If you’re reading this post, you’re most likely an ambitious and driven person, with a desire to grow yourself and have an impact in the world in some way, shape or form. As a result, you might recognise that sometimes it’s easy to fall into the DO MORE trap.
The thing is, there is a limit on doing more, because we only have 24 hours in a day. At best, we can bend our time perception. We can’t really “manage” time, as is often suggested.
But energy–that is something we CAN actually manage.
High talent and low energy means low results. You cannot outsmart low energy.
Energy management is something that has been a big focus for me in the last few years.
Before entering the personal development industry, I was a financial consultant. An average week for me at the height of my career was around 80 hours (sometimes even more…). This is what I felt I had to put in, just to feel like I was doing enough (read: achieve the extraordinarily high standards I required of myself). I was drained, depressed and in an almost constant state of despair.
Fair to say: I was rotten at energy management.
This was largely because I had loads of energy leaks. I had unfinished business, I was angry, I felt like I had to do everything alone, I had zero “white space” and I forgot who I was (for more on these leaks and how to address them, check out my article from last a recent edition of WW).
So began a long learning journey of closing up those leaks (and doing regular maintenance of them still today) as well as getting really intentional about how I invest my energy.
To help you get more intentional too, I’m going to invite you to do an audit of your energy. Let’s call this tool the “Energy Barometer”. You will know you need to do this if you’re sensing a lot of pressure in your personal atmosphere.
We’ll break this audit down into 4 key areas:
Physical - exercise (too little or too much), nutrition, substance use, rest, sleep.
Emotional - self-talk, connection, acknowledgment and reward, self-expression, flexibility.
Mental - work, focus, non-work mental exercises (e.g. fiction reading), creativity, flow.
Spiritual (or “Inspirational”) - routines and rituals, purpose, mentorship, life force, hobbies.
The Energy Barometer is a reflection tool that you can use to help you map out what’s adding energy to your days, and what is taking it away.
I’m not going to describe it in any great detail as I have prepared a guide that’s full with all the instructions you need and even some broad examples.
So with that, why don’t you save this post, schedule some time in your calendar to do the exercise this week and take your energy back into your own hands.
As always, I’d love to hear from you about what insights this tool brought you.