports that will allow you to be able to take that two week vacation that month vacation, whatever it is because you can plan for it. So being intentional about integrating rest into your routine. Is going to be transformative. So how can you intentionally put rest into your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly routines? What does that look like for you? And I want you to think about this as you're thinking about putting rest. In there strategically. How would this transform your energy? How will it transform your mindset? How will it transform your creativity? How will it transform your physical and mental health? How will it transform your success? Rest is not a reward for success. It is the fuel for it. This isn't about being lazy. This isn't about spending all your time watching Netflix. This really is strategic rest, that helps build clarity in your mind, that helps your body rejuvenate. So that you can come back stronger, sharper, and ready to achieve more. So how's it as I let you go today. I want you to, to think about this. What's one way that you plan to strategically put rest in your schedule this week. Let me know. I'd love to hear what you're doing and how it's working for you. All right, guys, until next time, have a great week.