Sharpening the Saw: Stop Bragging About Exhaustion—The Secret Habit of Elite Performers

Over the past four weeks, we’ve built a framework for retention: fair compensation AND strong leadership, development that creates loyalty, and hiring for potential instead of experience. This week, as many of you take a rare break for Thanksgiving, I want to address the leadership habit most practice owners ignore—and why it’s quietly undermining everything else you’re trying to build. The foundation of this framework comes from Spartan Leadership principles: rest, renewal, and strategic leadership. ## The Elite Athlete Who Sleeps 10 Hours a Day Shohei Ohtani sleeps 10 hours a day. He’s also the first player in baseball history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season. And he has a career ERA of 3.00. He benches 365 pounds. He squats and deadlifts 500 pounds. He’s arguably the greatest baseball player of his generation—and he’s still in his prime. Ten hours of sleep. Every day. And he naps before games. He’s not just rested—he’s obsessive about rest. Because he knows it’s his competitive advantage. **Not despite his rest. Because of it.** LeBron James follows the same strategic approach, committing to 8-10 hours of sleep nightly, supplemented by pre-game naps. This non-negotiable recovery is what allows him to maintain his legendary baseline of preparation. His former Cavaliers teammate, Ira Newble, recalled a moment from LeBron’s early years that illustrates this: At a team workout, LeBron was the only player who showed up already dressed in his full uniform and was actively working out on the court, treating the practice as if it were a real game. His commitment to rest translated directly into a higher, more sustainable level of readiness than his peers. The pattern is clear: **Elite performers are obsessive about both work AND rest.** They understand you can’t sustain excellence without both. Meanwhile, practice owners brag about running on five hours of sleep, skipping lunch, working through weekends, and never taking a real vacation. We’ve been sold the “rise and grind” narrative for so long that we wear exhaustion like a badge of honor. If the greatest athletes in the world prioritize rest as part of their training regimen, why do we convince ourselves that grinding 24/7 makes us better leaders? **Rest isn’t weakness. It’s how you sustain excellence.** ## The Practice Owner Who Never Stops I got a call last month from a practice owner who was struggling with team morale. Her office manager had just given notice. Her best hygienist was “quiet quitting.” Patient complaints were up. When I asked about her schedule, here’s what she told me: *“I work Monday through Friday, 7am to 6pm. I come in most Saturdays to catch up on admin work. I answer team texts and emails on Sundays. I haven’t taken a real vacation in three years—just long weekends where I still check in daily. I’m exhausted, but I don’t have a choice. The practice won’t run without me.”* I asked her: “How many days is your practice open to patients?” “Four,” she said. “And you’re working seven. You’re burning the candle at both ends even though your practice has three days of built-in downtime every week.” Her team isn’t there those other three days. They’re working their four days and going home. But they’re still paying the price—because they’re working for a leader who’s exhausted, reactive, and running on fumes. Your decision-making suffers. Your patience wears thin. Your vision gets cloudy. And in practices that ARE open five or six days with long hours? The team absolutely inherits that pace. If you’re going pedal to the metal, your team has to match that energy. A dental assistant might be fine with a demanding schedule when she’s hired—but when she has a baby? Suddenly it’s unsustainable. The hygienist who could handle the pace in his twenties? In his forties with aging parents? It’s too much. Whether your team is working four days or six, your inability to rest creates problems. Either they’re dealing with a burned-out leader, or they’re burning out themselves trying to keep up. When you lead from a place of depletion, your team feels it. Your decision-making suffers. Your patience wears thin. Your vision gets cloudy. You stop being the leader they need and become the bottleneck they resent. **You can’t pour from an empty cup. And your team can tell when you’re running on fumes.** ## The Athlete’s Secret: The Growth Cycle Elite athletes understand something most practice owners don’t: **Rest isn’t the absence of work. It’s part of the work.** Athletes operate in cycles: 1. **Training (Hard work):** Deliberately pushing limits to create the necessary stress. 2. **Recovery (Non-negotiable Phase):** Intentional rest, sleep, and active recovery for repair. 3. **Nutrition (Fuel):** Providing the building blocks for the body to repair and grow. 4. **Adaptation (Growth Happens Here):** The critical moment where the body or mind rebuilds stronger and more resilient than before—and it only happens during rest. They don’t apologize for rest days. They don’t feel guilty about off-seasons. They understand that peak performance requires recovery cycles. Without rest, performance declines, injuries happen, and careers end early. Practice owners operate differently: - Work (patient care, operations, firefighting) - More work (evenings, weekends, “catching up”) - Guilt (when they try to rest, they feel like they’re falling behind) - Burnout (inevitable result of never stopping) There’s no off-season. No programmed recovery. No strategic downtime. Just relentless grinding until something breaks—usually your health, your relationships, or your team. The irony? The practice owners who never stop are often the least effective leaders. They’re too exhausted to think strategically, too depleted to develop their teams, and too burned out to model the culture they want to create. ## The Four Dimensions of Sharpening the Saw Stephen Covey’s Habit #7 from *The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People* is “Sharpen the Saw”—the practice of self-renewal in four dimensions: ### 1. Physical Renewal This is the most obvious and the most neglected. **For athletes:** Sleep, nutrition, strength training, cardiovascular fitness, injury prevention. **For practice owners:** When’s the last time you: - Slept 7-8 hours consistently? - Exercised regularly (not “I’ll start next month”)? - Ate actual meals instead of grabbing whatever’s available between patients? - Took a day off without checking email? Your body isn’t a machine. You can’t run it into the ground and expect peak performance. Physical depletion leads to mental fog, emotional volatility, and poor decision-making. **The practice owner who prioritizes physical renewal:** - Blocks time for exercise like they block time for patients - Protects sleep as non-negotiable - Takes real lunch breaks - Schedules regular time off and actually disconnects ### 2. Mental Renewal This is about learning, growing, and keeping your mind sharp. **For athletes:** Film study, strategy sessions, mental rehearsal, learning from coaches. **For practice owners:** When’s the last time you: - Read a book that challenged your thinking? - Attended a conference or workshop? - Had a conversation with a mentor or peer that stretched you? - Learned something completely outside your field? Mental renewal isn’t just about dental CE credits. It’s about staying curious, thinking strategically, and avoiding the stagnation that comes from doing the same thing the same way for years. **The practice owner who prioritizes mental renewal:** - Reads regularly (leadership, business, personal development) - Invests in coaching or peer groups - Takes time to think strategically, not just react tactically - Learns from industries outside dentistry ### 3. Social/Emotional Renewal This is about relationships, connection, and emotional health. **For athletes:** Team bonding, family time, friendships outside the sport, therapy/counseling. **For practice owners:** When’s the last time you: - Had a meaningful conversation with your spouse that wasn’t about the practice? - Spent quality time with your kids without your phone? - Connected with friends outside the dental industry? - Processed your stress with a therapist or coach instead of bottling it up? Leadership is emotionally demanding. If you’re not renewing your emotional reserves, you’ll become reactive, short-tempered, and disconnected—from your team, your family, and yourself. **The practice owner who prioritizes social/emotional renewal:** - Protects family time as fiercely as patient time - Maintains friendships outside dentistry - Processes stress through therapy, coaching, or trusted peers - Doesn’t use their team as their therapist ### 4. Spiritual Renewal This isn’t necessarily religious (though it can be). It’s about purpose, values, and meaning. **For athletes:** Meditation, visualization, connecting to their “why,” legacy thinking. **For practice owners:** When’s the last time you: - Reflected on why you became a dentist in the first place? - Thought about the impact you want to have beyond production numbers? - Spent time in silence, meditation, or prayer? - Revisited your core values and whether you’re living them? Spiritual renewal is what keeps you grounded when everything else is chaos. It’s the difference between “I’m just trying to survive” and “I’m building something meaningful.” **The practice owner who prioritizes spiritual renewal:** - Starts the day with reflection, meditation, or prayer - Regularly revisits their mission and values - Makes decisions based on long-term purpose, not short-term pressure - Finds meaning beyond the metrics ## Why Rest Is Your Competitive Advantage Here’s what most practice owners don’t realize: The practices with the best retention, the strongest culture, and the most sustainable growth aren’t led by the hardest-working owners. They’re led by the most rested, renewed, and strategic owners. When you prioritize renewal: - **Your decision-making improves.** You’re not reacting from exhaustion—you’re responding from clarity. - **Your patience increases.** You have the emotional bandwidth to coach instead of criticize, to develop instead of micromanage. - **Your vision sharpens.** You can think strategically about where you’re going, not just tactically about what’s on fire today. - **Your team respects you more.** They see a leader who models sustainability, not burnout. They want to work for someone who has their life together, not someone who’s barely holding it together. - **Your health improves.** You avoid the heart attacks, divorces, and breakdowns that plague practice owners who never stop. **Rest isn’t selfish. It’s strategic.** ## The “But I Don’t Have Time” Objection I hear this constantly: “I’d love to rest, but I don’t have time. The practice won’t run without me.” Let me reframe that: **If your practice can’t run without you being there 60+ hours a week, you don’t have a practice—you have a job you can’t quit.** And that’s a leadership problem, not a time problem. The practice owners who “don’t have time” to rest are usually the ones who: - Haven’t built systems (so everything requires their input) - Haven’t developed their team (so no one else can make decisions) - Haven’t set boundaries (so they’re always “on call”) - Haven’t prioritized their own renewal (so they’re too depleted to do any of the above) Rest isn’t something you find time for. It’s something you make time for. Because without it, everything else falls apart. ## What This Looks Like in Practice One practice owner I worked with was skeptical about prioritizing rest. “I’ll rest when I retire,” he told me. I challenged him: “Try this for 90 days. Block every Sunday as completely off—no emails, no texts, no ‘quick check-ins.’ Take one full week off every quarter. Sleep 7 hours minimum every night. Then tell me if your leadership improved or declined.” He was desperate enough to try it. Three months later, here’s what he reported: *“I was terrified the practice would fall apart. Instead, my team stepped up. They made decisions I used to make. They solved problems I used to solve. I came back from my week off with more clarity and energy than I’ve had in years. And honestly? I’m a better leader now than when I was grinding 70 hours a week. I just wish I’d done this sooner.”* His team’s feedback? *“You’re less reactive. You’re more present. You actually listen now instead of just waiting for us to finish talking so you can move on to the next fire.”* Rest didn’t make him a weaker leader. It made him the leader his team needed. ## Your Renewal Assessment Answer honestly. The unchecked items are warning signs of burnout: ### Physical Renewal: - □ I sleep 7-8 hours most nights - □ I exercise at least 3 times per week - □ I take real lunch breaks (not eating while working) - □ I have at least one full day off per week with no practice-related work ### Mental Renewal: - □ I read or learn something new regularly (not just dental CE) - □ I invest in coaching, peer groups, or professional development - □ I take time to think strategically, not just react tactically - □ I have hobbies or interests outside of dentistry ### Social/Emotional Renewal: - □ I protect quality time with family and friends - □ I have meaningful relationships outside the dental industry - □ I process stress through therapy, coaching, or trusted peers - □ I don’t use my team as my emotional outlet ### Spiritual Renewal: - □ I regularly reflect on my purpose and values - □ I have a practice of meditation, prayer, or quiet reflection - □ I make decisions based on long-term purpose, not just short-term pressure - □ I find meaning in my work beyond production numbers **Scoring:** - **12-16 checked:** You’re modeling sustainable leadership - **8-11 checked:** You’re at risk of burnout if you don’t course-correct - **4-7 checked:** You’re running on empty and your team can tell - **0-3 checked:** You’re in crisis mode and need immediate intervention ## Your Next Step You’re reading this on Friday. Thanksgiving is behind you. So here’s the question: Yesterday, when your practice was closed and you had every reason to rest, did you actually disconnect? Or did you check your email “just once”? Did you answer a team text? Did you “make sure everything was okay”? If you couldn’t fully disconnect for one day when the practice was already closed, that tells you something. But here’s the good news: You still have the rest of the weekend. **This weekend:** You’ve got Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Can you stay fully disconnected for three more days? No email, no texts, no “quick check-ins.” Sleep in. Spend time with people you love. Do something that has nothing to do with dentistry. Prove to yourself you can disconnect even when it’s easy. **Then, in the next 90 days:** Take a real vacation. A full week. Fully disconnected. No emails, no texts, no “quick check-ins.” And here’s the key: **Plan for it.** LeBron and Ohtani don’t accidentally rest—they plan their recovery as strategically as they plan their training. You don’t have to have an associate or a trusted replacement to make this work. Your team should be able to handle base operations—scheduling, patient communication, basic admin—without you being available. If they can’t, that’s not a team problem. It’s a systems and leadership problem. After your week off, ask yourself: “Did the practice fall apart without me? Or did my team step up?” If they stepped up, you’ve just proven you can create space for renewal without everything collapsing. If things did fall apart, you’ve just identified your next leadership project: building systems and developing your team so the practice doesn’t require your constant presence to function. Either way, you’ve learned something valuable. **Rest isn’t a reward for when everything’s perfect. It’s a requirement for getting there.** --- *Leading with you,* **Joe DeLuca** *P.S. Rest isn’t selfish—it’s strategic. Your team needs you rested even more than they need you present. And they need the opportunity to step up while you’re gone.*

Build sustainable leadership with Spartan Leadership and The Root of Leadership. Master renewal in all four dimensions. Then model that for your team. Apply these renewal principles to strengthen patient retention and reduce team burnout that undermines your appointment efficiency.