Episode 20: Why High Achievers Need a Sabbatical

When was the last time you truly chose to rest? Not because you were forced to slow down, but because you intentionally made space to renew, reflect, and reset.

In this episode of The Navigating Leaders Podcast, host Gabriel Griess makes the case for something most high achievers resist: taking a sabbatical.

Not just a vacation, but intentional time to unplug, reflect, and refuel.

Drawing from the “4 Rs”: renewal, reflection, rhythm, and rest. Gabriel unpacks why rest is not weakness; it’s wisdom.

He also gets practical about what a sabbatical can actually look like: putting it on the calendar, choosing the right environment, unplugging completely, and giving your body and mind permission to slow down.

If you’ve been running on empty, feeling burned out, or carrying more than you were designed to hold, this episode will challenge you to stop surviving and start investing in the one person everyone around you is counting on: you.

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RESOURCES

🌎 Website: navigatingleaders.com

👀 Vision Engine: navigatingleaders.com/vision-engine

📖 The Results Tree—A Proven Path to the Life You Really Want: TheResultsTree.com 

CONNECT WITH GABRIEL

🎥 YouTube: @navigatingleaders
📸 Instagram: @navigatingleaders

👍 Facebook: @navigatingleaders

🎵 TikTok: @navigatingleaders

🗣️ LinkedIn: @navigatingleaders

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ABOUT GABRIEL

Gabriel Griess is a retired US Air Force officer, the CEO of Excel Medical Staffing and MedForceX, and the founder of Navigating Leaders. A graduate of the elite Air Force Weapons School, he has spent decades leading teams in high-pressure environments and equipping others to reach their full potential. As a combat veteran and an entrepreneur, Gabriel helps individuals cultivate self-awareness, resilience, and the ability to create lasting impact.

An internationally sought-after keynote speaker, he addresses audiences on personal transformation, strategic leadership, and veteran empowerment. The Results Tree is the framework he lives by, and when applied, it will unearth your destiny.

Transcript

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In your priorities, where do you stack up? In how you live your life, who or what comes first, second, third. In this episode, we'll explore this as we look at what it is to take a sabbatical. My name is Gabriel Brice, the host of Navigating Leaders. Awaken Your Vision and the Bullet. Thank you for joining us today. I'm so excited to have this conversation with you because it's one that I don't think we talk enough about. When we say the word sabbatical, a lot of times there's the academic or professional idea of taking a month or three months off to research or write or to work on a paper. But there's also the how to take time away to refresh, to recharge, to fill yourself up. Because no one can pour from an empty cup. And in today's world, we all know that we live too fast with too many distractions, too many demands on our time. And it can be really challenging to stop and rest and refuel, even though we know it is exactly what we need. And so as we talk about this, I want you to think about how often we should do it, where we should do it, when we should do it, and why we should do it. And as Simon Sinek would say, we always start with why. So let's take a look at it. So something I want us to understand is that a sabbatical, taking time away, is a gift. We are not machines, right? We have needs of rest and to be refilled, right? So I want to look at the four R's renewal, reflection, rhythm, and rest. So we get to renew ourselves, right? And so what is that? Every day, every moment, every opportunity is a new start. It's a blank canvas. We get to begin again, right? We get to choose new in every moment. And so we need space. We need a moment of quiet and stillness, not being bombarded by the TV and social media and family and friends and work and traffic and all the things that drain us and take things away from us. Not saying that all those things always drain us, but they certainly can. We need an opportunity for reflection, right? Am I on track? Am I living the life I want to live that I'm committed to living? Am I living a life from my vision? Am I living on purpose? And it's it's challenging to know those things. It's challenging to be grounded in that unless we take a moment for reflection. And then when we think about the rhythm, the rhythm of life, the seasons of life, right? Winter, spring, summer, fall. Depending upon where you are, those are more extreme or less extreme, more further away from the equator you go. But there are always seasons to life. There are seasons in nature, and one of those seasons is rest. You know, being a farm kid from Nebraska, uh growing up around wheat and Milo and soybeans, uh, farmers often let their fields rest. And this has been a practice that's gone on forever. So nothing happens in the field, or sometimes they plant a cover crop that actually actively regenerates the soil. It brings nutrients and it helps the next year's crop or whenever the new crop goes in. And so there's a rhythm, a season to life. And when we rest, we get to reflect and see are we on the right track? And so uh rest, right, is actually a commandment, right? To remember the Sabbath and keep it holy, right? But Sabbath and sabbatical definitely have some alignment, some corollary there. And there's and there's a piece that I'd like to I'd like to share, and this is this is old Gabe, right? I'm 52 now, right? So this is old Gabe talking to young Gabe, right? And maybe it's for you wherever you are in your journey in life, but but uh the commandments, the Ten Commandments are really a how-to manual, a how to live a good life, right? And uh, and I bristled as a young man against them. I resisted them, right? For those of you that that have read the book, The Results Tree, you're gonna see some very specific elements of where I lived out of alignment with the commandments and and actually sought to blow up my own life and successfully did that a few times. Uh, and luckily, uh by grace and by reset, I've found my way to where I am here having this conversation with you. But but now in my in my hopefully wiser and definitely older age, I I look at those commandments entirely differently. Like I see them as hey, these are these are signposts to a life well lived. These are uh guardrails to keep me on the path and to keep me out of the wilderness, to keep me out of the thorny briars and brushes along the side of the road, right? And so uh I often have said here in this podcast, and I say frequently in our in our professional life, that accountability is love, right? That when we're held accountable, it's not because we're seeking seeking to be punished or people are seeking to punish us, but but that uh there's a standard, and that standard is this, and holding people to that standard is love. And like as if you're a parent, right, you do it. If you're a a parent of a fur baby, right, you have pets, right? You hold your pets accountable. Um if we pause, we can see many places where accountability uh supports us. And so that commandment to rest is there for a reason, right? Because we need it, because we're not machines, because our bodies require it. And so uh both Sabbath and sabbatical are restful. And when we think about creation, right, on the seventh day, what happened? God rested and it was good. And so it was this model, this rhythm, work hard, rest, celebrate, and reflect. And uh, and I want to go back to celebrate. Uh, because if you're an achiever, if you're a hard charger, if you're somebody who sets up goals and knocks them down, uh, oftentimes, if you're anything like me, you may challenge or be challenged to stop and celebrate. Right? We put all that effort in, we spend all that time, all that time, talent, and treasure, all the resources, all the costs other people in our lives pay in order for us to achieve whatever it is we sought out to achieve. And then we almost act nonchalant at times and let it just pass. Let that let that pinnacle moment, let that trophy, let that medal, let that that finished dissertation, let that that uh graduation certificate, let that new uh new professional skill, right? Uh that we've worked so hard to achieve, and then and then we don't pause. We don't rest and acknowledge everything it took to achieve that, right? You are a champion. No matter where you're at in your life, by golly, you're a champion. What it took to get you to where you are, tenacity, hard work, grit, showing up, doing things you didn't want to do, and still doing it, right? Does your life look exactly like you want it to be? Well, I don't know, right? Most all of us have places and opportunities, places to improve. And that's where this sabbatical comes in, right? It's that chance to pause, to step back, to reflect, to see the gifts and the generosity and the abundance of time, talent, treasure, resources, people, uh, actual physical, mental, spiritual gifts, and where did I spend those over the last week, over the last month, over the last year, over my lifetime? What deposits I make, and where did I make them? And what was the return? What's the result from all of that? And is that what aligns with my purpose, with my vision, with who I am? So Isaiah 30, 15 speaks into the fact that we're not machines, and it says, in repentance and rest is salvation, and quietness and trust is your strength. So this is interesting, right? Think about your cell phone. Battery goes dead, that's a bad day. To the point now that we have chargers that go into everything, and even portable chargers, and induction chargers that go on the back. Like, like we go to extreme lengths to keep our battery charged on our phone. Yet instead of eight hours, we'll go on four and a half hours of sleep and six cups of coffee. That's insane. We don't treat the machine, the actual phone, the machine, the way we treat ourselves. We ensure the machine is fed electricity so it can keep going. So the invitation is to yourself is give yourself an opportunity to rest. And I ask, how many times have you ignored the need for rest in your life? And what were the prices you paid? What were the prices others paid because you refused to rest? Refuse to acknowledge that you're human. And you need that rest. So we'll explore that some more. And so how? How do you how do you take a sabbatical? Right? And in this case, I'm talking about dedicated time where you step away, you disconnect, you give yourself an opportunity to uh to just have a new experience, right? And um and just how do you do it, right? Well, first we got to get on the calendar. We get to be open and cherish this time and this opportunity and enjoy it, right? It's not it's not intended to be hard, it's not intended to be painful, right? The hard and the painful part might be putting it on your calendar, might be telling your boss or your spouse or your family or your friends or your support group or your buddies on the on the pickleball team or golf, go your golf buddies that you're not gonna be around for a day, right? But once you've gone through that that effort, then dedicating the time, right? Dedicating the time to disconnect. And and I promise you it's worth it. And let's all remember, none of us are getting out of here alive, right? We're not. And so why not spend a little bit of time investing and pouring into me? And and I say it that way because in reality, I'm talking to myself. Uh I do a lot of long-range planning. I run a calendar that's usually a couple years in advance with major big things like family vacations and and business trips and and and things like that. And something that always goes on my calendar are sabbaticals. I usually do the first Friday of every month blocked and scheduled on my calendar. Now, ask me how many of those I kept in the last year, and uh and I'm confident it's fewer than what would fit on a single hand, right? I think I kept three out of 12. Now, better than nothing. Uh, and three out of twelve, if you're a major league batting person, that average isn't isn't terrible, right? Uh, but I absolutely could have used that rest. And arguably there were times when I was not at my best or maybe sick or under the weather, where a good sabbatical and a day of reflection and rejuvenation uh would have done me wonders. Now I can't go back in time and figure that out, but as I look into the next year and begin to build my calendar and dedicate time, this is absolutely one of those things I'm committed to uh to being more diligent about and having it because I know the value. And I'm actually going to ask you guys to hold me accountable because here I am talking about it. And so uh just like we talk about leadership, it's you know, do you walk the walk? Do my what do my actions say? Are my actions speaking that I take a sabbatical? Or are my actions taking, hey, you should do this, but I'm not going to? And then those of us are parents uh that do as I say, not as I do, uh it works occasionally, but it never works long term, right? And so we get a set of time aside, get it on your calendar, and if a whole day is something that is just not an option for you, maybe it's it's a couple hours before you go to work one day, right? And maybe you drive to a park or you drive to uh a lake side and you're just you're just there for 60 or 90 minutes in in a piece, in a new new place, in a new time, uh, just something that's different. Maybe it's maybe it's 15 or 30 minutes, right? Like there is no right way to do it. There just is doing it, right? And doing whatever works in your life, in your schedule today. And as that happens and as the value increases, and as the the uh the rejuvenation and the reflection and the opportunities to see something new spring up in those moments, that's the feedback that says, I should do more of this. I get to do more of this, right? And so we set a time, we book it, we find a place. Places you know are challenging, right? The first time I did my first sabbatical, I'm like, where do I go? What do I do? What do I have? How do I do this right? Uh, how do I do it so well that I can talk about it on social media or tell my friends about it and get pats on the back and accolades because I did it right. Well, first off, there is no right, there's only doing it. And uh and it's really a private thing, right, between you and yourself and you and God, and you and your your inner voices as you're as you're quieting them and stilling yourself into uh what really matters, right? To recenter yourself on what matters. And so uh find a place, right? And maybe that means you have to ask for a favor. Are you somebody who gives and gives and gives and gives and gives, but never raises their hand and says, Help, help, can somebody help me? Um, that's kind of where I was the first time, right? I knew people who had cabins, I knew people who had space, and I actually rented a little, a little like one-bedroom or studio cabin out on the lake and uh and used that. And uh it was awesome. It was wonderful, it was amazing. Uh frankly, what I found out was that I was tired because I slept probably for the first half of the day, you know, and that's okay. That's wonderful, right? Let your body, let your body surrender to what is, to what you need, right? The whole point is rest and rejuvenation, right? To reveal, to reflect, to connect with what is important, what is meaningful, right? So find that place. If you need to rent a place, great. If it's in your car on a lakeside or walking in a park or uh just out in a field, out in a out in a state park, like it can be anywhere, right? Don't let the location be a limitation for you to begin. Right. Unplugged. Absolutely essential, right? Power the phone off, leave it at home. Give your wife, give your spouse, give your loved one, give your best friend, whoever it is, the address, the location, and tell them, hey, I'm gonna be off the network. I'm gonna be off at this time, expect me back at this time. 24 hours later, if I'm not back, you know, send in, send in the recovery squad to find me, right? But but absolutely disconnect. Be willing to sleep. Sleep before you go, but if if when you get there you rest, then rest, right? Burnout breakdown is real. And uh giving yourself that moment of time to rest and refuel is is essential. You may you may find one of the most peaceful naps or sleep in that moment. Uh invitation, really, for even probably up to three days would be water only, right? Water only, no food. Um, that serves a couple of purposes, right? Fasting has long been been seen as a good way to still the mind and to open oneself up for connection and understanding. And it also takes away the distraction, right? The whole point is to calm yourself and get centered and present. And if I'm, oh, what am I gonna eat? Oh, did I bring mayonnaise and and and mustard? I know some people are going, ooh, because they don't eat mayonnaise or mustard on their sandwiches, but uh, you know, just just we can distract ourselves with, oh, do I boil the water? Did I bring this? Do I have that? Oh no. Like, like all of it is distraction from the purpose of why you're there. I promise you, uh your body will thank you. Fasting is phenomenal for resetting the internal organs, it's phenomenal for uh uh inflammation and and just regulation, and it also takes away the distraction. So take a couple of gallons of water, and you're good, right? Water only. And reconnect with yourself, with your higher being, your higher purpose, your God, right? For me, lots of prayer, worship, uh singing, uh, just whatever it is that comes to me, that connects me and refills me and refuels me and allows me to rest, then that's what I'm doing. It doesn't have to be prescriptive, right? For the analyzers out there, for the controllers out there, uh, there isn't a perfect answer. There isn't a perfect model. The only model is to do, right? Right? What was it Yoda said? There is no try. There's do or do not. So do get out there and give it a try. Frequency, right? So how often do I do this? How do I get it scheduled? Do I have to take time off from work? You know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Uh the answer is whatever you can manage, whatever fits in your calendar, whatever fits in your life. But do something. Make the commitment to yourself, make the investment, right? By even talking to your closest friends and family about this is something you're going to do, is you're asking for help, you're asking for support, you're being vulnerable about your needs. And as we talk about leadership, right, your actions speak loud. Well, if if your loved one is on the verge of breakdown and needs space, but if you said, hey, you know, I really think you ought to take some time off or go take a break or go to the spa or whatever, you might get an action like, What do you think? And they become defensive. Well, then just lead by doing, right? Invest in yourself. And when we take efforts and lead and step forward, oftentimes that creates an opening for others to do it, right? So take care of yourself, right? Take care of yourself. For me, the goal, we talked about it is once a month. Again, usually the first Friday for me. Uh, I have not done a three-day uh that is my goal and my commitment here. I'll go on record that in in the next year I'll do a three-bate day sabbatical. And uh I imagine I'll come back and talk about it. So uh that'll be a good one. But we got to realize and acknowledge that burnout is real, right? We see it, we experience it, we avoid it, we deny it, uh, but it is real. We are running full speed ahead from the time we wake up to the time our head hits our pillows, and every single moment of the day is eligible to be full of distraction, entertainment, uh, or or news, in many cases, none of that, builds us, fills us, uh, lifts us up, elevates us, uh, makes us better, right? So be mindful. uh in between the sabbaticals what do you what are you filling your mind with right right now is there something that you're filling your mind with that doesn't serve you what doesn't serve you now the challenge the invitation is for the rest of the day eliminate that just for the day right if that's a news show if that's a reality TV if that's a you know a news link or an app or a game whatever it is just for 24 hours choose make the choice not to do it right I actually did this recently um my my boys and I we play uh Clash I think it's Clash Royale but it's just clashed right it's the three castles and the cards and your armies march back and forth and battle and and uh maybe I don't know three four five it's probably six months ago I was almost to the high the top level score you could get to and and I get to it and then that that little month long season ends and the next season opens and they added like another thousand points to the top of it and I was so irritated and uh and I quit playing the game for like I don't know six months and then just recently on a vacation I I logged back in dangerous right and I started playing again and I scored another thousand points and I went to the next level and I'm like oh yeah I got there you know and and I actually told my boys I said watch this they're gonna reset the season and they're gonna add more levels well sure enough the moment I hit 10,000 points they went all the way to 15 15000 points and you and you score by 30 points a level so uh I'm I'm putting that game aside because it has distracted me and taken time but that's an example right is is these these little things that eat three minutes at a time three minutes at a time three minutes at a time and all of a sudden that's 10 minutes and I'm like well gosh I could have read I could have actually read a chapter in a book I could have gone on a walk I could have meditated and prayed I could have cleaned my closet I could have washed my car I could have organized my growth there's so many things I could do with that nine or ten minutes right and so so just be mindful of what is distracting you during your day from being able to take little many sabbaticals little many sabbaths little many opportunities to rest in the day to level up ourselves to refuel and to rejuvenate ourselves you know a friend of mine uh just shared with me this last week uh she's got a couple of new new kiddos a couple of new babies uh I think three and one and uh and she we were talking and she was just talking about this burden this heaviness this this just absolutely overwhelming sense of responsibility now as a mom I I understand it I can't say I get it because I'm not a mom but but um as a parent you know we we we love and protect our kiddos right and she just had this heaviness and it was and it was palpable and I'm just like oh I fell for her and in and and in our conversation I got permission to kind of ask some questions and I said okay I understand this but what's gonna change because where you're at right now is not sustainable you can't you can't live like this for three five seven twelve fifteen years 17 years till the youngest is out of high school like that's that's that's a long time right like something's got to give you you get to have support your your family members get to step up your community your church your your support group gets to step up because you need rest you need sabbatical you need sabbat you need you need time to refill and recharge because as a mom you're always giving always giving it's like you you you bubble over with love and and and give and give and give and give and give and then who gives back who gives you space so um when we need help when we need space we get to ask and when we ask then we get to receive and I understand that receiving asking is hard and receiving is hard. So let's talk a little bit about the elements of a sabbatical right silence unless you're unless you're praying or singing or you know verbally meditating or chanting or using your voice in some way to connect and refuel and lift yourself up then be in silence right we are so busy and so bombarded with information and noise all day that silence is healing right silence lets the brain and the body calm listen in that silence in that space open your heart open your mind open your ears open just every cell in your body to to receive to understand to to connect right um we were divinely created before the beginning of the universe like there is so much we can connect with and understand and receive and know when we stop when we get out of our own way and this is this is one of those first steps. Practice your creativity right you can journal you can sketch you could paint you can do different things that that allow you to tap in maybe to a part of you that you have turned off maybe a part of you that you've said is unnecessary is is uh is a waste of time but used to bring you joy right life is to be is to be beautiful and enjoyed and experienced and in that you must go outside you must go outside the invitation is to touch the grass to touch the trees best if you can be barefoot it's okay to get cold it's okay to get hot right we haven't always lived in a perfectly controlled 72 degrees right we go from our air conditioner heated house to our air conditioner heated car to our air conditioner heated office or shopping mall or whatever it is and and we are completely disconnected from the natural environment from which we came and so connect with Mother Nature with the earth with with the wind with the rain with the breeze with the grass the leaves the bird everything that's out there right um it is all provided for it is all watered and fed it is all cared for it all goes through seasons of life and death and we take it for granted or at times and we ignore it at times and so the invitation is if that is is that especially something that right now has sort of triggered you or caused you some anxiety like I don't want to get dirty I don't want to be out there what about the bugs are there snakes are there you know rabid squirrels are there um are there angry sea bass with lasers statched their head um that's an old Austin Powers reference a movie that many of you may never have heard of but it's pretty funny um you know connect with nature because it is healing it will rejuvenate it will fill you up and Psalm 4610 says be still and know that I am God right in that stillness of a sabbatical you have an opportunity to connect with your maker and that is the biggest gift you can have um so I ask when was the last time you truly rested and when did you truly rest of your own choice not like you got sick or you know had it were forced to rest but when did you truly choose to rest and so I invite you to get this on your calendar right whatever amount of time you think you can you can set aside five minutes 20 minutes an hour three hours five hours a day two days three days a week whatever it is real for you get it on the calendar I invite you maybe double it whatever amount of time it is you thought like make it make it a meaningful amount of time so that you have a chance to do something different to have a different opportunity a different thing come up for you be intentional make sure you unplug and understand the whole point is renewal reflection being connected with that rhythm of life and to rest because you are so valuable there are so many people that depend on you there are so many people that love and adore and are cheering for you you have a massive cheering section out there whether they've ever revealed themselves to you or not there are people that are cheering for you to win right because you inspire them because there are a lot of people who aspire to be like you listen to that again there are people who aspire to be like you and so in order for you to be the best version of yourself give yourself the opportunity to rest give yourself the opportunity to be renewed and to connect and to level up and to come back the next day the next week stronger so you have more to give, more impact to have in the world. So I know that this landed for some of you and for those of you who did commit to yourself to get it on your calendar for those of you that are like oh my God this is perfect for fill in the blank of the name drop this in a text message and send it to them right invite them to invest in themselves invite them to rest invite them to take a sabbatical so thank you so much for being here make sure you like this share this subscribe to the Navigating Leaders podcast my name is Gabriel Grease I'm your host thank you thank you thank you so much for coming when you take your sabbatical send me an email at Gabriel at navigatingleaders.com I would love to hear about I'd love to hear about your revelation your experience whatever it is that came up for you and if there's a bug bite or two you can share that too so until next time be well God bless and thank you