Have More Energy. A Blueprint for Productivity,
Focus,
and Self-Discipline—for the Perpetually Tired and Lazy (Think Smarter,
Not Harder Book 8)
Written by
Peter Hollins, narrated by russell newton.
Money is important.
Time is important.
But these are not the quantities that will limit you in your life.
Without energy,
neither of these factors means very much;
nothing really does.
Think about it - you could have a huge bank account,
but it won’t matter one bit if you’re confined to your bed with glandular
fever and unable to stand up straight,
let alone spend and enjoy that money.
You could be young,
bright,
and full of promise,
but if you’re depressed and lethargic one hundred percent of the time,
all that youth and potential mean nothing.
Without energy and the capacity for action and execution,
all your best intentions won’t matter a lick.
This is a book about the psychological and physiological bases of
energy—where it comes from,
how we can maintain it,
and how to get more of it.
You can think of energy as the most primordial,
fundamental kind of wealth.
Energy—whether it’s psychological or physical—is like your personal fund
of life itself.
It’s the well that you draw all your motivation,
enthusiasm,
and passion from.
It’s what makes one person’s life a boring slog while another person,
doing much the same thing,
appears to be living with zest and purpose.
It all comes down to energy.
There’s a great big world out there,
and if we’re to explore it,
we need the physical and emotional strength to get out there and engage with it.
Opportunities abound all around us,
but if we’re too depleted and uninspired to grab them when they do,
it doesn’t matter how fortunate we are or how many lucky breaks come our way.
It’s a little like having the world at your feet and a map of this world’s
awesome highways and roads in front of you,
but not having any fuel in your car.
Without energy,
life becomes two-dimensional and gray.
You may even feel like life is just whizzing past you,
and you’re left behind because you can’t keep up.
When we have energy,
the world is ours.
We have the spirit and the wherewithal to grasp it.
We can reach out and engage with others,
with our environment,
with ourselves,
with our dreams.
We have what’s needed to build our ideal world one brick at a time,
and we have the resilience and spring in our step to appreciate what we already
have.
Energy is fuel—it powers everything great in life,
whether that’s creativity,
productive work,
innovative solutions to life’s problems,
personal development,
rich relationships with others,
or simply the joy of having a strong body,
a clear mind,
and robust emotional health.
The great thing about energy is that in some ways,
it can feed on and encourage itself.
When you are energized,
you act decisively and with conscious intention.
You turn down distractions or temptations.
You’re able to push yourself a little and grow because of the challenge.
And when you grow,
you’re inspired to keep going,
setting up today the conditions that will most benefit you tomorrow.
Acting with energy has a cumulative effect,
bolstering you against life’s trials and difficulties and making celebrations
and triumphs all the more wonderful.
Unfortunately,
the opposite is also true.
Low energy creates more apathy,
more tiredness,
more of that listless “blah” feeling that only seems harder and harder to
budge the longer it lingers.
When you’re low on energy,
you’re more likely to take the easy way out,
give up on your dreams because they’re too challenging,
or put up with negative behavior in yourself and others that you might not have
otherwise.
The result is a steady stream of self-reinforcing behaviors that create a
compromised life that just feels bad,
plain and simple.
This is why it’s so important to focus on energy.
It doesn’t matter how many other great things you have going on in your life;
if you don’t have the energy to engage with them properly,
to appreciate them,
to bring them to life,
it’s the same as not having those great things at all.
In a way,
we can think of this as “multiplying by zero,” a mathematical mental model
that preaches the importance of shoring up your weaknesses.
In mathematics,
it doesn’t matter what else is going on in an equation or expression—if
you’re multiplying by a zero anywhere,
the end result is always the same - zero.
You might think you’re onto the next big mathematics discovery like
Pythagoras or Descartes,
but if a zero slips in there without your noticing,
you’re just going to end up with a fail for the day.
No amount of finagling or negotiating will impact your result.
And so lack of energy is like the big fat zero that cancels out all your other
efforts and intentions no matter how grand and noble they may be.
In fact,
you could do your best to keep on increasing the other variables as much as you
wanted (for our purposes,
well-wishing,
hoping,
dreaming,
good intentions,
and self-flagellation),
but it wouldn’t matter.
Even infinity multiplied by zero is still ...zero.
A chain,
as they say,
is only as strong as its weakest link.
Even if all the “links” in your life are looking pretty good,
they can’t do much about that one wobbly link,
that “zero” that can break and undermine the strength of the entire chain.
In this book,
we’re going to first examine ways to make sure your energy quotient is a
non-zero and,
in fact,
is always one of the most powerful variables at your disposal.
Soon after,
we’ll focus on optimizing the rest of the equation,
learning to beat procrastination,
creating better goals,
and manipulating our psychology to be more effective and efficient.
Often,
you’ll find that increased energy is the true cure to what ails you because
it allows you to have willpower,
dig deep,
and reach goals.
That’s the real secret behind traits like self-discipline and resilience.
Let’s consider a real-life example.
Since you can remember,
you’ve wanted to write that special novel about cats and murder on the
Hawaiian island of Oahu.
You have so many big ideas,
a real message you want to share with the world,
but somehow it never comes together.
You wake up in the morning and promise yourself you’re going to find time to
sit and write today.
You can barely sit still because of your anticipation over plotting,
character development,
and the invention of a new fantastical language (for the cats,
obviously).
But then after a hard day’s work,
your commute home,
housework,
and just,
well,
life,
you’re exhausted.
Suddenly,
you don’t feel quite so inspired.
You put off your Great Novel Dream until tomorrow.
Tomorrow becomes next week,
and then next month.
And so it goes.
Let’s run through a list of common recommendations for someone in your
current position of struggling to write a novel.
You could try to take other people’s advice on how to write your book.
You could read about making better plans and outlines,
or join a writing group,
or even hire a writing coach to help you out of your “writer’s block."
These recommendations try to improve or optimize other variables in the
equation,
but they don’t address the real problem.
You don’t have writer’s block,
and you don’t need a coach.
You’ve just run out of energy,
and you’re trying to multiply by zero.
And again,
when your energy’s at zero,
none of that other stuff matters.
So long as that’s the case,
you’re going to keep coming up short when it comes to things you really care
about.
When you zoom out and take a bird’s-eye view,
you can see so much of what’s out there in the personal development realm as
merely the hopeless attempt at increasing numbers in the rest of the equation,
without doing a thing to increase that big fat zero that will cancel it all out.
You could waste unbelievable amounts of time trying to understand the
psychological,
cognitive,
institutional,
behavioral,
or maybe even spiritual dimensions to why you can’t achieve the things
you’ve already identified as important.
But there’s a pretty simple explanation that will help you understand all of
this without resorting to all these theories - you’re tired.
You simply ran out of energy.
Your gas meter is out;
your battery needs recharging.
After all,
at the end of the day,
we are all biological beings;
we’re all organisms that need energy to work,
to move,
to communicate,
to live.
If that aspect isn’t working well,
all the rest of it is utterly irrelevant.
So,
it’s no use talking about motivation or passion or inspiration,
or even deeper things like life purpose and vision,
if you’re exhausted and have already burnt all your life “fuel” for the
day.
With this in mind,
let’s turn our focus from the rest of the equation and learn more about the
one element that is quietly undoing all your effort - that tiny zero that
nevertheless has a big impact.
We can break down energy—psychological and physiological—into four general
categories,
and this is well-represented by the concept of the energy pyramid as put forth
by Tony Schwartz.
Pyramidal Thinking.
When we put off our work,
it’s often because we have too little energy to do what needs to be done.
When we experience our work as draining,
we’re too tired to focus,
we’re easily distracted,
and we feel like we can’t accomplish the job we’ve been assigned,
what we’re really experiencing is a lack of attention to the underlying
energy pyramid that powers us all.
This is a bigger problem than we realize because even more so than time,
energy is a finite resource that we must protect on a daily basis.
Nothing else you read in this book will make an iota of difference if you
don’t have the energy to pull it off.
Energy drains,
and once it does,
recharging is necessary.
One great tool to understand energy management is the energy pyramid,
an idea conceived by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz in The Power of Full
Engagement .- Managing Energy,
Not Time,
is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal.
The energy pyramid is a four-tiered pyramid with physical energy at its base,
emotional energy above that,
mental energy in the next layer,
and spiritual energy at the top.
Each of these plays an important role in building up or draining our energy,
and each tier depends on the tiers below to sustain itself.
Understanding the interconnected nature of what goes into our energy bank
allows us to take charge and create more for ourselves.
Put another way,
if you don’t satisfy these levels of energy and engagement,
it’s unlikely you will even be in a position to focus,
work,
or conquer procrastination.
The energy pyramid sets forth a model of energy management that we will follow
for the rest of the book,
for the most part.
The pyramid points out that we must first notice and improve our levels of
physical energy.
Physical energy forms the basis for all the other tiers;
it’s the foundation upon which all our energy needs are built.
To manage our physical energy,
we must mind our physical health.
We must eat healthy,
get enough sleep,
and exercise.
That may sound draining,
and sometimes it is.
After all,
if you’re not used to eating vegetables,
indigestion will be the initial response to your newly healthy diet.
But with time and persistence,
eating well pays off with adjusted gut flora and an excess of energy.
Exercise works the same way.
At first,
exercising feels draining,
and we finish our routines exhausted.
But after we’ve done it for a week or two,
we start to feel energized when we’ve finished.
What used to be difficult becomes easy,
and when it does,
it comes with a burst of fresh energy to apply to the rest of our lives.
Sleep,
at least,
is an activity that always feels good when we’re doing it.
While plenty of us wish we didn’t need to sleep and could keep working
without respite,
it’s a nonnegotiable fact of life that humans need rest.
Without sleep,
we yawn,
have trouble focusing,
and eventually fall asleep amidst our required activities.
By contrast,
when we put effort into getting enough sleep,
we’re energized,
ready for our day,
able to focus,
and unlikely to fall into an ill-timed slumber.
The best part about the physical foundation of the energy pyramid is that
it’s not an absolute scale.
We don’t have to become as athletic as teenagers,
as health-conscious as dieticians,
or as well-rested as Winnie the Pooh to benefit from healthy changes.
All we have to do is find room for improvement,
then improve.
The benefits are almost immediate,
and noticing and focusing on how much better minding our health makes us feel
can motivate us to continue.
The Seven-Minute Morning Workout.
In this spirit,
you can begin right now to improve your physical health and wellbeing,
and you don’t have to make an enormous change to start reaping the benefits.
Exercise is a proven way to stimulate your brain’s release of happy hormones,
or endorphins.
Working out boosts your blood circulation and floods your body with fresh
oxygen,
lifting your mood,
strengthening your muscles,
and protecting your heart health.
One excellent way to lay the foundation for good physical wellbeing is to
exercise daily,
and preferably in the morning.
You don’t need to go overboard,
though—just seven minutes is enough to get the day started on the right foot.
Overnight,
your body goes into a state of dormancy.
Waking up is not just a matter of coming to consciousness—it’s also about
booting up your metabolism,
warming up your muscles,
and getting your entire system ready for the day ahead.
A seven-minute workout can help you wake up and start the day feeling energized
and inspired.
First,
make a habit of stretching the moment you wake up.
Get up instantly and move around,
taking deep breaths and exposing yourself to bright light.
Your quick morning workout can be whatever you want it to be,
but here are some ideas -
•Take a quick jog outside to warm up your muscles and fill your lungs with
fresh air.
You could also try running on the spot indoors or even dancing energetically
around your living room!
Another option is to run on a treadmill or exercise bike.
•Choose a quick cardio workout like skipping or aerobics.
•Do a favorite bodyweight exercise routine such as Pilates,
making sure you hit all the major muscle groups.
•If you do a sport,
try some targeted exercises for this sport.
•Remember to stretch before and after—your muscles and joints are
especially delicate in the morning!
The power of the morning workout is that you do it every day,
no excuses.
It’s short enough that you’re finished with it almost before you realize
it,
yet it still works hard to keep you flexible,
strong,
and fit.
No more excuses about not having enough time!
You could easily squeeze in seven minutes before your morning shower or do it
just as you wake up in the mornings.
One common way of including healthful physical exercise into your morning
routine is to have a fixed program you follow every day.
The “Scientific 7-Minute Workout” was first published in the American
College of Sport’s Medicine’s Health and Fitness Journal in 2013.
This high-intensity workout engages the whole body and has been shown to
improve overall performance,
boost heart and lung endurance,
and improve blood pressure.
The workout can be found online and is as follows - Thirty seconds jumping
jacks Thirty seconds wall sit (prop your back against a wall with your thighs
horizontal to the floor and hold)
Thirty Seconds Full Push-Ups.
Thirty Seconds Abdominal Crunches.
Thirty Seconds Step-Ups Onto A Chair Or Box.
Thirty seconds squats (arms forward,
keeping knees in line with toes,
and hips sent backward)
Thirty seconds tricep dips (you can do this between two chairs)
Thirty seconds plank (body as straight as possible,
resting on forearms)
Thirty Seconds High Knee Running In Place.
Thirty seconds lunges (without knees going past the line of the toes)
Thirty seconds push up with rotation (twist up and back to open body on both
sides)
Thirty Second Side Plank On Each Side.
Depending on your level of fitness,
the above might seem intimidating or plain old boring.
But the idea behind the seven-minute morning workout is not merely to aid in
weight loss or muscle building.
In all honesty,
seven minutes a day is not enough for a complete physical program.
However,
seven minutes in the morning lays the foundation for more healthy activity in
the rest of the day,
and can energize and motivate you—which in turn makes it easier to engage in
other exercises.
When you think about it,
seven minutes is barely any time at all.
But in that time,
you can wake up and energize every major muscle group and get yourself feeling
motivated and focused for the day ahead.
The boost in mood and pride you’ll get from being disciplined enough to work
out every day will flow over into other areas of your life.
Then,
you’ll have more energy and motivation to funnel into other important things.
Too many people spend all night sleeping,
then sluggishly creep into the next day without so much as a stretch.
They plonk themselves down into office chairs and work for hours.
Such a sedentary lifestyle is not only a disaster for your physical health,
it has real consequences for your overall mood and energy levels.
No,
you won’t turn into Arnold Schwarzenegger just because you work out for seven
minutes every morning,
but you will absolutely find more energy,
more purpose,
more discipline,
and more focus by starting the day right.
Channeling That Energy.
Once we start improving our physical health,
we’ll have the energy to consider the next level of the pyramid,
emotional energy.
Tending to our physical needs first is essential because our emotions depend on
our physical health.
When we’re too tired or hungry or malnourished to think clearly,
we simply can’t focus on emotional pursuits.
Emotional energy is simply being in a healthy state of mind,
or at least not being bogged down by negative feelings.
Emotions that don’t result directly from our physiological state can help or
hinder our ability to work,
as well.
Positive emotions like joy,
anticipation,
excitement,
or even feeling challenged increase our engagement and our energy.
By contrast,
negative emotions like anxiety,
frustration,
sadness,
anger,
and bitterness crush us like heavy weights.
When we’re overcome by these emotions,
it’s difficult to focus on our work and apply ourselves.
But emotions aren’t things we consciously choose.
Sometimes we’re anxious when we know we’ll be fine,
and sometimes we’re angry when we know we have no right to feel mad.
Sometimes terrible things happen,
and we feel sad or wronged,
but even when negative emotions are justified,
they don’t help us learn,
grow,
and add value to the world.
The best weapon against these modern monsters is reframing.
When you face a challenge you don’t think you can overcome,
don’t lament the inevitably of failure,
but think about how much you can learn and grow even if you lose—after all,
it’s exactly those sorts of failures that form the foundation of success.
No one accomplishes everything on the first attempt;
failure is what teaches us what to do differently in the future.
A sense of being wronged and a base desire for revenge against the universe is
one of the more common negative emotions that can be easily overcome by a shift
in focus.
The majority of what’s happening to anyone is never bad;
it’s neutral,
and you can make the internal choice as to its role in your life.
Feeling good is essential to doing good.
Focusing on those tiny gifts and cultivating gratitude goes a long way toward
making us emotionally healthy.
To feel good,
we have to be willing to let go of negative emotions and be grateful for the
positive aspects of all things.
Happiness flows freely when we do our part,
and when we’re happy,
we’re both more energetic and better at finishing our tasks.
Mental energy is the third tier of the energy pyramid.
For us to be mentally energetic,
we must first be emotionally and physically energized;
otherwise,
our exhaustion or unhappiness will be too difficult to overcome.
Mental energy relates to everything about our conscious thoughts—being able
to remain focused and disciplined despite distractions and temptations.
This tier asks us to take control of our thoughts.
Instead of passively accepting the first thought that comes to mind,
we can assess our thoughts and respond to them in order to consciously choose
what we think.
Mental energy is about the mental muscles and skills we can exercise in getting
things done and achieving goals.
An important part of building mental energy is to enter into tasks with
optimism.
When we begin with a negative outlook,
we presume we will fail.
For example,
children often won’t try new foods because they “don’t look” tasty.
Often,
if we can convince kids to try food despite their initial judgment,
they won’t like the taste,
either.
They’d already made up their mind that the food wasn’t good,
which is the reason they disliked it.
But the opposite is also true - when kids look at food and think they might
like it or when they’re convinced to withhold judgment,
they often enjoy new foods.
It’s the same with adults and tasks we need to complete.
When we go in excited to show what we can do,
we often do a superb job;
if we go in presuming we’ll fail,
it’s hard to produce any work at all.
On top of that,
we’re drumming up fear from the previous tier while we tell ourselves our
efforts aren’t going to work.
Aside from optimism,
several tools can boost our mental energy.
Self-talk,
where we engage in dialogue with ourselves,
can dismiss less helpful thoughts and give us truer narratives to believe.
Visualizing the completed project can give a sense of reality to the finished
process,
and meditation uses our minds to calm the tension we retain physically and
emotionally.
Even managing our time better can come into play at this level of the energy
pyramid,
as our minds are what we use to schedule our time and assess how long tasks
could and should take.
When we manage our time,
guide our emotions,
and make sure our thoughts are helping instead of hindering us,
we’ll have more energy and find it easier to face the tasks before us.
After our minds are managed,
we face the peak of the pyramid,
spiritual energy.
This isn’t a religious tier;
rather,
it encourages us to understand our core values and to align our actions with
those values.
For example,
a person who values helping people might do excellently in healthcare jobs but
flounder horribly in sales jobs because their values are met in one career path
but not in the other.
The spiritual tier is about finding purpose and passion in what we do,
which are the best motivators that exist.
They only occur when our actions are aligned with our core values.
To capture and increase spiritual energy,
we must seek activities that get us closer to our core values and passions,
and avoid activities that do the opposite.
When we’re doing what we feel is important,
there is strong motivation to keep going and to feel proud and validated when
we accomplish tasks.
Physical,
emotional,
mental,
and spiritual energy are all part of the first principle of energy management.
When we attain everything the pyramid implies,
we’re certain to be bursting with energy,
but we won’t yet know how to direct and manage that energy effectively.
In fact,
we may be so enthusiastic about what we’re doing that we risk burnout.
How do we avoid that?
With the second principle - every time we use energy,
we must also allow for its renewal.
No one,
no matter how much energy they possess,
can keep going at full bore forever.
Rest is necessary,
not just for our physical bodies,
but also for our minds and hearts.
When we don’t take a break from what we do,
we eventually become stressed out and frustrated;
these negative emotions are often accompanied by negative thoughts.
Both will sap energy quickly.
To prevent this,
we must disengage regularly so that our minds can heal.
Overuse,
even overuse of energy,
leads to destruction of the resource that’s being overused.
Rest is what allows us to heal and grow stronger.
Contrasting with the second principle,
the third principle of energy management reminds us that pushing past our
limits is necessary for growth.
We can’t just sit idly,
work repetitively and consistently,
and expect to improve.
We must regularly challenge ourselves if we want to grow.
Dancers know this very well.
Everyone shows up to their first class barely able to point their toes.
But pushing allows muscles to grow stronger and the body to take new forms.
Sometimes it takes years of persistent effort to reach our true goals,
but the way to get there is always by setting up a challenge and getting closer
and closer as our bodies,
emotions,
minds,
and spirits allow.
Even nonphysical tasks require us to push ourselves into discomfort,
as anyone who’s done a bit of public speaking will know.
Most are terrified the first few times,
and often that terror is discernible to the audience.
Speakers will shake,
stutter,
and go over sections of their speech multiple times.
At first,
it feels like it will never get better,
but persistence makes the nervous speaker reattempt their task despite the
difficulty.
Slowly,
giving speeches becomes easier.
Eventually,
the truly persistent will discover that it’s an enjoyable activity.
But none of that is possible without feeling spurred on to succeed by the
challenge of public speaking.
At every level,
we benefit from challenging ourselves and pushing ourselves into new and
difficult circumstances.
The fourth,
and final,
principle of energy management states that we must create energy rituals to
sustain full engagement.
Despite the human ability to think and choose,
most of our actions are based on habit.
What we do,
we usually don’t think about.
What we have to think about,
we usually don’t do,
at least not for very long!
That means it’s essential to transform energy-sustaining practices into
persistent activities so we don’t have to remember or talk ourselves into
helpful habits.
This will come as no surprise to anyone who’s dieted in their life;
generally speaking,
any short-term starvation will lead to eating in our habitual way once we shed
the weight.
What happens next?
The weight comes back,
and we have to diet again.
This pattern is particularly damaging,
as each time we fail to make a real and lasting change in our life,
the return of the old actions and their consequences feels more and more
inevitable.
It’s not inevitable,
but avoiding the trap involves making real,
permanent changes.
The new way has to be sustainable;
in short,
it has to become a habit.
Two months of consistently performing any action will generally turn it into a
habit,
but until we reach that point,
we have to put active effort into creating a new routine.
We must make a choice not to eat certain foods,
to exercise,
or to drink a certain amount of water.
But commitment and consistency are only needed at first.
Eventually,
thinking becomes unnecessary;
we will have the rituals in place to be healthy,
happy,
and effective at our work.
Once we have the habits to maximize our productivity,
and once we become used to challenging ourselves and resting to recharge our
batteries,
it becomes easier to direct our energy in any way we need.
When we have enough energy,
even the tasks we like to avoid become easy to face.
Takeaways -
•It’s not that self-discipline,
habitualized behaviors,
and intentional and analytical thinking are useless endeavors.
No,
these are some of the best changes you can make to your life.
But you won’t be able to learn or implement them,
or benefit from them in any way,
unless you simply possess enough energy to use them.
•Energy is the battery for all our thoughts and behaviors.
Without it,
no other tactics,
techniques,
or tips will matter.
This is essentially a real-life application of the concept of multiplying by
zero.
If your mathematical equation includes a zero,
that means the overall result will be zero.
This is another way of saying that energy is often the weakest link in the
chain,
and it is also the most fragile and elusive.
It’s important.
•The energy pyramid is a helpful way to think about the role of energy and
how to manage it.
It has four tiers that depend on each other - physical,
emotional,
mental,
and spiritual.
It lays out a blueprint we will follow for the rest of the book.
The energy pyramid also dictates that we must rest sufficiently or risk
burnout,
and at the same time make sure we are challenging ourselves and pushing our
limits to increase our energy capacity.
•One way to cultivate greater physical energy is to start every day with an
intense seven-minute workout.
This wakes up your body,
boosts energy levels,
and gets you started on the right foot for the day.
This has been
Have More Energy. A Blueprint for Productivity,
Focus,
and Self-Discipline—for the Perpetually Tired and Lazy (Think Smarter,
Not Harder Book 8) Written by
Peter Hollins, narrated by russell newton.