Energy MRR Ebook

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Chapter 1: Why Energy Management > Time Management

What is it that is holding you back in life? A lot of us make the mistaken assumption that it is time. We think that if only we had a little more time, then we could get all kinds of things done. If we had a little more time, then the house would be cleaner, we’d spend more time with our family and friends and we’d be able to progress faster through our career. Maybe we could start a new training program as well and finally get those abs? But there just isn’t time in the day. We work from 9-5 and when we get home, we often still have a long list of tasks to do that we just don’t have time to finish. That includes checking the mail, paying bills, making dinner, washing up and hopefully getting just a little bit of time to spend with family! Man, if only there were more time… right? Well actually, time is very often not the problem. Rather, the problem comes down to energy. Think about it: if you really don’t have any time to do anything, then how were you able to watch that entire Boxset of Game of Thrones recently? If you really don’t have time to do anything, then how have you been finding time to play Uncharted? If you genuinely work and busy yourself from the first thing in the morning, all the way up until bedtime, then the answer would be simple: get up earlier, or go to bed later. No, that is not the problem. Instead, the problem is energy. Time management isn’t the only big deal here: energy management is just as important. If you can’t effectively manage your energy, then you’re going to find that you can’t make full use of your time. And that’s a problem! What probably really happens when you get home from work, is that you collapse onto the sofa and watch TV for a bit. Or maybe you just procrastinate a little by not really doing anything much for a short time. Either way, you could be working. You could be working on that amazing novel.

The issue is not your time at all but rather it is your energy. And this isn’t to say that you’re in some way lazy, or that you could be making better use of your time right now. Instead, it is to say that you’re simply pushing yourself too hard and too far – and it should come as no surprise that you’re not achieving as much as you hope as a result. Energy is something that most of us ignore: ‘I have a few hours tonight,’ we say, ‘I’ll do it then!’. The only problem is that if you don’t have the energy, then you’re not going to do it. Your energy is finite, it can only go so far, and if you ignore that fact then you’re going to run out of steam and not accomplish the things you want to change.

Coming to Terms With Energy Management

There’s a good chance that you may be reading this and considering energy management properly for the very first time. Perhaps it’s something you never really thought about before – you wouldn’t be alone in that! But even at this early stage in the book, you’ve hopefully learned a valuable lesson. Simply acknowledging that energy is probably what’s holding you back is one of the very best things you can do to start making life easier. Once you come to terms with this, you can start to think more logically and realistically about what you can achieve in a day. That means you can remove item from your agenda – knowing full well that you won’t be able to accomplish them – and thus actually get more done as a result and come home with more energy left over. When thinking about whether you’re going to walk home tonight or drive, be realistic and accept that driving may be easier. When planning to complete a long list of chores this evening, be honest with yourself and ask how likely you are to really complete that list. Did you manage to finish everything you set out to last time? Give yourself a break and organize your day sensibly.

Our Strategy for Boosting Energy

So what is our overall strategy for boosting energy? It actually comes down to a few things. The first is management: managing our time better and thinking about how much energy we’re likely to have in a given day and what we actually want to do with it. And by finding ways to avoid wasting energy, we can save more for the things that we ultimately decide really matter. The next step is to start small and not be too ambitious. That’s true with the other things we’re trying to achieve and it’s also true of the lifestyle changes we’re introducing in this book. Simply put? You’re not going to transform your energy levels and your health overnight – and you shouldn’t try! Work up to it slowly and be smart about how you’re raising your energy. We’re going to introduce the concept of ‘kaizen’ here, which means that we’re introducing small changes with the aim of eventually seeing big results. Kaizen is a Japanese concept that basically means any journey is best accomplished with lots of little steps. And finally, we’re going to change everything. We’re going to look at our health and our lifestyles holistically. We’re going to acknowledge that to boost energy, it is not good enough that we simply introduce one new lifestyle habit, or start drinking smoothies. We need to rethink everything.

This book will be your guide and by the end the aim is for you to be crackling with energy. You should feel like a coiled spring ready to explode. And then you can achieve some truly amazing things!

Chapter 2: This is Where Everything Changes

At the end of the last chapter, we mentioned that we had to change everything. That’s a pretty tall order but using the aforementioned ‘kaizen’ approach, we should see that it’s relatively possible to gradually introduce change that starts small and eventually becomes all encompassing. But before we go on, perhaps I should explain what I mean by ‘change everything’. Why do you need to change everything if all you want to do is get a little more energy? Let’s take a look at one example and use that as a microcosmic example of why it doesn’t work to try and change one aspect of your health and lifestyle in a vacuum.

Why You’ve Failed to Get Into Shape

If you’re like an awful lot of people, then at some point you have probably tried to get into better shape. That might mean you joined a gym, or perhaps you paid for a training program to get written for you. And if you’re like an awful lot of people, then you may well have failed to stick at the training program or to see the results you wanted. Why is that? Probably, it comes down to the simple fact that the training program was too ambitious. Very often, a training program will involve working out three, four or five times a week at a gym. As a standard rule, workouts will be somewhere between 40-60 minutes. So that’s immediately 4-5 hours of extra time that you need to take away from your current working week. Then there’s the fact that you need to travel to and from the gym. This can take anything from 10 minutes each way to 30 minutes. Then there’s showering and then there’s the amount of extra washing you create and the fact that you need to pack for the gym. So what you’re really doing is taking about 10 hours out of your working week. That’s huge.

And more to the point, these are ten exhausting hours. And that’s before we’ve even considered the amount of work we’re expected to do in the kitchen: we’re supposed to be transforming our diets to be low calorie (meaning low energy) and we’re supposed to shop for the food, cook the food, wash up afterward… And it’s all stressful too. Cooking can be stressful and so can spending all that extra money on the gym, on the food, on the petrol… it’s just too much! There’s a good chance that the very reason you’re not exercising and getting enough activity right now is that you’re too tired half of the time. This is why so many of us let ourselves get into bad shape to begin with. It’s why we turn to junk food. And it’s why we struggle to stick at new goals. In short, we’re already doing as much as we can. So again, the problem here is energy. Energy management is more important than time management by far when it comes to exercise so really you need to focus on getting more of that. So next let's look at what's sapping energy in your life. For many of us diet comes into play here and eating lots of junk food can certainly prevent us from feeling our very best and healthiest. So that needs to be changed. More important though is work. If you are coming home from work stressed, then you're going to have very little energy for throwing yourself into a workout. Likewise, stress from other sources such as your finances or relationships can also have a negative impact on your ability to train. So you need to fix that too. There are practical considerations too like finances (staying in shape can be expensive!) and like space if you’re training at home (which is a good shout for most people). Even if you’re not training from home, having a tidy flat/house to come home to can make all the difference in terms of your energy and how you feel and it means you have one less thing to do at the end of the day (tidying up in this case). Likewise, looking good will fill you with energy and confidence too which will translate to a better mood and more energy to attack workouts. A lot of energy is linked with mood, as we’ll see later in this book. Then of course those other things do also come into play: time, motivation and the right program. The point I’m making is that picking a training program and pledging to stick at it just doesn’t work unless you’re also looking at what has been holding you back so far. Right now you probably fill your time with activity as much as you can and then crash on the sofa because you’re out of steam. If you had the energy to work out, then you’d already be working out. You’re not, because you don’t. So don’t come up with an unrealistic 5-day workout plan until you’ve looked at the rest of your life – including your physical energy, happiness and mental discipline. You have to change everything if you want to get into great shape. And as you’ll see, this then makes changes in the rest of your life. Working out will give you more energy. And when you get more energy, you will find you start to perform better at work. This will be helped by the fact that you now look and feel more confident and attractive filling out that suit/pencil skirt with a more toned physique. Working less means you’ll have more energy to train. Training means you’ll have more energy to do better at work.
And these kinds of two-way relationships exist throughout your entire lifestyle.

Deciding What Matters

Your lifestyle is self-sustaining then and everything you do is supporting that lifestyle and making it harder for you to change. So where can you possibly start? As mentioned, one of the key things to think about is energy management and planning. Just knowing that you have a finite amount of energy throughout the day and making decisions on that basis. And this brings us to our first, super important tip: If you’re going to introduce something big into your life, then you need to remove something else. This sounds like a big deal and many of us will be resistant to it at first. But it’s also true. If you’re going to try and exert yourself for 30 minutes after work every day, then you need to find a way to save 30 minutes of both time and energy. Getting up 30 minutes earlier will give you more time. But perhaps going to bed 1 hour earlier the night before can give you some more of the energy. Or perhaps you just make the decision to save energy by going out a little less. If you have a weekly pub trip, then consider cutting that out (especially seeing as alcohol will sap your energy in the long term). If you have a very busy social calendar, perhaps consider seeing one friend less. That sounds harsh but life is all about making tough decisions. Or maybe you’d rather cut out one of your more tiring hobbies/extracurricular activities? Again, it’s hard and it seems cold. But the simple fact of the matter is that every action needs an equal and opposite reaction. You can pull extra time out of thin air. But that’s what is going to bring us to our next chapter and a somewhat more appealing sounding alternative: finding lots of little ways to save more time and more energy throughout the day. This is where the concept of kaizen comes in. If you can save a little energy on the way to work, save a little energy in the morning, save a little energy doing the dishes… well then you might just have a bit more to ‘spend’ doing the things you love and the things that are important to you.

Chapter 3: Kaizen – The Small Changes That Will Supercharge Your Energy Levels

In order to spend more time doing the things you love – and engaging in activities that will actually boost your energy further – you need to find ways to save time throughout the day. That way, you can introduce new things to your routine without feeling like you’re being pushed too far. This will also help you to recharge and relax by having some time spare, which will ultimately help you to be even more focussed, productive and creative at work! Tidy Believe it or not, tidying your home makes a massive difference to your energy levels, your confidence and therefore your ability to stick at your training. Think of your home as an extension of your state of mind – if you’re very stressed your home is more likely to look a mess. If your home is a mess, you’ll be more stressed. So what’s the easiest way to keep your home tidier and to give yourself more mental clarity and space? Actually it’s to get ruthless and just throw things out. Got a box of junk on the wardrobe you haven’t looked in for a year? Get rid of it. Got 20 ornaments on every surface? Throw out half of them (at least!). This may sound extreme but simply having more space, even just seeing out the corner of your eye that there’s space under the bed, can make a huge difference to your state of mind and the lack of clutter makes it easier for your mind and body to unwind. Clutter and mess literally causes you to produce norepinephrine, cortisol and other stress hormones, so this can end up leaving you feeling completely spent unless you can do something about it. This is particularly useful when you consider that it will also make tidying up much easier in future. Now you’ll be able to clean surfaces by wiping a wet cloth, without having to remove lots of items from around your home. Finding things will be easier and generally, you’ll find you have more time and energy as a result.

Oh and when you remove 50% of your ornaments, you’ll be left with a much higher ‘average quality’ of things on display. This actually makes your home look much wealthier and more impressive, because there’s no longer the less impressive stuff to detract from the truly great stuff…

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