What You Need is More Energy, Not More Time

Photo of Einstein’s Office

Welcome to the first of my 5 part mini series on – What You Need in 2015 is not more time but more energy.

What is the number one commodity you believe will help give you the success you deserve in 2015 to be productive and live a more meaningful life? What if I told you that what you need more of in 2015 is not more time but more energy.

Time management courses are a waste of time if they don’t focus on this one often missing criteria – energy. Increasing the amount of energy you have access to as you go about your daily activities will transform your relationship with time.

On New Years Eve I sat and reviewed the goals I had planned the same time last year. It was very affirming ticking things off the list and recognising how many of the items on my list had actually manifested. Even better were the unexpected surprises and achievements, things that happened that were far better than I had intended for myself. Like the award for an article I wrote, the wonderful partnerships and collaborations with people I had not factored in and the connections I could not have planned to make happen even if I had tried. But still there was a nagging feeling I couldn’t shake off as I worked down my list. I couldn’t shake off the feeling that several items on the list could have been realised if I had not more time but more energy.

When I first came into contact with coaching in the late 1980’s one of the first coaching tools I was introduced to was the principle of eliminating your tolerations. Tolerations referred to people, objects, habits or practices in your day-to-day life that either slowed you down or drained your energy.

After all energy is one of your most valuable commodities. According to Tony Schwartz, CEO of the energy project whose work I have found really helpful it is best to take on the most important and difficult tasks when we have the most energy. But most of us never get to this point because either we don’t have the time or the energy even when time becomes available.

In my case when I reflected on the tolerations that resulted in a continual rapid loss of energy throughout the year I identified an un-healthy personal relationship dynamic, episodes of unhealthy eating habits, an embroilment in a lengthy, toxic drama as a named trustee on a friends estate that involved multiple, difficult and antagonistic relationships that had drained the life force out of me. To be blunt in 2014 I had experienced a complete zap of my energy both psychologically, emotionally, physically and spiritually so it was remarkable that I had achieved anything at all.

But despite all of the above I had achieved and I was astute enough to recognise that even so there was a considerable cost to allowing certain dynamics to continue to play out in my life that was contributing to a significant withdrawal of energy that I could have been putting to much better use.

This five part mini series will help you identify the things that drain your energy levels, put in place activities, systems and people who top up your energy levels, explore how to change your relationship and perspective with time and discover the projects and activities you want to focus on in 2015 so you can use your energy more resourcefully and strategically.

We’ll start today by looking at and working on eliminating your tolerations.

Make a list of the main areas of your life where you would like to eliminate your major and minor tolerations. Here are some suggested categories to get you started.

• Relationships
• Home environment
• Nutrition & Eating Habits
• Unhealthy habits and practices

Think about areas of your life you ignore or feel frustrated about (the piles of paper in my office), the people who when they come to mind or you see or hear their name called or their name pops up on your phone, actually dips your energy (relationships), items that are faulty or don’t work (home or work environment), habits and practices that are depleting (health and well-being).

Next make a list of all of the tolerations you are putting up with under each of the categories. These could be big (a relationship) to smaller items like the broken oven door.

Now decide on the first small step you will take to reduce or completely get rid of the negative or draining impact of each of the tolerations on your list. Remember it may take several small steps before the toleration is fully eliminated.

It’s important to write the step down and an intended date of when you will have completed the action. This does not need to be the actual date you complete the action on but a date for when you would like to have the action completed by. We’re more likely to complete a task when it’s scheduled in.

Getting rid of your tolerations over a period of time is one of the first steps in harmonising your goal setting. You’ll find as you get stuck in that you’ll experience a satisfying release of stuck energy.

Consider this as essential work of cleaning up your roots first and laying down healthy foundations as a natural way of holistically increasing your energy levels. Think about how much of your energy and time is consumed looking for things, compensating for things not working properly and absorbing the negativity of relationships that have an unproductive impact on your performance and productivity. By reducing the number of tolerations playing out in your life you’ll have more energy available to focus on your goals and aspirations for 2015.

Tomorrow we’ll look at once you’ve generated more energy what and how you will focus it so your new found energy works best for you.