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manage-your-energy

Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time

TODAY, the moral of this message comes first…

You must do a much better job of managing your energy, not your time.

Allow me to explain why.

Managing energy, not time is the X Factor behind peak performance, personal renewal and overall well-being as every action, no matter the size, either adds or robs fuel from your energy gas tank.

We are all reservoirs of energy. Everything we do—from interacting with colleagues and making important decisions to spending time with our family requires energy.

As obvious as this seems, we often fail to take into account the critical role of energy in our lives. Absent of the correct quantity, quality, focus and forces of energy, we all become compromised in any activity we undertake.

It is disturbing to see the immense amount of human and corporate potential squandered due to the misuse of energy. Unhealthy eating habits, lack of exercise, poor sleep patterns, negativity, sarcasm, unfocused goals and strategies are all contributing factors to energy loss.

The most productive members of society have the unique ability to both engage fully and disengage periodically.

The act of disengagement allows for reflection and renewal. They understand that continuous engagement without proper renewal leads to progressively depleted energy levels, and it is this understanding that allows them to perform at consistently high levels.

We rarely contemplate the amount of energy we are spending because we take it for granted that our energy gas tank is limitless.

Early in our life and career we all tend to have a lot of energy, and when you have an abundance of anything, it often seems less important to use it wisely.

However, when you have many talents, capabilities, and opportunities, there’s a high cost to investing your energy where the return is LESS THAN EXCELLENT.

Many people unfortunately find themselves in situations where they are only able to express a small part of their potential or apply a small amount of their creativity…because they have involved themselves over the years in a great number of energy-draining relationships, situations, habits and obligations.

The opportunity to continually expand your opportunities is what distinguishes high, average and low performers. And your ability to manage your energy provides the framework for a permanent foundation on which to build goals for the rest of your life.

This includes helping to eliminate the things you no longer want in your life and to build the new, better, and great things that you do.

An abundance of natural energy is your contribution to, and your reward from, other people, circumstances, and projects.

High performers understand that they are free to cut loose those things in their life — relationships, situations, activities, habits and obligations — that drain their energy.

As these high-maintenance, unwanted elements are eliminated, they free up their most valuable talents and find themselves surrounded by an environment that supports and boosts their energy.

This reclaimed energy makes it possible for you to grow your career or business exponentially, dramatically improve the quality of your life, and create a lifestyle that supports personal and professional success and happiness.

Problems, especially self-created problems are another huge energy drain. In fact, as we get older, we actually refine the process of perpetuating problems, coming up with much more sophisticated and complex pickles to get ourselves into, including legal problems and relationship problems

A problem is simply an obligation without a committed solution. As our opportunities grow, we encounter greater demands on our energy, concern, and attention.

As a result, we can become accustomed to being over-committed. This creates a breeding ground for problems.

The bigger a problem gets, the more energy it takes to fix. Even ignoring a problem is an additional mental energy drain , as it takes significantly more energy to avoid a problem than to confront and straighten it out.

When you allow problems to exist you have less to give creatively, and your potential goes into hiding while you grudgingly spend your time and energy on damage control.

Every time you increase the energy you have to devote to more rewarding uses, you also increase the value of your life to you and to many others. Therefore, committing yourself to greater energy is a commitment to a greater life.

We all have far more control over our energy than we realize or leverage. While the number of hours in a day is a fixed, finite and limited resource…the quantity and quality of energy available to us is a much different story.

We can never forget that peak performance, optimal health and genuine happiness are grounded in the skillful art of energy management. The challenge of peak performance is to manage your energy to achieve your goals.

The following are the key principles that drive energy thus ensuring dramatic improvement in your results and overall quality of life:

Peak performance requires that you draw on multiple sources of energy. To perform at high levels we must understand that energy is a multi-dimensional concept. Energy has numerous forms and we must learn to embrace and synergize our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energies.

Each energy source is important, each one counts, and by subtracting one from the mix you significantly reduce your ability to optimize performance.

Peak performance requires that you have a balance between energy expenditure and energy renewal. Energy diminishes with both over and under use; therefore it is critical that we learn to balance the output of energy with intermittent energy renewal.

The fullest, most productive lives have the ability to perform optimally in the challenge at hand, but also to disengage periodically and seek renewal.

Peak performance requires that you push your energy levels beyond your current limits. Energy grows in much the same way that a physical muscle grows.  As it is stressed beyond its normal limits a muscle builds and grows stronger. The same is true for our energy levels, and this provides additional proof as to why we all NEED ongoing challenges in out lives.

When we consciously place ourselves in a position where we must perform, we will rise to the challenge with an intense focus and robust energy level.

Peak performance is an exotic combination of energy requirements, which include the greatest quantity, highest quality, clearest focus, and maximum force of energy.

Focusing on the freedom of energy allows you to leverage your creativity and talents to create the kind of life you want in less time and with greater enjoyment.

The ultimate measure of our lives is not how long we live, but rather how we are able to manage our energy in the time we are each given, and that is precisely why everything counts.

Action Item

Look at the circumstances of your life and answer this question: What situations, activities, habits, obligations or relationships are draining your energy?

Identify three energy-draining situations, habits or relationships that you are committed to transform in the next 100 days. Challenge yourself to make better decisions regarding your use of energy, then focus on creating strategies to free yourself from each of them.

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