Making Decisions
February 28, 2021
Platforms as Tools
October 17, 2021
It's All Energy!
Everything in life comes back to energy. I’m not really talking about products and material objects, rather about our life and living it.
We go to work and expend energy, we come home and do chores, which expend energy, we deal with financial, health, family issues, which all cost us energy, both mental and physical energy. This is being drawn out of us constantly in all of these areas of our lives.
We have to recharge this energy, and surprisingly it turns out that recharging does not mean doing nothing, it does not mean switching off or vegging out, rather it is being around people and doing things that recharge you. Some people feel recharged after a gym session, some people feel recharged after spending time with friends, or doing gardening, some people need to be alone, others around people. But very seldom does just doing nothing actually recharge your energy.
Think of it like sleep, you can’t store sleep for later, you can’t bank a little extra on the weekend to draw down during the week, the more you get the more you feel you need but after a certain amount it no longer benefits you but rather is bad for you. So you can’t just spend the weekend sleeping and then not sleep in the week. You also can’t sleep for a month and then stay awake the rest of the year. You have to balance it out, you have to have the amount that is good for you and then deny yourself more even though you may feel you need it, because it is up to you to lead the best life, not your body.
Energy is the same, you can’t store it, or bank it, just like sleep it is all about balance and doing what recharges you and not what simply feels good but is bad for you. Spending a few hours scrolling through Facebook does not recharge you. Facebook, social media in general, drains your energy. When have you ever spent a few hours scrolling Facebook and then jumped up, feeling pumped and ready to take on the world?
Its not just social media, it is many forms of mindless media that are not designed to better your life, but rather to capture you and get you to pay for the entertainment they provide, and you pay both financially, and with your energy. If you buy a gossip magazine, when you are done reading it do you carry on your day more productive, more motivated and with more energy than before you read it? Probably not. It is not designed to enhance your life, it is to entertain you, and that entertainment costs you energy, it does not increase your energy. This is of course not the case with all forms of entertainment, but it is up to you to find what entertainment, what activities increase your energy and which drain it.
When I think about these things, write these articles, once I am done I feel recharged, I feel like taking on the world, starting a new project, tackling one I have been working on. That is being recharged.
I can spend days scrolling Facebook and I don’t get that feeling. At the same time I can watch stand up comedy on YouTube and it is enjoyable, but it isn’t inspirational, but I can watch series about people building their lives, living off the grid, becoming self sufficient, and so many other wonderful things and feel inspired and recharged. So it is not always the platform, but how you use it that can determine what you get out of it. Of course it is very pleasant watching hours of funny clips, cute cats, hilarious bloopers, but that should not be where the majority of your time goes, those are little breaks, nothing more.
Everything has a cost, are you getting the value out of where you are spending your energy?
What can decrease your energy?
There are all the normal things that you would expect to decrease your energy, both physical and mental. These can be things like work, cleaning the house, going shopping for groceries, doing your accounts, and many other things. Not all of these will necessarily decrease your energy though. If you love what you do, it may physically and mentally tire you, but not necessarily drain your energy. If you hate your job though, even just thinking about it can start to drain your energy.
Some things that you might not expect to drain your energy can be relationships. Having a relationship that is not compatible with you, be it a partner or even just a friendship, you can find that the incompatibility is draining your energy. This is a problem if it is someone, or people you spend a lot of time with, without having the time and doing the things that recharge you, you will become completely drained.
It comes back to you being in control of your situation. You have to identify if someone makes you feel drained and unhappy, and then try and find a way to change the relationship so it is not that way, or in some cases if you cannot change it you will have to decide if it is worth maintaining it.
There is no version of life where nothing drains your energy, but you only have a limited amount, so you have to balance how you spend it and identify if it is going to the right places for where you want to be in life.
