#23
Everything is energy. Work, play, chores, communication, entertainment, friendships, travel.
In his book “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less”, Greg McKeown displays so well how energy travels from us into the world when we overextend ourselves and when we focus on one task and one task only.
When you prioritise one task, you make bigger progress much faster. But above all, you give yourself the advantage of looking after your energy reserves much better.
So how do you pick your daily priority?
This one might be a harsh truth, but it is the truth. You can’t be everything and everywhere all at once (great film by the way!).
You can achieve all the milestones you have on your vision board. You can become all the people you’ve ever dreamt of becoming (husband, father, CEO, investor, mentor, and so on). You can attract all the best friendships and partners to help your growth. But at any given point in time, you can dedicate your energy to one person or one task only. Unless you’re happy with doing a mediocre job or having mediocre relationships.
With that in mind, it’s beneficial to pick one priority from your daily agenda as a way to maximise your impact in the world every day.
Here’s what you can do:
1. SET A MORNING INTENTION
Sticking to a routine or a plan at all costs will only get you so far. You need to learn to work with your body and your mind, not against them.
Listening to your mind and body as soon as you wake up will certainly help you determine how best to approach people and tasks without exhausting your natural energy reserves.
For example, you might wake up more tired than usual. So in order to work with your natural state, your intention can be “Today I choose to slow down”.
But if you were to wake up, for example, extremely cheerful, optimistic and full of energy, your intention for the day might be something like “Today I focus on sharing my energy with others”.
How you start the morning sets the tone for the next few hours and it gives you an idea of how you need to approach the day.
2. PICK YOUR DAILY PRIORITY
Once you know how you feel physically and mentally, you can take a look at your agenda for the day and pick a priority. This will give you a single focus that keeps your energy moving in the right direction.
Even if there are distractions, when you know your focus for the day, you can easily come back to it after every brief detour.
Let’s say your priority for the day is to spend more meaningful time with your parents. You don’t need to communicate that with them – you just make yourself more available to listen to their needs, to be more engaged in the conversations, and to be a little bit more helpful and caring throughout the day.
Alternatively, you can share with your team that today your number one priority will be “Project X” and everything else will have to wait until tomorrow. This demonstrates your willingness to be transparent with your schedule, but also your ability to manage your time, energy and boundaries better.
