Managing energy is more important than managing time. It doesn’t matter how much time you have if your energy-tank is empty.
Results-only leaders have empty-tank teams.
4 unbreakable rules of energy:
#1. Four things require energy:
- Body when you act.
- Spirit when you reflect.
- Mind when you think and learn.
- Emotion when you feel and relate.
#2. Some things that require energy also give energy.
Some are energized when they feel and relate. Others are exhausted.
#3. Put more in than you take out.
You can’t excel when your tank is empty.
#4. Do less of what drains you and more of what gives you energy.
You go further faster when you put gas in your own tank.
21 sources of energy:
- Anything that fulfills purpose. Do more of what matters.
- Action that expresses strength.
- Progress after effort.
- Rest.
- “…complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting loss in one’s sense of space and time. (Wikipedia)
- Results, talents, and strengths that others honor and respect.
- Goals you want to reach and believe you can achieve with work.
- Unsolicited and sincere gratitude either from someone or for someone you served. (Send a thank you note.)
- Fun in reasonable doses.
- Hobbies.
- Mini-breaks.
- Sleep.
- Breathing.
- Creating a gratitude list.
- Feeling competent and powerful. (Able to do something that has impact.)
- Enhancing skills that help you get where you want to go.
- Humility.
- Simplicity and order. Throw stuff away.
- Finishing something.
- Taking something off your calendar.
- Treating others and yourself like you matter.
How might leaders use the 21 sources of energy to energize others?
Bonus material:
Living in Flow (Positive Psychology)