Where does energy go? I’m not the only one that has either woken up feeling like a deadweight or gotten to noon and wondered why I’m so dang tired. We wonder why we have no energy and some other people seem to have endless amounts. “This person always just has a lot of energy, its just how they are” Then we fall into the pattern of, “I just have so much going on that I’m so tired.” It seems that today, its almost a competition to not only be the busiest and the hottest mess, but to beat anyone in why you have less energy. I’ve realized recently, our energy is what we make it and where we focus it. Let me explain.
I’ll start with generating it since there are people getting defensive to tell me all the reasons why they aren’t able to generate it. First of all, the more we tell ourselves we have no energy, we’ll have just that, no energy. We talk ourselves out of what we could have an want. Telling ourselves we have no energy seems to help us convince our brains that we really have none. Then, we tend to make ourselves crazy thinking we have to be whatever super person and get everything known to man done in a short amount of time. Then thinking about that stresses us out, thus sucking out the energy. So instead of shoving down yet another cup of coffee, pop, or energy drink, find a habit or activity that makes you happy. Find a way to start your day doing something that gives you energy. And quit telling yourself you hate getting out of bed and find a reason that excites you to get out of bed. Something that gives you energy.
Next is focus. What do you focus on during the morning, afternoon and evening? Be careful how much energy you put into what you do. I’ve been known to put all my energy into something I wanted to happy so dang bad. What happens? If something doesn’t go my way, all energy goes into why it didn’t happen, or what’s wrong, or how I can fix it. Even if its a great thing and an exciting thing. I get so wrapped up in it that I make it stressful. All of the sudden, its sucking my energy out and causing me stress when I need to take a break and move on to something else. I hear so much to stay laser focused. Well, if I do that, I neglect things in my life that need some attention, I get stressed about the thing I’m focused on and the things I’m neglecting. Just can’t win right?! Learning to notice when you move from excited and happy about doing something to overly frustrated. Nothing wrong with taking a step back, clearing your head and coming back.
How many of us do things all the time that make us miserable? Probably more often than we care to admit. Sometimes those things are necessary to do. How can we find a way to let go of some of the things that make us miserable. Things that are no longer necessary. We’ve all gotten stuck in the routine and don’t realize when an action, event, or anything else is no longer necessary. We keep on going and at some point stop and ask why we need to be doing this. We overextend ourselves because we don’t stop often enough to take inventory of the obligations we need and the ones no longer relevant.
So let me ask, how often do you focus your energy on enjoying your life? How often do you put down whatever thing is keeping you busy and enjoy your life?nEnjoy the things you’ve accomplished. Enjoy the people around you. How often do you take a chunk of day and do the things that give you energy. Spend time with people who give you energy. Go to an event or activity that excites you. When is the last time that you took inventory of how you spend your energy? There are so many ways to get wrapped up in life instead of making a conscious decision where you want it to go. Sometimes its easier said than done. What I do know, is that as I started making a conscious effort to manage my own self, spending it where I wanted started to get easier. The more I made it a habit for my brain to be aware of what I was spending energy on, it be came easier to know and make the changes I wanted.
Its not impossible to do, nor is it really that hard. But it does take a conscious effort. And it takes us admitting the fact that we don’t have to be tired all the dang time. But it also takes ownership to make the change.