Energy

Successful people have energy.  They’ve found the key to increasing their energy levels and are able to sustain them even during difficult times.  Have you ever met someone who is wonderfully successful and has low energy?  Increasing your energy starts with eliminating those areas of your life that are energy drains.  Following are some tips on where those energy drains might be hiding and some ideas on how to eliminate them.

Drain 1:  Tolerations.  These may be small things that you’re putting up with such as those tasks you constantly say to yourself “I have to….”  (fixing up a garden, cleaning out a closet, painting the scuff marks on the wall).  Every time you see these potential projects it drains some of your energy.

Or they may be larger tolerances – a friend who shows up late, a job you don’t like, a bad habit you’d like to stop.  Most people tolerate anywhere from 60 to 100 different things.

Idea:  Make a list of the 60 to 100 tasks you are tolerating.  Just take a few minutes to begin.  Continue to add to this list as you go about your day or week.  If it’s hard to come up with the list, think of things in categories such as work, home, your habits.

Buddy up with someone else who wants to get rid of things they are putting up with too.  Set aside part of your weekend as a blitz day and start working down your list on anything you can complete in a day.  If you start to lose steam, check in with your buddy.

Use the buddy system over one to three months and make it fun – whoever gets the more items eliminated gets taken out to dinner or wins a special treat.  Don’t worry if you don’t have solutions for all of the items – write them down anyway and the solutions will come over time.

Highlight the items on your list as you complete them to celebrate your accomplishments.

Drain 2:  Shoulds.  These reside in self talk and may have originated with your parents, friends or those in authority.  They may be old goals that have been with you a long time.  All they do is weigh you down.

Idea:  Write down 5 things you “should” do.  Wad it up and throw it away.  Only work on goals that you are really excited about.  If your goal is over a year old and you’ve made no progress on it, it will not come back to life.  If you want to keep an old goal, time to reframe it.  An example of the old goal:  I want to lose weight; new goal:  I’m going to walk each morning and eliminate sugary foods.

What’s draining your energy and what ideas are you using to eliminate the drains?  What increases your energy and keeps you going?  Do you have any goals that need reframing or need any ideas on how to eliminate something you’re tolerating?  Leave your comments below.

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