Effortless Thursdays #36: Are you feeding your 3 Energy Vampires?
The smart way to feel energised at the end of a day
There were days when I worked as a corporate lawyer and I'd arrive at home and feel exhausted. That might not be surprising. I know some of you reading Effortless Thursdays experience those high-stakes, “I must do more”-environments.
At the end of a typical day, what do you notice about your energy levels?
If you're feeling drained and off-colour after a long day, it's easy to blame it on having had a "busy day at work".
It's also easy to turn to conventional solutions to boost your energy during the day. You know - the ones that you KNOW can help elevate your energy, but often feel impossible to deploy when you're - well - busy.
Sleeping better
Eating a nutrient-dense, whole-foods diet
Going outdoors
Exercising
Meditating or - as the Germans are trying after having mocked the Spanish for their laziness - a siesta
Or you might, like me, adopt some less conventional approaches:
Having cold showers or saunas to boost mitochondrial function
Trying energy-boosting mushrooms like chaga, ashwagandha or cordyceps
Practising non-sleep deep rest, like this
But what about the things that sap us of our willpower that we might not even be aware of?
The 3 Energy Vampires
It's taken me a while to fully appreciate the impact these energy vampires have. The conventional and unconventional approaches to boost your energy are all important. But these energy vampires occur in our daily lives and leave us more tired and lacklustre at the end of a day, even when we're not busy at work. And even when we’re on top of the other energy-boosting approaches.
So who and what are these energy vampires?
1. You're surrounded by complainers
Conversations are an exchange of energy.
As a coach, I look forward to the conversations I have with my clients because they virtually always give me energy. There's an exchange of ideas, a pursuit of big goals, and finding solutions to challenges that make them easy to achieve.
But many of our daily conversations are the opposite: they drain us.
Like when you go out for lunch with a colleague, and listen to them complaining about "Dave from IT".
“Dave just doesn’t get it.”
“He tries to be helpful, but ends up being totally irritating.”
The two of you end up talking about your expectations of Dave. Yet, nothing about Dave changes, and so you have lunch again, and complain some more about poor Dave.
After your colleague has offloaded onto you, how do you feel?
Are you full of energy? Or the opposite?
2. You could win Olympic Gold for task switching
There's a reason why people like Steve Jobs and Obama are successful. It's because they reduce their cognitive load to what's absolutely necessary each day.
The classic example of this is that they remove the decision about which clothes to wear each morning. It’s the same set each time.
When we switch between tasks, it drains our brain power, too. It's very difficult to achieve that deep focus when you're continually switching back and forth from one type of task to another. It places a big cognitive load on your brain.
And so you prevent yourself from entering into a state of flow - where you give your complete attention to one activity.
The downside is huge.
Not only have studies shown that it takes around 15 minutes of uninterrupted work on the task to reach this flow state, but getting back into that uninterrupted flow state takes another 15 minutes.
Personally I’ve noticed by the end of a day filled with interruptions, my brain is fried.
3. You keep trying to improve your weaknesses
One of the most enjoyable aspects of coaching my clients is when we explore strengths. Our strengths are - essentially - the things that come to us naturally.
Courage, for example, is something that comes to me naturally. I can experience fear and still move towards it by calling up my courage. When I realised I was scared of heights, I took up rock climbing. When I discovered that I have thalassophobia (a fear of big open water), my courage steered me to take up scuba diving.
Carol Dweck, the psychologist who researches growth mindset and fixed mindset, identified that people apply a fixed mindset to the strengths that come naturally. They’ll say, "If I'm creative today, I'll be creative tomorrow, and next week, and next year".
Yet when it comes to weaknesses, people apply a growth mindset to the qualities that they are not strong in. And so they’ll say things like "I'm always missing appointments, but it'll probably be better next week".
One of the interesting things about tapping into our strengths is that they energise us. If you've had a day of strategy meetings and you’ve been using your strengths a lot, you'll get home and want to talk about it!
However, most of us focus instead on our weaknesses - we truly believe we should work on those to improve.
The problem with that approach is that it is really draining. If you get home after a day of meetings that have tested your weaknesses, you're more likely to want to console yourself with a large glass of wine or a tub of ice cream.
When we're faced with change, and striving towards big visionary goals, our strengths help propel us there with lots of energy to spare
Over to you!
So what can you do to elevate your energy and zest each day?
Stop feeding your energy vampires!
Instead,
Think about the people that energise you. Spend more time with them, and people like them.
Focus on the task at hand and remove all distractions - people and devices - so you avoid task switching. A change of setting - like a walk outside, or working in different rooms for different types of work can increase your focus.
Identify your strengths and weaknesses, and focus on using your strengths, including to help you in the areas that you are weak at. There are plenty of online assessment tools, like VIA Character Strengths, and CliftonStrengths from Gallup. The one I prefer is Strengths Profile, as it specifically calls out which of your strengths really energise you.
That’s it for this week!
As always, I appreciate your feedback on Effortless Thursdays.
If Effortless Thursdays resonated with you, I'd be grateful if you told just one friend to subscribe. They and you can always unsubscribe using the link below.
What did you think of this week’s edition? How can I make it more useful to you? Let me know in the comments, by email, on Twitter or on LinkedIn.
To your health and success!
Eric
Great tips and exercise, Eric. Also, what a beautiful outdoor setup! London’s finest.
I love these tips! One of the things I did at my previous job was to minimize hanging out with colleagues that were just complaining about work. I didn't hate my job, and I didn't want to start doing that. I felt so much better after that.