The Breaking Point

Jamie stared at the blinking cursor on her screen, the quarterly report deadline looming just hours away. The third cup of coffee sat cold beside her keyboard, joining the growing collection of energy bar wrappers and sticky notes. Her phone buzzed with another text from her team, requesting guidance on a client crisis that had erupted that afternoon.

"Just push through," she told herself, ignoring the tension headache building behind her eyes and the fact that she'd skipped lunch—again. The promotion to senior director six months ago had been her dream, but lately, that dream felt more like a hamster wheel she couldn't escape.

When her screen suddenly blurred, Jamie realized tears were welling in her eyes. This wasn't like her. She was the rock, the one everyone counted on. In this moment of surprise and vulnerability, a question came up that she'd avoided for months: "Who's taking care of the caretaker?"

That night, Jamie submitted the report just before the deadline. After putting out the client fire, she drove home in silence. He skipped catching up on podcasts and making calls.

She parked in her driveway and sat still, engine off. She faced a truth she'd avoided: her way wasn't sustainable. Her effectiveness was declining, not because she wasn't working hard enough, but because she wasn't taking care of herself.

The next morning, instead of jumping straight into email, Jamie did something radical—she blocked off the first 30 minutes of her day. Just for herself. A small act of self-leadership that would ultimately transform how she showed up for everyone else.

Key Takeaways

• Self-care isn’t selfish. It’s the key to strong leadership and helping others.

• Warning signs matter. Physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion show that you need to change your approach. They are not signs to push harder.

• Small steps lead to big changes. Just a few minutes of self-care each day can make a big impact on your leadership.

• Boundaries protect your purpose. Setting clear limits isn’t about doing less. It’s about focusing your energy on what truly matters.

• Self-awareness comes before self-care.

• Knowing your needs and habits is key to creating effective ways to restore yourself.

3 Approaches to Career Success

1. The Hustle Fallacy- the idea that working insane hours over a long period of time will enhance your productivity and advance your career, business, or entrepreneurial endeavors.

• While a person like Elon Musk may be a genius, he works 100 hours regularly, and there are signs that it’s beginning to have a detrimental impact on his life.

• The Hustle Fallacy leads to self-neglect. With this mindset, the first thing we neglect is self-care.

• The Hustle Fallacy leads to poor self-care crippling a leader’s ability to maximize their effectiveness.

• This lifestyle of working 80+ hour weeks is ambitious and provides leaders with explosive experiences.

2. The Ambition Brake- the idea that one must intentionally tap the brakes on a fully successful career, resulting in a short change of their potential.

3. The Double-Win Truth: You can balance your life between family, health, and work without compromising any of them, while also being more productive and achieving better results.

You can work and succeed in life.

• 61% of workers struggle with work-related tension.

• You have an 11-20% higher risk of a heart attack on Mondays.

Self-care is essential to a more productive and effective work life.

Self-care is the set of activities that make for a meaningful life outside of work while enhancing performance at work.

3 Benefits of Proper Self-care

1. Self-care gives you Energy

We use the excuse that we don’t have the time for self-care. The truth is, we don’t have time not to have self-care as an essential part of our lives. Many of us have bought into the “Time Management Myth,” where we think that if we just manage our time better, we will get everything done.

• Time is fixed- we all have 168 hours per week to use as we decide.

• Energy is flexible - we can bring more energy to our tasks.

• You can’t give yourself more time, but you can bring a more energetic you to bear on the time at hand.

We will always have more tasks than time. That will always be true. The question is, how do we handle this dilemma? No schedule management system is going to change that.

Manage your energy, not your time.

Productivity is less about managing our time and more about managing our energy.

The Law of 50: There is a ceiling to productive work. When we push past 50 hours in a week, our productivity is virtually 0. After working 50+ hours in a week, productivity yields drop dramatically. Working 50 hours per week yields 37 hours of productivity.

• You need rest to be your best.

• Your Self-care is central to your good Health, Family, & Relationships.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Abraham Lincoln.

This illustrates that time not spent chopping is more important than the hours spent chopping. Sharpening the blade is not self-indulgent. It is essential.

2. Self-care Gives You an Edge

Self-care may seem self-indulgent, but it fuels you and your creativity.

1. Good self-care fuels creativity.

• Sleep: When a person has 6 hours or less of sleep, their cognitive abilities are reduced to the same levels as someone who is intoxicated.

• An extra hour of sleep may be your most effective strategy for increasing productivity.

• Exercise: Good self-care must include exercise.

• Regular exercise is associated with higher earnings.

• Exercise makes people more productive in intense situations.

• Fun-play nurtures a supple mind.

If you and your team need a breakthrough, you might need a break.

2. Self-care Fuels Confidence.

3. Self-care is Linked to Higher Earnings.

Research indicates that people who follow exercise over the life of their careers will earn 14-17% more than those who don’t exercise.

There is a Price of Self-Neglect. Self-Neglect causes crises that cripple careers.

3. Self-care Gives You Endurance

• Defining The Win: Do you want one-dimensional success or multi-dimensional success?

• The Hustle Fallacy comes with a very high price tag, while it can be effective in short sprints, it is not effective over the long term.

• Do you want momentary or sustained success?

• When you stack sprint upon sprint, it is a recipe for burnout.

• Some of us are working ourselves into lackluster marriages.

• We all think we are the exceptions.

Prioritizing self-care offers a brighter alternative, with more Energy, an Edge over your competition, and greater endurance to thrive in the long haul effectively.

3 Key Steps to Start Your Self-Care Journey

1. Make a Commitment to Self-care.

2. Set Hard Boundaries around Workdays & Weekends

• Defining The Win: Do you want one-dimensional success or multi-dimensional success?

• The Hustle Fallacy comes with a very high price tag, while it can be effective in short sprints, it is not effective over the long term.

• Do you want momentary or sustained success?

• When you stack sprint upon sprint, it is a recipe for burnout.

• Some of us are working ourselves into lackluster marriages.

• We all think we are the exceptions.

3. Get 8 hours of sleep per night.

What do you want your culture to be?

• Take the time to answer this question and then act congruent with this!

• Bad Self-Care is duplicated by those who are being led by you, and it will have negative effects on them over the long term.

• Self-care is a leadership discipline.

• Leaders go first. You can be a living example that Self-care can lead to greater success.

Michael Hyatt has long been one of the premier leadership bloggers and podcasters. He is the founder and CEO of Michael Hyatt & Company, a leadership development firm specializing in transformative live events, workshops, and digital and physical planning tools.

Michael and his team help overwhelmed high achievers win at work, succeed at life, and lead with confidence. Their mission is to provide leaders with the clarity, courage, and tools they need to overcome the frenzy and start living with focus. In 2017, Michael Hyatt & Company was featured on the Inc. 5000 list as one of America’s fastest-growing companies.