Like many of you, the first quarter of the year starts with a flurry of activity.
For me, that includes a lot of travel.
I won’t list the airports, miles, or nights away from home—because you don’t care, and this isn’t a humblebrag about how hard I’m working.
This is about what it reminded me: Rejuvenation is a skill.
Here’s some feedback I got recently from my 14-year-old son:
Son: Hi Dan, where’d you go this week?
Me: You just call me Dan?
Son: Oh. I meant Dad.
Me: Right.
Son: Don’t know why, but the word “Dad” sounds weird in my mouth.
The kid has a good sense of humor, but he wasn’t joking.
And if that didn’t register, this from my wife did: “So, what happened to the rule about not scheduling back-to-back travel weeks? Because it feels like you’re headed toward stroke territory.”
Right.
About that.
In January of 2021, I had a stroke.
After a dozen visits with cardiologists, neurologists, and sleep specialists, the conclusion was… environmental factors.
A polite way of saying: Entirely self-inflicted.
A grave, unforced error.
What I learned then—and apparently needed to relearn now—is that rejuvenation is a skill. And like any skill, it degrades if you don’t practice it.
In LBM sales, especially in soft markets, early mornings and long days become routine.
Grinding 24/7 gets normalized.
But working 100 hours a week isn’t impressive.
It guarantees some low-quality, reactive work.
Showing up tired, distracted, and burned out doesn’t help your customers, your team, or your numbers. It just shortens your runway.
Andrew Huberman is a Stanford neuroscientist and host of The Huberman Lab, a podcast focused on practical tools to improve performance, health, and focus.
I recently came across his “non-negotiables” for high performance:
None of this is revolutionary.
And that’s the point.
We don’t need to be taught.
We need to be reminded.
So here’s the reminder and how to act on it:
Rejuvenation is a skill. Practice it.
You don’t find time for it. You schedule it. You protect it. And when you fall off, you reset— without lunging into a binge/recovery cycle.
Busy isn’t the same as effective.
The goal is peak performance, not punishment. Making time to slow down is harder than it sounds. It takes effort. You have to impose your will on your calendar.
Say no to things you feel like you should do.
Even say no to good opportunities.
That’s the work.
So if rejuvenation is a skill, here are a few ways to practice it this week:
• Start your day with a Not-To-Do List
• Block a half-day with no meetings and no email
• Get outside and walk (no AirPods)
• Go to bed before 8:30 two nights in a row
• Book a 90-minute massage
Now, none of this will feel like you’re getting ahead, but it will show up in how you think and how you lead.
And my son called me Dan by accident.
Probably.
But he also wasn’t wrong.
This isn’t about working less. It’s about staying in the game long enough to do meaningful work for the people who depend on you.
I learned that lesson the hard way.
You don’t have to.
Rejuvenation is a skill.
Practice it.
Thanks for reading.
I’ll be back next week.
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