Energy is the currency of high performance
Fast forward a year and I'm back at the National Achievers Congress in London, watching the big man – Tony Robbins. So much has happened this past year. I've studied Internet Marketing (and implemented), started a new job – earning another six figure salary, resigned from the job choosing passion over pay check, sold my IT company and started a new business – in a new sector! I've grown and challenged myself – expanded my comfort zones and am well and truly on my way! Now that I'm feeling far more in tune with myself I'm happy.
Anyway, as I'm listening to Tony, and watching a man filled with charisma, passion and unlimited energy, I'm reminded of one of the most important factors in business and leadership success: Managing energy, not time is key to high performance and personal renewal.
Energy not time is one of most precious resources. It is the currency of high performance. Performance, psychological health, emotional fitness and happiness are grounded in the skilful management of energy.
Leaders are the principals of organisational energy – or at least they should be! They inspire others first by how effectively they manage their own energy. Then they use this to inspire, lead, invest, mobilize, focus and renew the energy of others they lead. Their skilful management of energy, at the individual and organisational level enables full engagement. It results in a team that is totally behind their leader – and in sync.
Tony Robbins talks a lot about being ‘in state.' And, full engagement is the energy state that best serves performance. Full engagement requires drawing on physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy. As energy reduces with over-use and under-use, it's important to balance energy expenditure with renewal. This is where the work hard, play hard rule comes into effect.
To build up our energy levels, we have to push beyond our normal limits. We have to get into training. The work is hard, but the results make the yield worth it. Training in this way, means training in the same systematic way as supreme athletes. It means turning energy training into a habit and a routine.
A note of caution too – if the intensity of the training is increased, it's necessary to balance that with the same amount of energy renewal i.e. time off. If you fail to do this you'll run the risk of burn out and breakdown, and your performance will obviously deteriorate. Equally – too much recovery without sufficient stress will lead to weakness. So the lesson here is clearly use it or lose it!
[box]Without time for recovery, our lives become a blur of DOING unbalanced by much opportunity for BEING – Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz TWEET THIS[/box]
We live in a world that promotes an insatiable work ethic and ignores downtime. Whilst we work longer hours in the UK than the rest of Europe, I've seen nothing that compares to the work ethic of the USA, Asia and the Middle East. And that's a worry for the global economy as intermittent disengagement is what allows us to passionately re-engage. Ignore time for renewal, or time off, or recovery and it will backfire. Without a doubt the secret for high performance is in creating a balance between the two and countries that encourage people to seek intermittent renewal not only encourage greater commitment, but interestingly also more productivity.
So, my question to you is, how are you coping with your energy levels? Are you out of sync and at risk of burn-out or are you not putting enough effort in? Let me know what techniques you use to balance the two, plus also your thoughts on this subject. I'd love to hear.
Thank you, as always for reading and contributing here. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends!
With love and gratitude – as always,
love it Jane – definitely need to get into a better routine as my energy levels are low once I get home from my day job – but I got 2 days off this coming week – woot – planning some time for me, exercise, sewing, jewelry…and of course…chocolate!
So glad to hear this Amy. It’s so important to make time for us. It’s so easy to loose sight of this & be caught up in the moment, especially when we’re loving what we’re doing. Totally understand about having low energy levels too after a day’s work. Good on you for keeping going. You are so going to make it!
Great one, Jane! It’s crazy how much we applaud people who work nonstop, as if it’s a virtue. And I think we also try to impress people by how much we work, when the reality is that we are more productive if we shut down and take time off. I’m just now working on a more balanced life, and it’s incredibly how much better I feel!
Thanks for this Rebecca. I agree with you and would add that sometimes it takes faith & courage to not work as hard. Plus (and speaking from experience here) for some of us, we need to break some seriously unhealthy habits that have been promoted at school and at home! I’ve taken small steps to break the cycle I’m in by signing up to yoga (weekly) and horse riding (bi-weekly). Thankfully too I have a dog and kids so they take up a lot of my time outside of work!
I couldn’t agree more Rebecca! I’m really trying hard to curb this bad habit, which is always difficult when you’re in a start-up mode. Thank goodness for the children & the dog who help me with this. Wishing you, as always, much success 🙂