Last night I went live on Substack with Angela Benton to talk about Work, Worth, and Rest in the AI Economy. The conversation was, as my conversations with Angela typically are, enlightening. You can watch the full hour-long conversation on Angela’s Substack.
Most of us have spent years, decades even, building the muscle memory to overwork. We practiced it in high school, pushing past midnight on AP coursework and in our first jobs, staying late to prove we belonged.
Some of us practiced overworking through pregnancies, moves, grief, and every other season that should have asked us to slow down. We practiced it so consistently that overwork got tangled up in our identities.
But we never built the muscle of stillness, so when it came for us through burnout, illness, a new baby, or a changing economy quietly erasing the jobs we’d organized our whole identities around, it felt like a threat.
Our busyness became armor. Because most of us are not busy because we love busyness, we’re busy because we’re terrified of what we’ll find when we stop.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that AI is displacing workers at the exact moment so many of us are already running on empty. Something is shifting. We are in many ways being forced into stillness, not necessarily because we chose it, but because the economy that promised to reward our overwork reneged. The hustle didn’t protect us, and the grind didn’t guarantee our success. What we’re being handed now, whether we wanted it or not, is time.
What will you do with it?
You don’t build the stillness muscle overnight. You build it the same way you built the overworking muscle: through small, repeated practice. You build it with five minutes of breath before the emails, a journal page before you scroll, and by taking a walk with no podcast, agenda, or optimized outcome.
Now, I’m not going to mislead you. You’ll be bad at it at first. You’ll feel distracted, and you may even try to convince yourself you’re wasting your time.
Do it anyway.
On the other side of that door, once you’ve grown accustomed to the stillness, are the answers you’ve been looking for.
Thank you The Words Mistress, Carra Renee, Talisha Shine, Larry Lewis, Amy Schaffer, and many others for tuning into my live video with Angela Benton! This definitely won’t be the last.
Ready to go deeper?
If you recognize yourself in the burnout cycle, in the unexpanded version of your gifts, or in the midlife professional who needs someone to finally hold space for their nervous system, here’s how we work together:
The Signature Coaching Intensive — For the high achiever who is done cycling through burnout and ready to package their genius into the next chapter of their life and work. Discuss Your Goals with Me → Book a Call
Private or Group Sound Bath — House calls, corporate events, retreats, private sessions. I come to you. Inquire About Soundbaths → Request More Info
Bring Me to Your Stage — If your audience needs to hear about rest, burnout, and what it actually means to lead from your full capacity, let’s talk. Inquire About Speaking → Book a Call
Remember: Rest isn’t the reward at the end of the work.
It’s the key to figuring out the work you’re meant to do.
