I trust you have been enjoying this series exploring the 7 Keys for Living a Productive Life from my book: The Productive Life. In this message I am going to give you an extract from my book where I explored explored Key #7: Renew Your Energy.
In this Key I wrote about four kinds of energy that we need to renew: Physical; Mental; Emotional and Spiritual. Here is what I wrote about the first two kinds of energy:
1. Generate Physical Energy
The first step to renew your energy is to generate physical energy. I have learnt that how we live our lives will determine whether we show up with energy or drag ourselves through each day hoping for a weekend or public holiday where we can recharge before the next stretch.
Here are some things you can do to generate physical energy:
- Health: It all starts with eating well and even if you don’t go overboard but eat healthy foods and avoid harmful foods you will have more energy.
- Exercise: You don’t have to be a fitness fanatic who works out two times a day, although that may be your thing, but even if you just keep moving and walk a few kilometres every day, like my wife and I do every day, you will generate energy to release.
- Sleep: I have had seasons in my life when I worked late into the night and had to drag myself out of bed in the morning not ready to face the day. Make it a regular habit to get seven to eight hours of sleep a night and you will have more energy!
- Rest: I have numerous practices around rest that help me to generate energy, including: (1) Guarding my work rhythms by only working two thirds of the day and very rarely three thirds; (2) Taking a day off each week; (3) Taking a weekend off every two months; (4) Taking three weeks of continuous leave over my annual holiday period, and (5) Taking a three-month Sabbatical every seven years.
Be Productive Right Now!
- What one thing can you do to generate physical energy?
- Set one goal for each of the following areas:
- Health:
- Exercise:
- Sleep:
- Rest:
2. Generate Emotional Energy
The second step to renew your energy is to generate emotional energy. In recent years, as I have begun to understand how my brain works, I have realised that managing my feelings is a truly critical part of living with energy. I think positively and when I find myself tempted to have a pity-party or complain or give in to negative thoughts, I make a conscious effort to return to a place of positivity and without fail my mood starts to move from negative to positive.
I am not pretending that it is not a huge challenge at times, like when I received news about eye conditions that could have resulted in eye loss, but here is what I do know: (1) I can’t control everything that happens to me; (2) I can control how I react to what life throws at me; and (3) I can become better because of what I go through.
Here are some things you can do to generate emotional energy:
- Embrace Positive Thinking: I explored this concept in some details in the Focus key so I won’t repeat myself here apart from reminding you that thoughts matter and that they build mindsets – so think positively and build mindsets that will lead you to productivity and success.
- Avoid Negative Thinking: When you catch yourself thinking negatively, stop and reject the negative thought and replace it with a positive thought.
- Embrace Positive People: Go out of your way to spend time with positive people so their positive energy can rub off on you. Energy is infectious!
- Avoid Negative People: This may sound a little harsh, and obviously you can’t totally avoid people, but move away from people who have the potential to steal your positivity.
Be Productive Right Now!
- What one thing can you do to generate emotional energy?
- What can you do to replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts?
Challenge:
Make it your intention to show up with energy, take time to prepare for every opportunity you get to engage with people, prepare as if you were a gladiator preparing to enter an arena, and just maybe it will end up being your finest hour – as reflected in the words of Sir Winston Churchill during the second world war: “To every man there comes in his lifetime that special moment when he is figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered a chance to do a very special thing, unique to him and fitted to his talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the work which would be his finest hour.” (The Transparent Leader II by Dwight L. Johnson).
In my next message I will pull things together as I wrap up this series exploring each of the 7 Keys to Living a Productive Life.
Don’t forget you can buy a copy of the book in various formats and places:
Amazon (http://bit.ly/TPLBOOK) – eBook and Paperback for global shipping.
Takealot (bit.ly/TPL_Takealot) – the paperback for shipping in South Africa.