Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building and golachieving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellavaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven to ten. I want you to picture
Speaker 2: a leader, high performer, always moving, always solving problems, always available,
Speaker 2: always on their phone, never stops their mind, never shuts off.
Speaker 2: Their calendar is packed, their team depends on them for everything,
Speaker 2: and on paper, they look unstoppable until one day they're not.
Speaker 2: They snap in a meeting, they make a bad decision
Speaker 2: they normally would never make. They start avoiding conversations, They
Speaker 2: lose patience with their best people, their energy drops, their
Speaker 2: clarity disappears, and everyone around them is thinking the same thing.
Speaker 2: What happened. Here's what happened. They never learned how to rest. Now,
Speaker 2: before you tune out, I'm not talking about taking a
Speaker 2: vacation or getting more sleep. That's part of it, but
Speaker 2: that's not the full picture. High level leadership demands more
Speaker 2: than physical recovery. It demands strategic recovery because there are
Speaker 2: different types of exhaustion, and if you only fix one.
Speaker 2: The others will quietly take you down. So let's break
Speaker 2: this down in a way you can actually use this
Speaker 2: starting today. First is mental rest. This is your brain
Speaker 2: being overloaded from NonStop decision making, problem solving and information intake.
Speaker 2: You know you need this when your thoughts feel cluttered,
Speaker 2: you reread the same email three times, or you sit
Speaker 2: there staring at a problem that should be simple. Mental
Speaker 2: rest is not scrolling your phone. Mental rest is clearing
Speaker 2: your head, write everything down, get it out, give yourself
Speaker 2: ten minutes of silence, take a walk without your phone,
Speaker 2: slow your breathing. Leaders who don't protect their mental space
Speaker 2: start making reactive decisions instead of intentional ones. And the
Speaker 2: second one is physical rest. This is the one most
Speaker 2: people think they understand, but most leaders ignore it. If
Speaker 2: your body is exhausted, your leadership is compromised. Your patience,
Speaker 2: your tone, your presence, all of it is affected. You
Speaker 2: don't need to become a fitness expert overnight. You need consistency, sleep, stretch,
Speaker 2: move your body. Take a short break instead of grinding
Speaker 2: through exhaustion. You cannot lead at a high level if
Speaker 2: your body is running on fumes. The third sensory rest.
Speaker 2: This one is crushing leaders right now, constant notifications, screens everywhere,
Speaker 2: noise alerts, meetings, messages. Your brain is never getting a
Speaker 2: break from input. You know this feeling. You check your
Speaker 2: phone without even thinking, You open apps with no purpose.
Speaker 2: You feel wired but not productive. You need to shut
Speaker 2: it down, turn off notifications, sit in a quiet room,
Speaker 2: step away from screens for a few hours. If you
Speaker 2: never disconnect, you will lose your ability to focus deeply,
Speaker 2: and leadership requires deep focus. Fourth is social rest. This
Speaker 2: one hits leaders harder than most people realize. You are
Speaker 2: constantly around people, conversations, problems, expectations, but not all interactions
Speaker 2: give you energy. Some drain you. Social rest means being
Speaker 2: intentional about who you spend time with. Spend time with
Speaker 2: people who recharge you, set boundaries with those who don't.
Speaker 2: Learn to say no to things that pull your energy
Speaker 2: in the wrong direction. You are not required to be
Speaker 2: available to everyone all the time, so protect your circle.
Speaker 2: The fifth is creative rest. Leaders are expected to think, innovate, solve,
Speaker 2: and adapt, but creativity doesn't come from pressure, it comes
Speaker 2: from space. If you are always in execution mode, your
Speaker 2: ability to think differently starts to disappear. Creative rest means
Speaker 2: stepping away from your routine. Try something new, go somewhere different,
Speaker 2: Listen to something that makes you think, give your brain
Speaker 2: something fresh to work with. Some of your best leadership
Speaker 2: ideas will not come from your desk. They will come
Speaker 2: when you step away from it. Sixth is emotional rest.
Speaker 2: This is the one leaders avoid the most. You carry stress,
Speaker 2: you absorb, pressure, you manage conflict, You deal with frustration
Speaker 2: from every direction, and most leaders keep it all inside
Speaker 2: and that builds up. Emotional rest means processing what you
Speaker 2: are dealing with, write it down, talk to someone you trust,
Speaker 2: set boundaries with situations that drain you. You don't need
Speaker 2: to carry everything alone, and if you do, it will
Speaker 2: show up in your leadership whether you want it to
Speaker 2: or not. And finally, spiritual rest, This is not about religion.
Speaker 2: This is about purpose. Why are you doing what you're doing,
Speaker 2: What do you stand for? Who are you helping? When
Speaker 2: leaders lose connection to purpose, everything starts to feel like
Speaker 2: a grind. Spiritual rest means reconnecting to something bigger than
Speaker 2: your daily tasks. Help someone reflect on your values, take
Speaker 2: a moment to appreciate what you've built in who you've impacted.
Speaker 2: Because Leadership without purpose turns into burnout. Now here's the
Speaker 2: part I want you to really hear. You don't need
Speaker 2: all seven of these every day. You need awareness. Most
Speaker 2: leaders are trying to fix the wrong type of exhaustion.
Speaker 2: They think they're tired because they need sleep, when what
Speaker 2: they really need is quiet. They think they need time
Speaker 2: off when what they really need is a boundary. They
Speaker 2: think they've lost motivation when what they really lost is
Speaker 2: connection to purpose. If you can identify what type of
Speaker 2: rest you actually need, you can recover faster and lead better.
Speaker 2: So here's your move. Take the next seven minutes. Look
Speaker 2: at your current state. Ask yourself one question. Where am
Speaker 2: I actually drained right now? Is it mental, physical, sensory, social, creative, emotional, spiritual?
Speaker 2: Pick one? Then do something about it today, not next week,
Speaker 2: and not when things slow down. Do it today, because
Speaker 2: the leader who learns how to recover becomes the leader
Speaker 2: who can sustain performance, And the leader who can sustain
Speaker 2: performance becomes the leader everyone depends on. Not because they
Speaker 2: grind harder, because they recover smarter. So leadership is not
Speaker 2: about how long you can go without stopping. It is
Speaker 2: about how well you can reset so you can keep
Speaker 2: going when it matters the most. Protect your energy, protect
Speaker 2: your clarity, and protect your ability to lead at a
Speaker 2: high level. That is how you win long term. And
Speaker 2: if you want more free leadership resources, head over to
Speaker 2: Paulflovalito dot com and click on free Stuff. I have
Speaker 2: over twenty five free leadership documents you can download and
Speaker 2: start using today. This has been the seven minute leadership
Speaker 2: podcast and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fello Alito podcasts, visit Paulfellowalito dot com.