Understanding how to look after your energy
Understanding how to look after your energy levels is mostly about understanding yourself. The advice you get from one person may work well for them and be completely the opposite of what you need. Let me give you an example. Some people get energy from external sources – these are the kind of people who go to a party that’s full of strangers and come away buzzing from all the new people they just met. Others get energy from internal sources. These are the kind of people who read a book, listen to music, go for a run or do something else on their own to restore their energy levels. Think about and decide which situation would work best for you to restore your energy levels. 
As well as Internal vs External energy sources, we also get energy from a different mix of Tasks and Interactions with others. For example, many people I know get energised by making a list of things to do and ticking them off one by one. A task completed leads to a brief endorphin rush and the desire to get another one done. Others I know hate a To Do list. They prefer having someone or a group of people to get things started with.
The trick is to know which of these elements motivates or de-motivates you. There are some fairly simple yet insightful tools you can use to understand yourself (and your team members) better in this respect – the two we use are DISC profiling and Wealth Dynamics.
The other major contributing factors to your energy levels are how you look after your body and mind. Again, there’s no definitive rule book for this (although exercising and eating well are fairly universal) there’s only what works for you. One guy I know goes to the gym 4 times a week. If he stops for more than 2 weeks, it’s his mind that suffers, not his body. The best way to look at this is to ask yourself the following 3 questions and apply the answers to your routine:
- What activity gets you going? What do you feel good after doing?
- What foods make you feel alive? What foods make you feel stodgy or drowsy?
- If you have a free 60 minutes, what would you choose to do to calm your mind? What would you choose to do to excite your mind?
Finally, it’s easier said than done to put these theoretical findings into practice so why not look for some help?
Atomic Habits by James Clear is a great How To book for building positive habits into your life.
Two enlightening books on how our minds work are The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters and The Human Mind by Robert Winston.
If you’re interested in DISC or Wealth Dynamics assessments to help you understand where your own motivators and demotivators lie, email us on markperry@actioncoach.com and we can help you access them.
Ultimately, we are all responsible for our own energy levels and there’s a lot you can do to improve them if you know how. Improved energy levels lead to better lives for us and better interactions with those around us. So why not focus on being an Energy giver? That way, everyone wins.
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We work with business owners and MD’s to help gain clarity on their 2024 goals and beyond. If you’re struggling with where to start, why not schedule a conversation with us? It’s free and at the very least you’ll come away with a couple of ideas to help you move forward.
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