Exclusive:Without Saying a Word, Taylor Swift Taught a Crucial Lesson for Every Leader…Read For More Details 👇

For most of the past year and a half, Taylor Swift has been working at a frantic pace. Her record-breaking world tour alone is exhausting to think about. Then there are the new albums, and awards, and her new role as the NFL’s most high-profile fan.

As for her day job, it may seem like flying around the globe giving concerts for adoring fans is quite the nice life, but performing three-hour concerts as often as Swift does is not easy. There were reports last year about how she prepared to perform for three hours, which included singing while running on a treadmill. The point is that Swift is putting in the work. Just last week, in fact, she broke a record held by Michael Jackson, performing eight concerts at Wembley Stadium, the first solo artist to do so.

Over the weekend, however, Swift went home.

Specifically, she was at her home in Rhode Island with her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and a group of her famous friends. Kelce’s teammate and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany, were there. As were Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Bradley Cooper, Gigi Hadid, Zoë Kravitz, and Channing Tatum. Apparently, her friends even brought their children along.

Swift and Kelce were spotted hanging out over the weekend, the first time the two had been seen together publicly since July. With Kelce training for the upcoming NFL season, and Swift performing in London, it’s not hard to see why the couple hasn’t had a lot of time for date night or friends.

Look, you might not care about Swift or her music. That’s fair. It would also be easy to think that there’s not much to be learned from the social lives of a bunch of very famous, very wealthy superstars, but I actually think there’s a really important lesson here for every leader: You should take time off.

The thing I think is powerful about this particular lesson is that Swift didn’t have to say anything. She didn’t tell people she thinks it’s important to take time to be with friends and people who don’t care about what you do for a living. She just did it.

I’m sure there are a thousand reasons you can convince yourself not to take time off. If you’re an entrepreneur or a leader, the temptation is to just keep working. Maybe you feel like the success of your company or team is entirely dependent on whether you are working. That’s not an uncommon feeling, though I’d definitely argue it’s not healthy.

More important, however, if you believe that’s true, the single most important thing you can do is to take a break. Even if it’s true that it will cost you in the short term, if you don’t take the time to recharge and connect with people who have nothing to do with your work, it’ll cost you a lot more in the long run.

There’s also something to be said for surrounding yourself with people who don’t have anything to do with your job. It’s important to have people in your life who are invested in you, not just in what you do. If you find yourself only hanging around the latter, you’ll never be able to really stop and recharge.

All of that will cost you because no one can continue at that kind of pace without taking a break. Everyone needs a break, and you should give yourself permission to take one. There will still be plenty to do when you get back and you’ll be much more productive anyway.