REFLECTION: How is your energy these days? Feeling bright and chipper, ready to take on the world? Dragging your backside out of bed in the morning, wondering how you’ll make it through another day? Or, maybe somewhere in between?

If you’ve explored the area of energy management, you’re probably familiar with the four categories of energy that can be drained or recharged: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. The thing is that it’s not always clear what causes an energy shortfall, and what needs attention.

For example, you can be emotionally drained by relationship issues, and experience that as physical exhaustion. You can experience fuzzy thinking and a lack of concentration, and assume it’s because you have too many things on your mind. That fuzziness may, in fact, flow from the fact that you’re feeling totally disconnected from purpose and direction. You’ve sprung a leak in your spiritual gas tank!

Crossed wires can explain why our efforts to recharge may prove futile. If relationship issues are plaguing you, exercising will give you a way to cope with the fallout stress, but may not do much to resolve the underlying issues that are draining your tank.

ACTION: Pay close attention this week to what energizes you and what drags you down. Do a little digging below the surface – especially if your normal responses to life’s stresses don’t seem to be serving you as well as they once did.

It could be that there is a new or different energy sapper at play – one that calls for a new or different response.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

“People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.” – J. Michael Straczynski

“The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.” – Norman Vincent Peale

RESOURCES OF THE WEEK:

Tony Schwartz (author of the Power of Full Engagement and Be Excellent At Anything) offers a great little on-line energy audit self-assessment .

You can also access Schwartz’ Energy Project Tips . Customize your list of tips by adjusting each of the four scales down the left for greater or lesser importance. Click on the individual tips for an explanation of each.

READERS WRITE:

In response to last week’s message, Looking Forward To It, these Pause readers write:

PH: I like this a lot. One of the things we use in my 12 Step group is transforming ‘I Have To’ into  “I GET TO’ – as in ‘I get to go to a meeting today’. I love your newsletter. Bless you for the work you do that benefits so many.”

JT: Wow! Talk about reframing your mental picture. A ‘looking forward to it’ list sounds so good especially since, at work, I really do have some exciting projects on the go. Instead of lamenting the lack of time to do them, I will now look at my projects as my special contribution that I get paid for doing. Thanks so much.