There’s a quote I shared a while ago that hit a nerve — in the best way.
“Slowing down is an act of rebellion.”
It resonated so deeply because, for many of us, it cut through the noise of productivity hacks, performance pressure, and glorified burnout. I guess it challenged the unspoken narrative that worth is earned through exhaustion.
And I think it landed because we’re tired — not just physically, but cognitively. Our brains are tired. Our nervous systems are tired. Our souls, if we’re honest, are tired.
So I’d like to continue that conversation — to go deeper into what rebellion really means in this moment, especially for high performers. And to share why it’s not just radical to slow down… it’s responsible. It’s intelligent. It’s sustainable. And yes — it’s also backed by neuroscience.
Let’s start by defining rebellion.
Not the dramatic kind that involves quitting your job, shaving your head, or moving to Bali (although no judgement if that’s your path). I’m talking about a quieter, more subversive form of rebellion:
The rebellion of reclaiming your own pace.
Rebellion, at its core, is simply resistance to the dominant culture. It’s choosing your own values, rhythm, and truth — even when it flies in the face of what’s considered “normal” or “successful.”
And today, what’s “normal” is a culture of hyper-stimulation, constant access, and relentless speed. We’ve normalised urgency, glorified multitasking, and built entire systems around extraction — of time, attention, and energy.
So when you choose to stop, breathe, recover — when you choose to not be available 24/7, or to go for a walk instead of answering one more email — you’re disrupting that system. You’re saying: this isn’t how I operate at my best.
That’s rebellion. But here’s the thing: rebellion is hard.
Not because you don’t believe in the value of rest. Not because you don’t want to slow down. But because every neural and social pattern you’ve been conditioned with is screaming:
“You should be doing more.”
“You’re being lazy.”
“You’ll fall behind.”
I certainly feel it a fair amount of the time and I hear it come from clients in a million different ways.
From a neuroscience perspective, this makes perfect sense. Our brains are wired for safety — and for most people, sameness equals safety. Rebellion, even when it’s healthy, feels like risk.
When we disrupt habitual patterns (especially those that are rewarded by external success), our nervous system can interpret that as a threat. The sympathetic nervous system — your fight-or-flight response — may flare up even when you’re simply choosing to rest. That’s how ingrained the hustle response has become.
Socially, it’s no easier. We’re surrounded by messaging that links speed with status. People post about their 5am wake-ups and back-to-back meetings as if exhaustion is a badge of honour. In that environment, choosing to rest — consciously and consistently — can feel lonely. It can even feel wrong. But it is necessary.
Rebellion is necessary because what we’ve been taught is normal is not working.
In coaching high-performing leaders across the globe, one truth has become increasingly clear: you cannot sustain excellence without sustainable energy.
You can push through for a while — months, maybe even years. But over time, cognitive fatigue sets in. Creativity drops. Decision-making becomes cloudy. Relationships fray. And your ability to lead, connect, and innovate begins to erode.
This is where neuroscience gives us a critical edge.
Our brain — particularly the prefrontal cortex — requires recovery to operate well. This part of the brain governs focus, regulation, insight, and strategy. It’s the CEO of your mind. But it gets overloaded quickly. Without intentional rest, you’re asking your brain to function in a high-performance zone without fuel.
In contrast, when you prioritise recovery — even in micro-moments — you support neural integration, emotional regulation, and long-term performance. You're not stepping back from leadership. You're stepping into it more intelligently.
Recovery, then, becomes your rebellion.
But let’s be clear: this isn’t about switching off for the sake of it. True recovery — what we call “real recovery” at Next Evolution Performance — is about refueling your cognitive, physical, and neural energy.
It’s about:
- Choosing presence over performance (because one will lead to the other)
- Valuing silence as much as strategy (that’s where all the best insights lie)
- Designing your weeks with rest as a key KPI (it should be on all your reviews)
And it looks different for everyone. For some, it’s going fully off-grid in nature. For others, it’s creating 90-minute pockets of deep focus followed by non-negotiable breaks. For some leaders I work with, it’s simply scheduling an hour of thinking time each day — time without input, where creativity and insight can breathe.
This kind of recovery doesn’t have to be dramatic to be effective. Neuroscience tells us that even small acts — like walking outside for 10 minutes, breathing deeply for 90 seconds, or stepping away from your screen between meetings — can shift you out of sympathetic drive and back into a parasympathetic state. That’s where regeneration happens. That’s where clarity returns.
Leadership today requires a new kind of rebellion.
Not the kind that burns it all down — but the kind that burns more gently, more consciously. A rebellion that reclaims rhythm. That chooses alignment over acceleration. That honours the nervous system, protects the brain, and restores the energy it takes to lead well — consistently and sustainably.
So the next time you feel tempted to push through just because you can, I invite you to pause and ask:
Is this true leadership?
Or is this just what I’ve watched leadership look like for the last several decades?
Because if the answer is the latter, maybe it’s time for a quiet, powerful rebellion — one recovery moment at a time.
About Alex Davids
Alex is a Director and founding partner of Next Evolution Performance (NEP) – a global high-performance coaching business focused on using neuroscience to help leaders, business owners and teams maximize performance and decrease their overall effort to ensure that their performance (and profitability) is sustainable. NEP has approaches high performance through uniquely integrated coaching methodologies, and a cross section of neuroscience and psychology. She has spent 20 years business coaching SMEs and Corporates, primarily in the U.K., U.S., Canada, Australia and Dubai, then reestablishing the business and her family back in New Zealand.
Alex is passionate about increasing the energy levels and the sustainability of individuals within the workplace. She works closely with her clients to ensure they can build long-lasting approaches to their businesses and their lives and reap the rewards of understanding themselves, their work and their drivers fully.
Connect with Alex