How To Manage Your Energy

This weekend I re-read The Power of Full Engagement.  Go buy it!  Here are a couple of quick ideas that I gleaned from the book:

Managing time is no guarantee we will bring sufficient energy to what we’re doing.

Time is simply the opportunity to spend energy! The key question is: How much energy do we invest in the time we have?

Life is a series of sprints not a marathon.

We need to learn to be fully engaged for a period of time, then renew.  To live like a sprinter we must break life down into high intense intervals with focused recovery routines.

Purpose creates our destination.

We should use our life as a vehicle to express our values.  Deeply held values fuel the energy on which purpose it built.  Purpose is the most powerful source of energy.  When you discover your why, you can endure any how!

Is the life I’m living worth what I am giving up to have it?

Life is all about choices.  When I make one chose to do one thing, I am also choosing what I’m not going to do

Developing a vision statement is a declaration of intent about how we are going to invest our energy.

For more help on this, visit Michael Hyatt’s Blog to discover how to build this plan!  What are the key areas of your life you’re going to give energy to?

Whatever we fail to notice and acknowledge we tend to act out.

When we develop the capacity for self-observation we can begin to see ourselves and other’s accurately.  Accountability is facing the gap between intention and behavior.  I’ve begun to take daily, weekly and monthly audits of my life.  As my self-awareness increases my productivity has sky rocketed.

The key is to build rituals as anchors.

Since my travel schedule changes weekly, I’ve learned to develop a morning ritual which includes: Journalling, Praying, Reading and Exercising.  I’ve gotten it down to an hour so that no matter what I’m doing that time or where I am, I can awake an hour earlier and prepare my day.  This one ritual has become an anchor in my life.  You don’t chose your destination, you chose your habits and those habits create your destination!

What other strategies do you have for managing your energy?