Athletes already know this truth: you don’t get stronger in the gym, you get stronger in recovery. Stress plus rest equals growth. Skip the rest, and all you get is breakdown.
In cybersecurity, it’s easy to forget this lesson. After long nights, incident responses, or big migrations, teams often jump straight into the next job. But recovery isn’t a luxury, it’s the bridge between surviving and improving. Without it, you just accumulate fatigue disguised as progress.
The Cost of Skipping Recovery
Burnout: tired minds make risky calls.
Missed lessons: incidents get fixed, but are never studied.
Fragility: systems stay brittle when they’re never given a chance to adapt.
Building Real Recovery
- Post-incident reviews. Treat them like an athlete breaking down game tape, where the real learning happens.
- Plan real downtime. Make sure everyone gets real rest after major efforts. Feeling worn out doesn’t show you care more; it’s a sign you need to pause.
- Iterative improvement. Apply what you learned before running the next drill. Reflection without action is just rest, not improvement.
Fuel and Recovery: The Overlooked Half
Physical recovery doesn’t stop at rest. It’s also about what you put in your body.
Meal prep isn’t about looking good; it’s about making sure you can keep going. Drinking enough water, eating real food, and keeping your energy steady (and your blood levels in check) all week isn’t about following a trend. It’s about having the strength to do your job well.
You can’t think clearly or respond quickly if your system’s running on fumes. Whether you’re training or troubleshooting, energy is uptime.
A rule I’ve used for years: “We eat well today for optimal performance tomorrow.” That mindset changes how you plan your day, not just for food, but for everything else as well. Every decision contributes to tomorrow’s success.
When you build those habits, you stop depending on motivation to show up. Discipline becomes your safety net.
The Mindset Connection
In martial arts, you learn to reset between rounds. In strength training, deload weeks are built in by design. Cybersecurity should be no different. We don’t just patch systems; we maintain the people running them.
Recovery isn’t the end of work, it’s part of the work.
It’s where resilience grows.
Matt Shannon, Security Pro 