Why I no longer resent work ‘sprints’
This week is Break Week for our company, which means that, technically, you shouldn’t have received this post.
In case you’re new here: In 2021, I implemented Break Weeks as a way to ensure that my team regularly takes time off. At the end of every quarter, we close the company for a week, and at the end of the year, we close it for three weeks. That way, I can be sure that we’re each taking off at least six weeks a year. And because we’re all off at the same time, we can unplug without worrying about falling behind. I encourage my team (and myself) to take time off beyond Break Weeks, but we have them so that I can show my team that I really mean it when I say I want us to take time for ourselves and our lives outside of work.
For the most part, we’ve been able to stick with what we’ve committed to as a team and take our Break Weeks together. But there have been a few exceptions to this on my end, because sometimes, inspiration strikes for me during breaks. I don’t like to make hard-and-fast rules about how I spend my time, so if there’s a Break Week where I’m feeling truly motivated and excited to work on something, I follow that excitement. But first, I make sure that impulse is coming from a place of inspiration, not obligation. If I do choose to work during a break, I’m diligent about taking extra time off throughout the year, including the several weeks that I take to be with my family for our annual summer trip.
This year, however, my time off has looked very different. I haven’t taken a single Break Week off, and I’ve hardly taken any time off off beyond that. Even during my family trip abroad this summer, I worked in pockets throughout our travels.
I’m not alone in this: While my team has taken off more time than I have this year, they’ve been working unconventionally, too. When it comes to our Break Weeks, some have taken them as scheduled, but some have opted out of them or only taken partial ones. I haven’t forced anyone to work during our Break Weeks. When they do choose to work, I empower them to take that time off elsewhere, and they do.
The reason is that this has been a big year. Probably the biggest that I (and we as a team) have had in a decade. I spent the first half of it with my head down writing a book, and as soon as I turned in the last of my edits, I switched my focus to preparing to launch the book into the world. My team has supported me every step of the way.
The fact that I have had hardly any breaks this year is not a surprise to me. At the beginning of 2026, I anticipated that my time off would be minimal. But I felt totally at peace with it.
The thing is that in the past, not having time off would have bothered me. Actually, it would have more than bothered me: It would’ve left me feeling overworked, burned out, and resentful. If I had watched my team take days off while I wasn’t taking any, it would have felt unfair.
But now, I don’t feel a hint of that. I’ve been excited to work on every single thing I’m putting my energy toward. Instead of feeling overworked, I feel aligned and fulfilled. Instead of feeling resentful, I feel grateful that I'm able to do the work that I’m doing, even when I haven’t had a break from it in awhile.
What changed?
I wanted to reflect on this and sit with it because it’s something I’ve noticed a few times this year: There’s a big difference between how I feel today and how I used to feel, and I know that didn’t happen by accident.
I realized in reflecting that it’s because I've been practicing everything that I wrote about in my book. I used to have so many moments—years and years and years—of feeling resentful and burdened because of how much I was working and how little time I was taking for myself. I didn’t share these feelings with anyone at the time. They felt like feelings I shouldn’t have as a leader, and when I felt them, I would remind myself that the privilege of owning a company and leading a team comes with pressure and responsibility.
But after years of being the friend who could never go on vacations, working in the evenings and the weekends, not having time to go on dates with my husband, and being glued to either my phone or laptop on family vacations . . . it stopped feeling like a privilege. It felt like my job was in conflict with the rest of my life, and that it was taking me away from the kind of person I wanted to be at home.
There’s no way I can sum up all the steps I took to get from there to where I am now (that’s what the book is for . . . 304 pages of that journey to be exact!), but if I had to boil it down to one thing, it would be this: I learned to put my needs above the needs of the business and my team.
I initially thought that prioritizing myself in this way contradicted everything I thought to be true about leadership. I thought it would make me selfish, less generous, and the opposite of a servant leader. But what I eventually realized was that by running myself into the ground and taking care of everyone and everything in my business before myself, I wasn’t actually being a great leader for anyone. Even though I tried to hide my feelings of resentment and overwhelm, they affected my company and my team anyway. I wasn’t as inspired to work on the business; I wasn’t doing my best work; and I certainly wasn't modeling self-care. Who wants a leader in charge of caring for others who isn’t even taking care of herself?
I recognized that if I wanted to be a truly generous leader, I had to start by being generous with myself. I had to pour into my own cup first, which looked like setting boundaries, asking for help, no longer allowing my work to creep into nights and weekends on a regular basis, and having tough conversations with my team about sharing the workload. It also meant I needed to take time off, find the courage to say “no” more than “yes,” and create a future where my career and my life outside of it could work together in harmony.
That is why I don’t feel a hint of resentment this year, even when I'm working the most I have in a long time. That is why I am choosing to write a blog post to you during Break Week even when I could have easily taken this week off and chosen not to write one. It’s because I’ve been taking care of and prioritizing myself, and I’ve been supported by the most wonderful team that has helped me so much. And they always wanted to. I just had to let them in.
I won’t be working at this pace forever. This is a sprint for me, not the new norm. Soon I will get back to my regular Break Weeks and time off, and I'll take off extra time, but I’m not yet craving that or yearning for it. That’s how I know how much I’ve grown and that the lessons I share in my book really work. It is possible to go from resentful to fulfilled, but only if you’re willing to face yourself, take ownership of your choices, and actually build the life and career you want.
And when you can do that, it becomes contagious. I believe my team would tell you that they share the same sentiments I’ve written about in this post. We’ve all made a commitment to prioritize ourselves. When that is the norm in a culture, a sprint isn’t something you dread. It feels energizing, exciting, and something you want to contribute to.
I wanted to share this behind-the-scenes view of what a sprint means for a small team, especially one that is so vocal about taking time off. It’s not perfect. It doesn’t look like business as usual. But to me, this is an example of what it looks like to be a human organization. We have a structure that we follow, but when a season asks something different of us, we roll with those punches together. We do it with open hearts and gratitude because in our company, work isn’t always the priority. Meeting our human needs is the priority. And because of that, we’re willing to do what it takes when we enter a season where we need to work more than usual.
What do you think about all of this? Have you ever felt any of what I described when I was in my seasons of resentment? Have you ever felt the opposite of that, where you’ve chosen to work because you are genuinely inspired, even when you have been in a sprint for a bit? I’d love to hear what this post brings up for you. Hit “reply” and tell us about it!
If this post speaks to you, I think you’ll really dig my new book (you can still pre-order it if you haven’t already!). And if you’re really passionate about this topic, you might even want to join our Launch Team and help us ignite this book and its message in the world!
Big hugs,
