Just Rest: Burnout Tips for Everyday Radicals
Just Rest: Burnout Tips for Everyday Radicals, hosted by Nicole Havelka, helps everyday radicals and world-changers who are tired, but not giving up to find connection, support, and soul-deep inspiration to keep resisting grind culture while staying true to their values.
Nicole Havelka is a burnout survivor, ordained pastor, yoga teacher, and founder of Defy the Trend. She spent years trying to change the world by working harder, staying later, doing more, but realized that real change doesn't come from depletion—it comes from deep, aligned, joyful living. Now, she coaches others to make rest a non-negotiable part of their resistance. Every week, you'll hear honest, unfiltered conversations about what it takes to build differently and rest radically. Episodes talk about resistance, spiritual practice, failure, boundary-setting, burnout, recovery, and the sacred power of saying, “no more".
Just Rest: Burnout Tips for Everyday Radicals
Burnout & Perfectionism: Why I’m Letting Good Enough Be Good Enough
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Confession time: Nicole didn’t plan to do a solo episode in season one. But, here it is. In this honest and vulnerable episode, Nicole shares why the podcast briefly disappeared from your feed, what happens when real life collides with ambitious plans, and why sometimes the most humane thing we can do is let good enough be good enough. If you’ve ever felt behind, overwhelmed or like you “should” be doing more, this episode is your permission slip to slow down and focus on what actually matters.
In This Episode:
Why this unexpected solo episode happened
The hidden workload behind producing a podcast
How my computer dying derailed my January plans
Why winter (and life seasons) naturally slow us down
Letting go of perfection and embracing “good enough”
Building more humane systems for getting things done
What I’ve been working on behind the scenes
Why I’m still all-in on this podcast
Chapters:
00:00 Moment to Breathe
00:53 Why “Good Enough” Matters
01:32 The Reality of Podcast Production
03:55 Winter, Rest, and Slower Seasons
06:16 Creating Humane Systems for Work
08:23 Behind the Scenes: Calm Calendar Club
10:46 Why I Love Podcasting
CONNECT WITH NICOLE HAVELKA:
Thank you to the people who helped make this show happen.
Send me a message via Speakpipe.
A proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.
Hey, Rest Rebels I'm coming here doing a thing I thought I wasn't going to do in the first season of this podcast, which is a solo episode. But before I launch into why I am doing that, why don't we take a deep breath like I often do with my guests? Just pause for a second, take a deep breath in. Exhale it all out. and let's get to business here. So I'm coming to you because for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted to talk with you a little bit about letting good enough be good enough. And related to that, why I haven't been in your feed quite as regularly as I had hoped or planned. So here's a little bit of the background of what happened and I'll try to do this as quickly as possible. me tell you a little bit about what's happened. So I love doing this podcast. I love podcasting. I am incredibly overwhelmed by the time that is involved in producing said podcast. So here's a little bit of the history that many of you may know. I crowdfunded to pay for the launch of this podcast, which I did that successfully. So I was able to pay someone to get everything set up, give me a lot of templates, make both graphics and text and all of that kind of stuff, which was fantastic. However, I did not raise enough money to have ongoing support, to pay someone to produce the podcast for a little while before I am able to... make enough money through the subsets, make enough money through the sub stack. make enough money through the sub stack subscriptions um and other sources in order to pay for some more professional support of this podcast. So that's, that's what happened sort of money and time wise. And it quickly became really overwhelming to me doing all of the work myself, even though I'm capable of doing most of the work. There's a lot of twidgy things I'm learning about editing audio that goes in your earbuds and such and things like that. So then you may also have known this from some of my posts. My computer died like two days after the podcast launched on January 1st. So like on January 3rd or 4th, old, what now is my old computer died. I won't bore you with all the details of what happened, but it took nearly three weeks to finally get a good replacement, uh which was a good thing. I slowed myself down and made a good decision about what I would actually need. The downside to that was that I lost nearly a month of work time. had gotten, I had was borrowing a computer, so I did get kind of what I needed to get done done in January, but I wasn't able to get anything beyond. And if you're in the Northern Hemisphere like I am, it was winter. And in two of my podcast episodes, at least that I can remember, we've talked about this dynamic with Jackie Hayes and Dana Tennile Weekes probably Ixchel Lunar too, that like when the weather is in a place where it's cold and snowy in this place, you know, where I am, it's cold and snowy and icy and all of that. It's not Your body is also not interested in going much faster. catching up didn't happen as quickly as I would like in part because it's simply winter and my body wants more rest. And none of us should apologize for that. So what I realized in this time felt good was actually to work on some backend kind of stuff for the business that I was needing to do. particularly for the relaunch, particularly for the relaunch of my community, which I'm calling the Calm Calendar Club now. uh I've dropped an ad in here for that. So maybe you know a little bit about that. Maybe you've gone to the website. I'll drop that link in the show notes again this time too. But I needed to do a bunch of, you know, just moving that, uh repurposing content from some other things that I had done. and really envisioning what this new community was going to look like. And so that was already like a month behind, at least in part because of the computer issue. And I just didn't get it done. I really have been, I really let go of pressuring myself to also get a bunch of podcast production stuff done in the midst of that. So I just realized at some point that I'm like, if I'm going to do that, I can't do the podcast too. And I'm telling you this, I don't have to, right? I'm telling you this because we are forming or I'm hoping we're forming the kind of community around this podcast and Substack and in the Calm Calendar Club where we just say, you know what? Things don't work the way we plan or we often think we can do more. I know I do this -- think we can do more than we actually can. And so sometimes, and sometimes seasonally is just a time to slow down. Maybe that's because it's winter or because there's a season in life that is affecting you. It's just okay to slow down. It's okay to not do all of the things and call it good enough. You know, the fact that it's now been, I think two or three weeks since I dropped a podcast and I am only just now getting back. into the rhythm of inviting guests and getting recordings done and getting the editing and production done. em I'm just getting back into that rhythm. And for that matter, I'm inventing that rhythm a little bit still because this is new to me and new things take longer than they do later. I'm sure that at some point I'll be like, wow, that wasn't so that's not hard anymore. But right now, Producing this podcast feels really hard and slow and all of those things. And it should because it's new and that's okay. And what I'm doing is good enough for now and it'll continue to grow and change and improve as I go along. So here's what I have done and what I am excited about. I already told you a little bit about the burnout recovery coaching community that I'm transitioning to being called the Calm Calendar Club, which is an online community uh and a package of resources that you might be excited to check out. No pressure, but I'm excited about it. It's my signature quarterly planning session in the form of recordings and a guidebook that you get. plus a whole lot of other smaller resources for doing uh quick check-ins with your calendar, doing things that are really hopefully practical and also adaptable for people who need really flexible kinds of planning systems. This isn't a one size fits all, know, seven steps to your, you know, fantastic healthy planner. This is really giving you the tools to do some reflection, then to setting priorities. And then finally, some tools to actually put your calendar together. It's really what I'm doing. And you get to do that in an asynchronous way. You have the resources that are there all the time. Plus, for both community support and a little bit of accountability, we have at least a weekly virtual co-working session where we can come together. You can use that time for planning or you can use that time uh for whatever you need to work on if you need accountability for it. uh virtual co-working or body doubling, some people call it, is really great. And it's especially good for ADHD kinds of folks to have em that kind of accountability and, again, support, which I love myself. I have also worked on some other things that are maybe a little less sexy. I've done some, well, this is a little sexy, some updates to my website. Of course, I built a page for the Calm Calendar Club, which I actually kind of like. It's pretty nifty. Take a look. but I also, when I was in there, did some other just sort of grunt work of cleaning up menus and doing other stuff. And now I have a list of little things that I need to keep working on. but I did that. I figured out some automations that will help me get things done and including this podcast. I haven't figured them all out, but I'm working on that. Um, am I done with all of those things? No, but that's okay. Um, things aren't ever really done as much as I don't like that, but this. Even though it wasn't the work of this external work of the podcast production, it felt like the right work in this moment. And I'm giving you permission to do the right work in the moment that is good for you. Even if that means you're doing things you didn't plan to do, like me doing the solo episode in the first season or whatever that thing you didn't plan to do, it's okay. Like the plans don't have to stay the plans. They can change. That's their nature. So I also want to say that this podcast, even though I haven't been able, I've been struggling to get it done, is honestly one of the best things I've done recently. I absolutely love podcasting. I keep coming up with ideas for more podcasts, quite frankly. I'm putting those on hold and just putting those in a note somewhere to go back to later. because I clearly do not have the time or bandwidth to do that right now. But I am not going to stop this podcast because I honestly love doing it. I love having conversations, deep conversations with world changers, people who are both trying to do the work of liberation and resistance without burning themselves out while also taking care of themselves. and living in the messy existence of that because it's not easy. And so I am super excited that I get to um do this podcast and I am going to keep going. And I don't have real specific plans on how long season one is going to last. Cause I do know that I'm gonna do seasons and take a break and then come back. someone, like I've just said, I benefit from planning and pausing. and kind of really coming back and having renewed energy for something. So I'm going to do that. And I'm okay with this being a little bit messy, a little bit haphazard in the first season, because I'm not going to let perfection, the idea of perfection, be the enemy of good or good enough in this time. And I hope I'm giving you permission to do that too, by doing this quick episode. Here's some other things I'm excited to you. I already mentioned the Calm Calendar Club. I'm really excited about the Substack community that's growing. I've been consistently getting new subscribers. Thank you if you have done that. If you want to jump into that um to get my weekly-ish posts on there, you can find me at defythetrend.substack.com. I would encourage you to find me there. I am... that community is growing steadily. I've had some of the, least early in the year, had one of the biggest influxes at which big is like three, but three new people who became paid subscribers so that they can get the bonus After the Mic uh podcast episodes, which I record with every podcast and give it, I try to put it out about a day later, but sometimes it's longer. And I know that you'll have patience and grace for that when it does happen. And I'm excited about doing more client work. That's another thing that is gumming my system up for lack of a better word. That makes it sound bad because it's not. I just have some more client work. have a I'm repurposing my Time Boss course, which I developed quite a few years ago, but I'm repurposing it or kind of reformulating it for a client to do a kind of coaching series for which I'm excited about. I'm also leading a retreat for uh tired clergy people in Florida in April of 2026. I just said that in case you're listening to this much later. And so I'm really excited about that. I'm excited to get to do a little bit of travel. I live in Illinois, so it'll be nice to be in Florida in April for the weather. And I get to meet some new people and be a part of a community there that's new to me. but I'm also connecting with some old friends while I'm there too and reconnecting with some people which I'm excited about. And then let's see, finally, related to the podcast, I really do have some ideas for and am in the conversations with scheduling with some really amazing guests coming up. They're not all finalized, so I can't say who they are just yet, but they are people who are living their values out loud in their lives, making hard and uncomfortable decisions about how to align with their values. And they are trying to align their lives in such a way that they actually have time to have enough rest, to be with the people that they care about, to do the work that is meaningful to them. So I'm really excited for the rest of the season and for the guests who are going to be coming up. I did put out to this week. um a bunch of requests for interviews and one of those is scheduled and I have a couple more that I'm hoping to hear from really soon. So once again, thank you for listening. Rest Rebels, I appreciate that your patience and stay tuned for more episodes and above all, remember that you are worthy of rest.