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What is really draining your energy?
Yes, most of us would feel better if we changed our nutrition and fitness behaviors. But as important as they are, they are not the root cause of our personal” deflation”.
Root Causes
The root causes are more likely our feelings. Skeptical? Well, how much more energized do you think you would be at the end of the day if you did not:
- Worry about getting business results or the next promotion
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Fear losing your job, or your customers
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Feel angry at all the impossible demands made of you
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Always brace yourself for the next problem
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Hate (or came to hate) the work you do, or the environment you’re in
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Underneath it all, distrust most (or all) people
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Feel like you’re running on endless treadmill with no end in sight
“Ok, but that doesn’t help me much”, you might say. “I have to work, and those things just come with it. Everyone’s in the same boat.”
Lots of people are, but not everyone.
And lots of people are tired, so tired they don’t recognize themselves as the person they once were.
Too tired to do anything but work and workout
We live in the land of sleep-deprived, caffeine-boosted, win-at-all-cost adrenaline junkies. Our physical, emotional and energetic systems are so depleted we only have energy for the “revved up” activities: the workplace and the gym.
“Wait a minute, isn’t that contradictory, being too tired for anything but high-energy activities?”
Not really. In order to relate to family and friends, we have to be emotionally present, to be receptive to the nuances of their needs. We also have to be willing to show ours. But when we are tired, we are shut down. We can all recognize this because we have all done it, snapped at someone and then apologized later, saying we were “too tired”.
But even when we are tired, we can brace ourselves for the next task demanded of us, as long as it doesn’t require too much subtlety (since that requires us to have access to all of our resources and we’re not functioning on all cylinders).
So we can function and even look formidable, but we are bulls in a china shop. And despite what some people may believe that doesn’t lead to a high quality performance, especially in the long-term. Business success depends on relationships and people either steer clear of a bull or try to trap it. But I digress; more about performance some other time, let me get back to energy levels.
The consequences of pushing yourself
Remember what happened in the past when you knew you had to keep going for a deadline and pushed yourself to keep going when you were tired? I do. Eventually, I:
- Made errors I wouldn’t have otherwise, which I had to take extra time to correct
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Teed a few people off wanting immediate service in my rush (at the coffee shop, printer, receptionist, legal department, etc.), which means I had to repair relationships
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Had no life outside of work
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Didn’t perform as well on the next project as I would normally have if I hadn’t burnt myself out
Eventually, it can lead to a more pervasive burnout situation, and/or a certain kind of rigidity in thinking, leadership and communication style, and general attitude.
“But what else can I do, I have deadlines to meet”.
Yes, there’s the rub. The answer is more complex than can be answered in a blog post, but I’ll cover a few ideas next week.
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