We’re smack in the middle of an existential challenge. I’d like to call it The Personal Energy Crisis. And it’s one of the most significant issues affecting us all in the 21st century. It’s there within us and around us. The tools of technology that were supposed to make our lives more leisurely and meaningful are doing exactly the opposite. Draining us of time and personal energy. Lack of these two critical resources that keep us going – are creating high stress levels and affecting our work and personal lives.
Work pressure, relationship issues, parenting challenges, financial worries, and health problems. You name it. We have it. We’re always tired and under stress. And stress is the trigger for our entire spectrum of problems.
I too was part of the stress ecosystem – juggling career, home, family responsibilities. As I saw things around me changing – I realized that I, too, need to change in order to cope with what’s happening. With a bit of luck and guidance – I figured I need to manage my personal energy in order to create a fresh and better quality of life for myself and for those around me.
In their path breaking piece on Manage your Energy, Not your Time , Tony Schwartz & Catherine McCarthy have defined Time as a finite resource – but not Energy. Defined in physics as the ability to do work, energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific behaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic as quickly as possible.
Personal Energy Management coach R. Sridhar puts forth the spiritualist’s definition of Personal Energy – as an inter and intra-personal force that sustains life. It is unseen and can never be destroyed, only converted from one form into another. Personal Energy is described using different names – as Shakti in India, Chi in China and as The Force in the smash-hit Star Wars series.
As humans we’re physiologically designed to pulse, to move rhythmically between spending and renewing energy. If we are mindful of our personal energy levels and make a conscious effort to renew them – we develop more capacity. And hence achieve more. It’s a simple principle of investing into your personal energy bank account to receive higher and better quality of returns.
The biggest challenge is that rest and renewal are something that we’re not really comfortable with. The pressure is to stay always connected, always working in the face of organisational pressures driven by those who always seem to be working harder and achieving more than us. The principle seems to be more, bigger, faster. And no change seems to be in sight.
Tony Schwartz believes that our Personal Energy has four dimensions: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Here is how I became the change and worked on my different types of energies and managed them to optimise my overall Personal Energy levels. I first needed to understand what leads to depletion of my energies and what renews them:
Physical Energy
It enables me to stay awake and perform my daily tasks effectively and efficiently. Health and fitness levels derived from rest, nutrition and a physical fitness routine enable my physical energy levels. Any imbalance between the three tends to affect my performance, the way I deal with challenges, my ability to focus and my overall life-condition. Hence – I make it a point to have balanced but energy rich foods that are easy and healthy on my metabolism. Balancing proteins and carbohydrates and avoiding the three white poisons – processed sugar, salt and flour are my diet mantras. I also make time for a daily fitness routine where I mix walking with yoga. I catch up on my forty winks during my commute or read. I ensure I spend quality time with my children – laughing and playing with them is like getting an instant recharge. I also take inspiration from my mother-in-law who lives every moment of her life to the fullest.
Emotional Energy
This is my secret weapon to deal with challenges and stressful situations. It’s not easy to be consistently on an emotional high. But it’s necessary to overcome negative thoughts, impatience, anxiety, anger which otherwise hinder productivity.
I ensure I stay connected to positive people, good thoughts and words. And by being consciously positive myself. Ensuring I am patient and mindful at all times. Especially of another person and a situation. I also ensure I maintain an attitude of gratitude at all times and express appreciation for situations, people and things. Being positive makes my emotional energy positive as well.
Mental Energy
This is very critical as I need to maintain consistently high levels of focus for high-level thinking and decision making. I conserve and focus my mental energy by working on one task at a time and avoiding multi-tasking as far as possible. I stay away from the distractions of technology at that time. If I need to really focus on something – I find an empty space and work there. I also try to prioritise important tasks and try to complete them when my energy levels are high – in the morning.
Spiritual Energy
Often neglected – but essential for us to find our larger sense of meaning and purpose. Our spiritual energy is sustained when we consciously do things that elevate our life condition. Things that enable qualities of wisdom, courage and compassion. And the ability to look beyond oneself and make a conscious effort to make our world a better place.
I like to read the words of spiritual guides and masters and follow a focused meditation practice that enables me to work on myself and to achieve a feeling of effectiveness, and fulfillment.
To sum up – it’s all very simple really. I try to get a fix on what I do best and how and when I can do it best. This enables me to allocate time and energy to what is most important in my life and helps me with the ability to succeed on a daily basis.
I ensure that I avoid habits and behavior that deplete my energy levels. And only focus on those which enable and renew them.
