How are your personal energy levels right now? Is your energy clean and flowing, or stuck and stagnant? Personal Energy Sinks & Traps or “PESTs” show up in all our lives. PESTs drain your personal energy, sap your enthusiasm and zap your zest. The symptoms range from feeling "a bit below par", to chronic stress and tiredness.
Here are some PESTs you might recognise, and tips on how to release your energy from them.
"Last-Minute-Larry-ism" - Like constant fire-fighting, operating in last minute panic mode results in missed deadlines, unpunctuality, stress and poorer performance. You'll always feel like you're running to catch up - and probably start to resent it too. To get out of "Last-Minute-Larry" mode:
- Start adding at least 25% to any estimates you make of how long something will take
- Make those tough decisions about prioritising what's really important
- Remind yourself that you and your work deserve better
By the way: You may kid yourself that you work better under pressure but this is not true. No-one works better under pressure. What you mean is that you "need" an imminent deadline to get going. Perhaps work on your motivation is in order?
Avoidance - The amount of energy it takes to avoid doing something is often more than it would take to do it. (And certainly far more than it would take to delegate it!) So what's going on? Well, that's a good question - and one to which only you have the answer. Perhaps you're avoiding something in order to avoid something else, in order to avoid something else...? You need to get to grips with what's at the bottom. And remember, just because something's on your to-do list doesn't mean that you actually have to do it. (Make sure you examine how things get on to your "to-do" list in the first place.) Top tips for dealing with avoidance:
- Do the things you avoid first
- Do them at a time in the day when your energy levels are high, and/or you're feeling positive
- Positively reframe the task/activity - for example - going to the dentist could be framed (negatively) as "unpleasant nuisance when I'm so busy", or (positively) as "important time out to take care of my well-being"
- Figure out what you're really avoiding - then deal with that.
Lack of Completion - Lots of us love to start projects. That high-enthusiasm "start-up" energy can be intoxicating. Keeping projects going requires a more "slow-release" energy. Like a computer with too many applications open, if you've too many projects going at once, you may find yourself unable to crank the handle on any of them. Stalled projects have their own way of draining energy especially if you feel bad every time you think about them hanging around.
Completion doesn't necessarily mean you have to finish the project yourself - maybe you could hand it over to someone else, or close it down?
Lack of completion can relate to anything - old relationships, past jobs, the promotion/business you didn't get, etc. Sometimes all that's required is a little symbolic ritual to help you release your energy and move on. Try writing down the issue and burning the paper in the sink - then wash the ashes down the plughole.
...You know, as I'm writing this I'm thinking: you probably know a lot of this already. The key question is: What's stopping you from doing something about it? Perhaps you're thinking: "Its all very well reading this, but what do I do next?" Well, would you like my help? How about a FREE 45 minute, no obligation, consultation? "Yes, please..."
Helen Ross-Hamilton
helen@theresultsage
www.theresultsagenc
© Helen Ross-Hamilton, All rights reserved
