When someone is burnt out and trying to rest, their mind often attacks them: “You should get up. You should be doing something. You’re being lazy.” This self-attack continues generating adrenaline — the very thing the body needs a break from — because being berated by your own mind feels like being under attack.
Joe observes a dramatic difference in recovery times: CEOs who don’t beat themselves up during rest recover in three to four months. Those who do can take two to five years. The difference is entirely in the self-talk during recovery, not in the severity of the burnout.
“I have noticed when a CEO that I’m working with is done with a big project and they’re not beating themselves up their recovery time is like three four months. Similarly if somebody is beating themselves up it can be two three four five years.”
Joe reframes rest as an accomplishment — asking clients to measure how well they’re resting, flipping the achiever mindset to serve recovery rather than resist it. Olympic athletes understand this: the best ones train intensely and then do “absolutely nothing” to recover.
Related Concepts
- Resisting the inner critic strengthens it
- Shame creates the behaviors it punishes
- What you really need is rest from your inner critic
- Punishing yourself for remembering slows growth