One Easy Way to Rebuild Your Energy
One easy way to rebuild your energy is to remove energy drainers from your life.
What are energy drainers? Energy drainers are activities, people, environments, situations, and unfinished projects or errands that deplete you of energy. They come in all shapes and sizes, from the the friend who leaves you feeling exhausted and down after a visit, to a shower nozzle in your bathroom that isn’t working, to having to wait in customs line-ups every time you travel for work.
The problem with energy drainers is that they use up energy that you could otherwise be directing at productive, fun and creative endeavors. That pesky shower nozzle might not seem like a big deal today, but when you add up every single instance where you glance at it and are reminded that it's still broken, you end up with a significant amount of energy directed at something that’s just not worth it.
What would you do with all the extra energy you would have if you removed the energy drainers from your life?
So many possibilties!
Let's look at how to remove those energy drainers. The following is a simple strategy for reducing the energy drainers in your life:
Make a list of your energy drainers. It doesn’t matter how big or how small or if you can’t imagine the solution, simply write them all down. If there are people who drain your energy, don’t feel bad or guilty about including them on the list. It is what it is.
Commit to removing one energy drainer from your list per week. If you find you want to tackle more than one a week, go for it!
Get started. You might want to begin with a few smaller items, such as tidying up the papers in your home office, before tackling the bigger ones.
Stay on track with your weekly goal. You might want to do this with a friend so you can keep each other accountable and check-in every week about which energy drainers you’ve crossed off the list and how you’re feeling differently.
Before you know it you will have crossed five or ten items off your list. I think you’re going to be really happy with how you feel and the extra energy you have. It's quite remarkable what eliminating a few small drainers from your life can do to improve it.
A note on the big energy drainers: these may include friends, family, your job, or maybe your home. These will take a little more effort and contemplation in order to cross off your list. If it’s a person, do you need to have an honest conversation with them about what’s not working in your relationship? Do you need to distance yourself from them and see them less? Or do you need to cut them out of your life because the relationship is toxic? Those are some difficult questions you may need to have to look at. Same goes for your job or home. Switching jobs or moving are big decisions but if you don’t take action, nothing's going to change. If you want to feel happier and more energetic, switching to a more well-suited job or different home can have a phenomenal impact on your energy level and happiness.
There is no reason for you to be tolerating all those energy drainers on your list. Often it’s just a matter of getting to them and dealing with them. By committing to removing one from your list each week, you’re going to get results very quickly. It’s an easy way to free up space in your life and give you more time to do the things you really love and enjoy.
