Everything we do requires energy, and in today’s society, it seems like there are more energy vampires, distractions, and time commitments than ever…
Generating and maintaining personal energy is, then, essential for leaders and entrepreneurs who want to operate at a high level. We need to charge our batteries and keep them charged to do great work.
We can think of personal energy in terms of four distinct domains, which I like to call PEMS – Physical, Emotional, Mental, and Spiritual. In the audio presentation below, I dig into each area in greater detail, but let’s first look at a general overview of what these domains include.
Physical
Physical energy is the easiest to understand, and in many ways, the easiest to manage. These are things we all know, even if we don’t always make an effort to take care of ourselves in these areas. Even though we know these things are important – and relatively simple – they’re also easy to let slip in the midst of busy lives and piling responsibilities.
So with that in mind, it’s worth revisiting.
• Nutrition – What you put in your body determines your energy levels, your weight, your gut health, and beyond. Do you have a food plan? Are you intentional about what you eat? Are you sacrificing quality for convenience?
• Movement – The purpose of fitness is to be able to do what we want to do and create what we want to create. Moving our bodies consistently generates physical fitness. You don’t have to be an all-star athlete, but you do NEED to move. The best way is to find something you like doing, whether that’s walking or rowing, rock climbing or cycling, and make it a consistent part of your routine. 30 minutes of aerobic movement, three to five times per week, will make a huge difference.
• Sleep – This is the most important component of your physical energy. When you sleep, your brain is doing important subconscious work that helps your memory, focus, immune system, and so much more. To feel your best and maintain physical energy, you need quality sleep. Like the other areas here, being intentional about your sleep habits is key. Do you have a set time for going to bed? Do you use sleep aids like calm music or breathing exercises?
• Meditation – Meditation serves multiple areas of this PEMS system, but in terms of physical energy, a consistent meditation practice helps train your focus and increase your ability to be mindful about whatever it is you’re doing in a given moment. When you make a practice out of controlling your awareness and creating stillness, you better prepare yourself for protecting your energy throughout the day – instead of being distracted, flustered by interruptions, or wasting your precious energy in frantic indecision or trying to focus on too many things at a time.
Emotional:
When you feel negative emotions, whether it’s sadness, anger, depression, disgust, etc., it affects how you show up for yourself and those around you. It’s distracting, it saps your energy, and tints your vision.
That means that managing your emotions – and understanding how they function – is a critical component of effective leadership. We can think about emotional intelligence in four parts:
• Self Awareness – This is being aware of your own feelings, but remaining separate from them. Instead of simply accepting your feelings as fact, this kind of suspension of judgment allows you to be an observer, examining where the feelings come from and assessing whether or not they’re true and useful. Awareness is recognizing that we can observe thoughts and emotions through a separate, grounded self, and actively choosing what to do with the thoughts and feelings that arise.
• Self Management – The next step of objective observation of your feelings, self management is how we contend with difficult emotions in ourselves AND how we respond to those of others. Self management means debunking our assumptions about other people and their intentions, and helps us unpack the myths we tell ourselves. In an excellent article about managing energy from Harvard Business Review, authors Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy say: “…People can cultivate positive emotions by learning to change the stories they tell themselves about the events in their lives. Often, people in conflict cast themselves in the role of victim, blaming others or external circumstances for their problems. Becoming aware of the difference between the facts in a given situation and the way we interpret those facts can be powerful in itself.”
• Social Awareness – This is your sense of awareness directed outward. This is observation and acceptance of where others are coming from. It’s recognizing their feelings and sensing what’s behind their words and actions, tuning into others where they actually are, not where you want them to be.
• Social Management – This is social awareness in practice, actively listening to those around with with openness and compassion (instead of assuming you already have the answers). It’s a way of seeing the world with curiosity and allowing yourself to exist in a space of “not knowing.” It means accepting that you don’t necessarily know what other are going through, what they’re thinking/feeling, what they believe, etc., and using your awareness to learn and accept others as they truly are.
All of this serves to not only help your relationships flourish… It also helps protect your emotional energy because you’re existing in a state of openness and acceptance, not wasting energy on negativity, assumption, and frustration over the distance between expectation and reality.
Mental:
Your mental energy directly affects your ability to focus, and the strength of your focus is one of your biggest assets. Focus exists in four dimensions: broad, narrow, internal, and external. Your ability to switch between these forms of focus is what allows you to maintain the awareness and management mentioned in the previous section – and is what drives the attention you give to the creative process.
Internal focus helps you identify what you want to create. Through narrow internal focus, specific creations can be conceptualized. Through broad internal focus, you can brainstorm the features, purpose, and benefits of your creative concepts. Narrow external focus identifies the details of the creative process, while broad external focus allows you to see all of the factors that play into the practical execution of your ideas.
Stress, however, is the biggest threat to your mental energy. Stress steals your ability to focus by putting your body into fight/flight/freeze mode. In this mode, conscious focus is hijacked and we’re distracted by the issues we’re letting lead to stress.
That means that protecting mental energy is largely a matter of controlling and minimizing stress. There are many ways to do this, of course, but some immediate strategies include managing your environment (choosing places to work that limit distractions and unpleasant, disruptive encounters), using the tool of emotional awareness discussed above, and perhaps most importantly, getting help from others.
You don’t have to do everything yourself, and trying to handle it all on your own will likely lead to frustration, burnout, and of course, stress. Be strong enough to be weak. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses, and bring in others who complement your abilities. Leaning on a team of people with different, complementary abilities allows you to save your mental energy for the things that matter most.
Spiritual
Last but not least, spiritual energy looks different for everyone. Whether it’s philosophy, religion, or just general spirituality, much of this domain is centered around a sense of purpose and connection to the larger universe around us.
Finding this sense of purpose and connection often comes from listening to your own heart and mind. It’s asking the world “what is in need of me here?” It’s recognizing your own uniqueness, accepting yourself for who you are, and finding ways to use that uniqueness in service of the the greater good.
Now, do you NEED to have a life purpose or a grand vision of your place in the universe? Not necessarily… Instead, seek a sense of purpose in the here and now. Pay attention to your own intelligence and strength, and listen deeply to those around you. Follow what inspires you, what you do well, and what yields the best results for others.
At its core, spiritual energy is about love – creating with love, from a place of love first. This is the capacity to care deeply about something, and use the energy we have to bring that thing into being. You get better at the things you love because you love them – you’re creating because you choose to, because you love it, and that makes setbacks and failures. This is an energizing force for your life building process.
All of this is just scratching the surface or PEMS and personal energy management. These principles are a lifelong pursuit, but small changes and incremental progress can make a huge impact on your quality of life and creative success right away.
Here’s a powerful quote from the Harvard Business Review article (which you can read here):
“The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story. Defined in physics as the capacity to work, energy comes from four main wellsprings in human beings: the body, emotions, mind, and spirit. In each, energy can by systematically and regularly renewed by establishing specific rituals – behaviors that are intentionally and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic as possible.”
And so, through these ideas and tips, as well as your own commitment to building the habits that generate and maintain your energy, you can harness each of these domains in service of your creative potential.
Please listen to this audio presentation, then make yourself a priority and write a vision for each of the four domains. What do you want to create The content you build upon is what matters to you.
Then go to your calendar and make a PEMS ideal week: map out the disciplines, rituals, and activities that align with the vision you seek to create, and start moving toward the best version of yourself you can be.
With accountability and coaching, you’ll have the speed and impact to get there, and continue to be fit for creating your highest aspirations in business and life!
