Personal Energy

What we accomplish in life, and our level of success (if you use the definition of success as the accomplishment of goals that are important to you, and of living the lifestyle that you want) depends on many things.  We put a lot of focus on the creation of new ideas, making the right connections and setting specific goals, and then working hard to reach these goals.

I think one of the main things that holds us back and keeps us from living out ideal lifestyle, is not so much the lack of desire, good ideas and connections, but the lack of energy.  Think about this for a moment. You could have the killer idea of the century, a burning desire to succeed and have access to all the right people to help you make it happen, but if you lack the energy to implement the project, there’s really very little chance of even getting off the ground.

Without personal energy, nothing much happens, despite the best intentions.  Personally, it’s happened many times.  I get a great idea. I’m brimming with excitement.  It can’t fail.  I write it down in detail, complete with every action step needed to ensure success.  Then the next morning I wake up in a fog.  I can barely get out of bed. I put the project off till I feel better.  (So on and so forth…) Three weeks later, nothing has happened.  You get the picture.

Here are some action steps I’ve found help ensure that I’m always at the highest possible energy level to implement any task and to be able to solve any problems that come my way.

1. Fuel your body – Evaluate everything that goes into your mouth.  Is what you’re currently about to eat or drink going to enhance your energy level or drain it?  We pretty much inherently know what raises or lowers our energy.  It’s a personal choice if we want to follow those instincts.

2. Get good sleep – I thinks its vitally important to develop good sleep habits. Sleep is when our body repairs and energizes itself.  Without good sleep, the quality of our life goes down.  I try not to focus on getting a certain number of hours that the experts recommend getting.  Its different for everybody.  Find out how much sleep you need.  Just as important as quantity, is the quality of sleep you get.

• Try to go to bed and get up at the same time every night, even weekends if possible.
• Try going to sleep early.  9 or 10 pm is great, but aim for being in bed by 11:00 at the latest
• I’ve found that getting up as close to 6:00am ( or sunrise) as possible gives me the most energy throughout the day.  I think if you do an informal poll of people you know who are really energetic and highly accomplished, you may find that a good number of them get up around this time.
• Remove any light sources from your sleeping area.  This includes nightlights, alarm clocks and even the little lights from your computer and phone.  Its likely that even the smallest bit of light can detract from the quality of your sleep.  Aim for total darkness.  Use and eye mask if necessary.
• The same goes for noise.  Even slight noises may reduce the quality of your sleep, even if they don’t wake you up.  The little foam ear plugs you can pick up at the drug store work great.  Use them if your sleeping environment isn’t’ completely silent.  They’re also great for traveling, where you can’t always control the noise level.
• Avoid watching TV, arguing, or even thinking about interesting work topics for at least an hour before going to bed.  The goal is to avoid anything that stimulates your brain.  Reading before bed is great.  I used to read mostly non-fiction, but I’ve found that reading novels and other works of fiction help me to fall asleep much much better.
• I highly recommend meditation. If you meditate, 10 to 15 minutes before sleep works wonders.  If you don’t, it may be worth trying out.
• It’s best not to eat for several hour before sleep.  I personally try not to eat anything (except for a piece of fruit or some nuts) after 6:00pm, 7 at the latest.  It’s also not a good idea to drink anything with alcohol or sugar in it before sleep.  If I drink before bed, I find I go right to sleep, then wake up around 2am and can’t sleep for the rest of the night.  Very annoying!

3. Get the right amount of exercise – I used to be into endurance sports, thinking that long distance swims, runs, bike races and triathlons were the ultimate in healthy exercise.  Looking back on that time, I remember feeling constantly fatigued, sleep deprived, and sick feeling most of the time.

I’ve since changed my views on exercise.  There are probably thousands of different schools of thought regarding how to exercise.  I’ve found that the following has worked extremely well for me, allowing me to feel energized while staying lean and agile.  These recommendations may not work for you, but they very well may, so I urge you to at least try some or all of them to see what works the best for you.

(If you have any medical conditions, please consult your medical adviser before starting any new exercise programs)

Walking – Taking at least a 20 minute walk every day, particularly in natural surroundings, such as wooded trails, the beach or park, can do wonders for your general health and sense of well being.  I try to walk every day, no matter what the weather’s like, or how much work I have backed up.  The 20 minutes to a hour I spend walking allows me to completely clear my head, and gives me a huge energy boost, which more than makes up for the time “lost”.

Yoga – I’ve been doing yoga regularly for over 6 years, and I can’t say enough about the benefits I’ve noticed, including agility, balance, core strength, stress relief, healthy joints, detoxification and focus, not to mention the great yoga friends I’ve made along the way.  There are many types of yoga to choose from, and the best way to find the style that fits is to try as many teachers and you can in your area.

I’ve gravitated to both Iyengar and Ashtanga yoga, but have tried and liked many others as well.  (The only style I’ve tried so far that I really don’t like at all is Bikram, or hot yoga, although some people love it)

Bodyweight Exercises – I first discovered the benefits of bodyweight exercises when I started working out daily, for 3 years, with my friend John McGuire, and ex Navy SEAL of 10 years.  John currently runs a great company called SealTeamPT in Richmond Virginia in which he trains a large number of people.  Although I now live in California and can’t train with John so much any more, I still use a number of his training exercises to stay in shape, without ever having to visit a gym.

Here are some simple, yet very effective exercises I learned from John, which you can use as well:

• Bear Crawl
• Pushups
• Situps
• Pullups
• Bench Dips
• Star Jumps
• Buddy Carries
• Flutter Kicks

Several years ago, I ran across a great book by Ross Enamait called Never Gymless.  This book contains a large number of highly effective body weight exercises you can do at home with little or no equipment.

Hill Sprints – I’ve pretty much completely replaced my long distance running with hill or stair sprints.  I’m fortunate to have the Lyon Street Stairs very close to my house here in San Francisco, but any steep stairs or hill will do.  (For those of you in some of the flatter states, even office building stairwells will do)

The goal is to sprint uphill as fast as you can for at least 20 to 30 seconds.  I go as far as I can until I virtually can’t breathe. You don’t need to go to that extreme, but at least get to the point where your heart rate is elevated and you’re somewhat out of breath.  You then walk for as long as it takes to get your heart rate and breathing almost back to resting rate, then do one or more repetitions.  You should be able to get a complete sprint workout completed in no more than 15 to 20 minutes.

A 10-minute portable workout routine – I developed my own routine based on exercise methods I learned from the sources above, as well as a few others, to give me a quick, yet effective workout when traveling or otherwise short on time.  This routine can be done pretty much anywhere, including outside, or in a tiny hotel room in Europe.

• Jump Rope
• Squats
• Pushups
• Crunches
• Chair Dips

Crossfit – This is my new personal favorite!  I have a Crossfit location within walking distance of my place in San Francisco, so it’s very convenient, and I’ve gotten better results in a shorter time than with any other type of workout.  There are Crossfit locations in most cities and towns in the US, which can be found by Google search of “crossfit” and your location…

Here’s a brief description from the Crossfit website:

CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.

Our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness and, on average, punish the specialist.

The CrossFit program is designed for universal scalability making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience. We’ve used our same routines for elderly individuals with heart disease and cage fighters one month out from televised bouts. We scale load and intensity; we don’t change programs.

The needs of Olympic athletes and our grandparents differ by degree not kind. Our terrorist hunters, skiers, mountain bike riders and housewives have found their best fitness from the same regimen.

I highly recommend checking out Crossfit at a location near you.  It’s a great workout, a lot of fun, and you almost will never do the same workout twice.

SUMMARY

I strongly suggest focusing on building your personal energy in order to increase your productivity by either trying out these suggestions, or experimenting on your own.  Everyone is different, and your needs regarding sleep, diet and exercise will most likely be different than mine.  Experiment until you find out what works for you.  In the future, I’ll be providing some suggestions for books and other resources in each of these areas which I’ve found helpful to me.

(Would love to hear your tips and suggestions……)

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Tagged as: energy, exercise, health, nutrition, Productivity, sleep