146. How I Stopped Working 24/7 and Finally Got Noticed as a Leader

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Kendall Berg** (0:35)
Rest is not lack of, absence, laziness. It is creating space. And we need to create space for ourselves to think, to breathe, to operate more effectively. And we get so caught up in, oh, I want to be successful. That means I need to be super productive, that we don't create space. And I'm going to tie this into your career progression. As you want to progress your career, you have to think more strategically. You have to be more influential. You have to stop being the person who does everything and be the person who's creating a vision and a direction. And that requires space.
Corporate life is a game, but no one hands you the rule book. Here on Secrets of the Career Game, we break down the unspoken norms and behind-the-scenes dynamics shaping your career today. I'm Kendall Berg, That Career Coach, and I guide professionals to grow, advance, and lead with clarity. Each week, we explore the tools, habits, and conversations that build confidence, presence, and long-term momentum. Hello, hello. We talk a lot on this show about how to be successful, how to become a leader, how to progress your career, build a network, advocate for yourself. All of these things that nobody at work teaches you about how to progress your career. But today, we will not be talking about that. Today, we are going to be talking about something that makes many people very uncomfortable, myself included. We're going to be talking about rest. I feel that our society has begun to prioritize so dramatically work to the point of burnout that we are no longer enjoying our lives. So if you're tuning in from wherever in the world you are, and you're thinking, all I keep doing is working harder. Maybe I'm making more money. Maybe I have a better title, but I'm exhausted. I can't enjoy the time with my kids. I take travel, but I'm still checking email the whole time, or Teams, or Slack, or whatever your company uses. And you feel like you cannot disconnect. Today's episode is for you. All right? When this year started, I did a goal-setting episode. You guys can go back and listen to that. I'll tag it in the show notes. But in those goals, I mentioned that one of my goals this year is to enjoy my coffee. And this goes back to a couple different things. I saw a video, and it said that luxury women, elegant, upscale women, they don't take their coffee into go cups because they don't have to. They have time to sit at a table and have their coffee and read the newspaper or scroll on their phone or just sit outside or journal or whatever it was. And I realized listening to that, that I could not remember the last time I enjoyed a cup of coffee.
I get a lot of coffee, or if you've been here long, you know, but I multitask with it. I'm drinking coffee while I'm on calls with clients. I'm drinking coffee while I'm making content. I'm drinking coffee while I'm on a meeting. I'm drinking coffee while I'm pitching a deck. I'm drinking coffee while I'm making my kids breakfast so that I can get them out the door so they can get to school on time. I'm drinking my coffee while I'm X. And when I took a second to sit back and say, okay, when's the last time I sat? I just enjoyed it. I remember tasting the coffee.
I could not remember. And I think that this is so indicative of how our society works, is all of these things that were meant to be restorative have become functional. General meal time is another great example. So often I go out to restaurants, and it's a mom and dad. Their two kids are on the tablet. The mom and dad are on their phones, and nobody's talking to each other. And that's dinner. Now, don't get me wrong. There are times I go out to dinner where my kids bring their tablets, especially if we're going with other adults and kids, and there's going to be a lot going on, I want to be able to have quality conversation time with other people. I'm not throwing shade on your tablet children, trust me. But what I am saying is, mealtime used to be a break. Even at work, if we think pre-2020, when everybody was in the office, you would go out to lunch with your coworkers. You may have working lunches every once in a while, but I felt pre-2020, it was very common to take an actual lunch break and leave the office with your coworkers and go eat somewhere.