Energy

Energy is one of the important ingredients for success. Energy can be both positive and negative, for being successful it is essential that you always be full of positive energy and same should be exploding out of you. You should always keep yourself surrounded by people with positive vibes. Both these types are nothing but a state of mind. Positive energy empowers you to perform at world class level, while negative energy is always instrumental in pulling you down in other direction and taking you off-track. Once you start allowing negative energy to make inroads into your mind and soul it requires immeasurable efforts to come out and get yourself to positive frame of mind. It is said that to overcome one influence of negativity you need to make hundred times more effort to convert your state of mind towards positive frame. In next few paragraphs I will be sharing some thoughts on how to keep your energy levels explosive and full of positive vibes. Energy levels influences each action you take day in and day out. Without high level of energy opportunities would remain untapped.

Ideas remain untapped and unrealized. All successful people have high level of energy, high levels of energy allows them to wake up early in the morning without feeling exhausted; allows them to be on their own; allows them to work hard; allows them to play at their best, allows them to have fun and enjoy life and see it as a rich adventure. High level of energy also allows them to handle adversity and keep them optimistic and stay positive at all times.

See the lives of all great people, be it Sir Richard Branson, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Edison, Mother Teresa, Benjamin Franklin, to name a few, these great people have demonstrated that you cannot be a leader if you do not have high level of energy.

Do not drag yourself out of the bed rather wake up with high energy. Do not keep dreaming rather build dreams which are so big that keeps you awake with high level of energy in pursuit of your dreams. Few inputs on how to create energy explosion in your life:

1. Clarity and World Class Planning: Clarity precedes success. When you have meaningful goals and a clear direction in your life, that will not only promote greater sense of hopefulness but you will feel more energized. Great Goals brings energy to your life. Setting goals boosts your energy. It gives a reason to get out of bed every day. The secret of passion is purpose. The cause has to be higher than self. As the saying goes time and tide waits for none.  Time slips through our fingers as grains of sand, never to return again.

When you set goals for every part of your life, you will feel energized as better clarity leads to better decision and better results. Writing things down on a piece of paper clarifies fuzzy thinking and gives better awareness  and better clarity and better awareness and clarity leads to better choices and better choices leads to better results. What is not measured is never improved. Getting clarity over the philosophy of your life and what your life would stand for and breaking down that philosophy into specific and measurable goals for each core area of your life will connect you to the giant source of energy, passion as well as the focus that resides within you. Clarity and world class planning is the key ingredients for success.

2. Get up early and work on yourself: When you get up early on a consistent basis you will find yourself with more energy rather than less energy. Your conscience watches everything you do. Getting up early helps create better self-esteem and self-discipline. People who feel good have high level of energy. Win the battle with the bed, mind over mattress.  Getting up early is the primary win for yourself, this is the first victory of your first goal. If you are serious in working on yourself, follow the following tips:

a) Do not eat after 7.00-7.30 pm;

b) Do not watch the news or spend time on your mobile or your tab before you go off to sleep, remember it’s not the quantity of sleep that is important, it’s the quality of sleep that matters. Before going to sleep, spend moments in silence, do some thoughtless breathing, think of positive things, results of this would be a better and sound sleep and you wake up next day with abundant energy;

c) Sleep early by 10pm/11pm. You cannot burn the candle on both ends. Human being are remarkable to adopt, create your new normal. Take 60 minutes for yourself every day, read some inspirational book, journaling and record your learning from previous day, meditate and spend time on spirituality, be in the moment and enjoy the journey of life. You can also use affirmative success statements like "every day and in every way I am getting better and better healthier and healthier" or "I am joyfully living in the moment and am being at my best", Spending time with nature is another wonderful way to energize, visualize and work on your attitude. Focus on the good things in life, will keep you positive, work on your personal philosophy.

 
Give yourself some time to settle to this schedule, research has suggested it takes 66 days to form a habit, be persistent with it and you can do it.

3. Consistent exercise and high performance diet: Exercise boosts energy. When you are in world class physical condition you can get to your goals and missions in life as you are full of energy. The price of discipline is much less than the pain of regret.

 
You can plan for your exercise to cover the three aspects of cardio, weights and stretching. Exercise makes you happy and boosts energy. Exercise has to be vigorous. When you are strong physically you are strong internally. In a relaxed body remains a relaxed mind.

A high performance diet is a critical success factor for getting a high level of energy. When the diet is impeccable, you have boundless energy. There is such a link between what you eat and how you feel. If you eat a big meal, you are going to get exhausted and your creativity diminishes, high energy falls apart mental clarity and thus impacting you professionally, personally and your inner life. Successful people always maintains the following in their diet:

a. Drinks a lot of water, water hydrates your brain;

b. Drinks fresh fruit juices;

c. Portion control -eat less food, will allow more energy for you;

d. Don't eat after 7.00 -7.30 pm, if you eat late at night all night your food is being digested, you will wake up feeling exhausted and the results of the following day will be much less than what you desired and planned.

4. Personal regeneration and renewal: We live in a world where most people go full out in their work. Too many people takes vacations as a waste of time or unproductive time. There is a parallel which is so very true, if you were to run your car at full speed for next seven days, what is going to happen to that car, it’s going to break down, it’s going to wear out and it’s not going to perform at its best. High performers in the playing field of life understand that metaphor and they run their life in cycles, they balance perfectly well between playing their best game in professional or work life and personal regeneration/renewal. High performers balance is being ”on game" I.e. playing full out and being at your best with periods of recovery. There is a misperception around 'stress', there is nothing wrong with stress, stress makes you play your best game, it marshals your best resources, the real problem is most people do not take time out to recover from stress, they are  always working, they are always rushing, their minds are always in million places at a single time, we do need recovery time, as shared in the car metaphor, if you don't take time to recover, you will break down, you will  get tired, you will get to a place where you will be unproductive and you are frustrated. Build time for recovery and renewal, time to relax, time to regenerate, time to bring back the balance, when you take time for personal recovery, you will actually become more productive with explosive energy levels, and you can do far more in less time.

5. Adventure and Fun in life: Human brain craves novelty, most of us cling to the safe harbor of the known, we try to do the same thing with same people day in and day out and resist any change. We think that our life would be happy, safe and secured without realizing that this is a recipe for disaster. That’s the most insecure place to be in. We are happiest when we are adventurous, we are not happy when we are at the safe harbor of the known, we are happiest when we are trying new things, meeting new people and pushing our personal frontiers. The greatest risk you can ever take in life is not taking any risk. To have world class energy you need to institutionalize adventure and fun into your life by building a system around it. Plan one day every week as a Play day for adventure and fun.

Get back to being a kid, connect with the child that resides within each and every one of us, that's a great way to release the world class level of energy lived within you. Say no to negative energy and influences, embrace positive thoughts as a way of life, weed out all negative influences and people around you. If you apply the above thoughts into your life, I am sure of your meeting success in whatever you do. Energy is the most important and powerful ingredients for success.

As the saying goes, “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others who succeed make it happen!”

Sources: Learnings from Robin Sharma and discourses by Pt. Vijay Shankar Ji Mehta