Three Strategies to Create Energized Tranquility
We could all stand to have a little more energy and a little more tranquility
Let’s face it. Life can be hard.
Arguably, over the last couple of years, it’s gotten even harder. Many of us spend more time behind a computer or device than we ever thought possible. We spend more time isolated and working from home. Our social outlets have been reduced both in quantity and quality. For many of us, our cups are more empty than full.
And frankly, that’s no damn good.
For those of you who know me, you know I’m a big advocate of filling our own cups. Frankly, I think it is one of, if not the single most important responsibilities we have daily. If you haven’t figured it out by now, let me be frank with you. No one is going to do it for you.
Queens and Kings eat first.
But what the fuck does that actually mean? How is it even possible with all the demands on our time to “eat first.”
There are a lot of answers to that, and they are all worthy of exploration. But this week, I want to share some wisdom from Brian Johnson with Heroic.
If you are not familiar with Heroic, I encourage you to check it out at https://heroic.us. It’s a self-directed training program that will help you bring a higher level of commitment to being your best self daily. The program specifically aims to help you define and achieve improvement in the areas of energy, work, and love.
As you dive into the training, Brian walks you through training on how to maximize each of those areas in your life.
Earlier this week, I finished a lesson titled “Energized Tranquility vs. Enervated Anxiety.” If like me you don’t know what “enervated” means, the definition is “drained of energy or vitality.”
The summary below encapsulates the ideas shared in that lesson. All of the ideas are Brian’s, not mine. However, I felt they were important to restate not only for your benefit but to help me cement them into my own thinking and daily practice.
It all begins with a basic shift in focus. For most of us, when the proverbial shit hits the fan and we begin to realize that uncomfortable sensation of overwhelm, we begin to think in terms of time management.
Brian suggests that instead of time management, we shift our focus to energy management. He encourages to practice energy management through three practical strategies.
Strategy #1 - Manage Your Tech Inputs
Brian shares that we are now exposed to more stimuli in a single day than our ancestors just a few generations ago were exposed to in an entire lifetime. He says “we evolved to deal with one lion roaring at us in the jungle to having the entire jungle roaring at us all day long.” That leads to enervated anxiety.
We have the ability to take a different pathway. The fastest way to improve your energy is to reduce the stimuli you choose to expose yourself to. Limit the amount of input you expose to yourself.
I know for us, we go from sitting at our computers all day, to looking at our phones, to kicking on the TV, to again checking our phones and scrolling through social media during every commercial! It’s truly unbelievable how much we allow ourselves to be bombarded by information.
It’s a choice, and we can choose differently.
Strategy #2 - We Have to Train our Recovery
Brian starts this lesson with a quote saying, “It’s not that we work too hard, it’s that we don’t recover enough.”
The greatest performers train their recovery.
We have to learn to be on when we are on, and off when we are off. Most of us are constantly in a state of nearly all on all the time. Arguably, however, we’re never all on because we constantly oscillate between work and distraction. Because we fail strategy #1 and don’t manage our tech, we simply do everything half-ass because we are rarely fully present.
Instead, when we are working, work. And when we’re not, don’t. Embrace having really tall and then low waves in our energy.
Embrace turning yourself off.
How? Well, that’s strategy #3.
Strategy #3 - Understand the Rhythms of Life
We have three fundamental rhythms working in our life.
The first is the rhythm of the sun or our circadian rhythm. Energy management begins by aligning our most important outputs with our most optimal time to be productive - daytime - while simultaneously learning to create a digital sundown and power ourselves off as the literal day comes to a close.
The second rhythm is called ultradian rhythm. Throughout the day we have rhythms when we are on and off. NASA research has shown that we have a window of peak performance that last between 65-90 minutes before our energy begins to atrophy.
At the end of those windows, we need to shut down for a bit.
That doesn’t mean going from our projects to checking email or scrolling through Instagram on your phone, it literally means turning your focus off. After you push hard, be truly off. Brian suggests we go for a walk, pet the dog, do some burpees, do a quick meditation or hang out with your kids.
Train your recovery in those ultradian rhythms.
The third rhythm is what he calls micradian rhythms.
The idea here also comes from NASA research. Researchers learned that being in a gravity-free environment ultimately deteriorated our bodies’ ability to function in an optimized way. Ultimately, they connected this to similar impacts that come from a sedentary lifestyle. If you sit all day, you will struggle, and studies have shown that sitting is the new smoking. It just isn’t good for us.
So the idea here is that we go from sitting to standing every 15 minutes or so. Learn to set a timer and periodically change your position. Get up and refill your water, or change your desk from a sitting to a standing position.
Remember, no one is going to do it for you. Queens and Kings eat first. You have to take care of yourself. YOU HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!!!
Hope you find a nugget in here that helps.