Leaders across all sectors are beyond exhausted, burned-out, and sacrificing health for success. Burn-out has a bottom-line business impact. Did you know:
- 3/4ths of professionals worldwide experience burnout, according to the World Health Organization
- 63% more likely to take a sick day (Gallup)
- 2.6x more likely to be job hunting (Gallup)
- $300 billion cost to US businesses per year (American Institute of Stress)
- 70% of C-suite executives reported they considered leaving (Deloitte)
- annual cost of burnout related disengagement is $20,683 per executive
For decades I’ve been recommending to my executive clients this book about building rituals of recovery into everyday work practices, and it still holds true: The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal
Now there’s a new TEDx talk about how you can break the cycle. In his moving and brilliant TED talk, Chazz Scott weaves together burnout, neuroscience, epigenetics, healing ancestral trauma, and survival-related work ethic to show us why REST is a right, not a reward, especially in our current culture. Recovery rituals are not just something you earn someday, but a mission-critical must for each day.
Just a taste of the powerful points he makes in this video as to why we need reprogramming:
- we equate exhaustion with excellence
- “rest feels like failure”
- “boundaries feel like betrayal”
- “millions of us are trapped in cycles of proving our worth through productivity; unable to slow down without guilt.”
- motion does not equal progress
- people of color, first generation professionals, women, marginalized communities “inherited the message that their presence is provisional” and their nervous systems are stuck in survival mode even when they are safe
- cellular memory from ancestral trauma means your nervous system tells you urgency equals safety, rest is a threat to survival
- rest is a radical act of self trust
- choosing to slow down is generational healing
- when work ethic is a trauma response from ancestors who were beaten as lazy when resting, rest creates modern panic
- needing to always hustle doesn’t honor your ancestors, it continues their enslavement
- rest allows you to remember who you’re meant to be
- permission to breathe
- when trauma survivor descendants heal stress responses, it influences future generations “positive epigenetic inheritance”
- why sacrifice yourself for a system that doesn’t value your humanity?
- say no to something draining and yes to something restorative
- choose rest, ease and joy instead of rushing, exhaustion and grinding.
This is one of those talks EVERYONE needs to see, especially if you know anyone who is exhausted, burnt out, and unable to slow down. Chazz tells us how we can reprogram ourselves out of ancestral exhaustion and break the cycle for ourselves, our kids and future generations. You won’t regret investing 11 minutes to watch:
