#48 - Good Energy
Hello,
Good energy is like good art: you know it when you see it. You know it when you feel it. It is both attractive and contagious. How to boost it? How to keep it? And in hiring, what is more important than energy and intelligence? A few ideas in this newsletter.
The Energy Metric
"The way I approach the problem of multiple priorities is by focusing on just one main thing: my energy. I make choices that maximize my personal energy because that makes it easier to manage all other priorities. Maximizing my personal energy means eating right, exercising, avoiding unnecessary stress, getting enough sleep, and all of the obvious steps. But it also means having something in my life that makes me excited to wake up."
Two paradoxes about energy:
(1) individual actions that are energy boosters might look like selfishness. Feeling bad about being selfish might prevent you from doing things that energize you the most. The paradox is that to be selfless, you'd better first be selfish.
(2) bad choices can be energizing. But only in the short run. Managing your energy is akin to managing a business: some choices can boost your quarterly and annual performance but kill the company in the long run.
Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time
"The number of the hours in a day is fixed, but the quantity and quality of energy available to us is not. it is our most precious resource. The more we take responsibility for the energy we bring to the world, the more empowered and productive we become. The more we blame others for external circumstances, the more negative and compromised our energy is likely to be.
Old Paradigm > New Paradigm
Manage time > Manage Energy
Avoid stress > Seek stress
Life is a marathon > Life is a series of sprints
Downtime is a wasted time > Downtime is productive time
Rewards fuel performance > Purpose fuel performance
Self-discipline rules > Rituals rule
The power of positive thinking > The power of full engagement
Find Your Red Threads
"Before you do something, love feels like instinctively wanting to do it. While you are doing something, love feels different. it feels like the time speeding up. When you are doing an activity you love, you get so deeply connected to what you're doing that the moments flow together, smooth, easy, inevitable... It's hard to describe the feeling, but we've all had it. When we are inside an activity we love, we are enveloped, so in the moment that we are no longer aware of ourselves. You are not DOING the activity. You ARE the activity. The late, eminent positive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called this feeling flow and said it was the secret to happiness...
We all do have certain activities that give us this same feeling - of vanishing into the act, of fluidity, of the steps falling away and time speeding up. And we all recognize it. Think of these activities as your "red threads". Your life - at school, home, and work - is composed of many threads, many different activities, situations, and people. Some of these threads are black, white, gray, brown, emotionally eager, a little up, a little down, and don't do much to move the needle. But some of them are red. Red threads are made of a very different material. They appear to be extremely positively charged. You find yourself instinctively wanting to pull on these threads. And when you do, your life feels easier, more natural, time rushes by. These threads are the source of your uniqueness, felt, and then expressed in certain activities.
Recent research by Mayo Clinic into the well-being of doctors reveals that 20 percent is the threshold level: spend at least 20 percent of your time at work doing specific activities you love and you are far less likely to experience burnout.
To help you pick out your own red threads, try asking yourself these "When was the last time...?" questions.
When was the last time...
... you lost track of time?
... you instinctively volunteered for something?
... someone had to tear you away from what you were doing?
... you felt completely in control of what you were doing?
... you surprised yourself by how well you did?
... you were singled out for praise?
... you were the only person to notice something?
... you found yourself actively looking forward to work?
... you came up with a new way of doing things?
... you wanted the activity to never end?
You don't need to love ALL you do. You just need to find the love IN what you do."
Lessons From the East: Conserve Your Energy
"There are big differences between Chinese hygiene and Western hygiene. Some of the obvious ones are that Chinese exercise is rhythmic, whereas the Western is dynamic and full of tension; the Chinese exercise seeks to merge harmoniously with nature, whereas the Western dominates it...
Perhaps the main difference is the fact that Chinese hygiene is Yin (softness) , while Western is Yang (positiveness). We can compare the Western mind with an oak tree that stands firm and rigid against the strong wind. When the wind becomes stronger, the oak tree cracks. The Chinese mind, on the other hand, is like the bamboo that bends with the strong wind. When the wind ceases, the bamboo springs back stronger than before.
Western hygiene is a gratuitous waste of energy. There overexertion involved in Western athletics is detrimental to one's health. Chinese hygiene, on the other hand, throws its emphasis on the conservation of energy; the principle is always that of moderation without going to the extreme.
The utmost is expressed and performed in the minimum of movements and energy.
Creating Lasting Change: You Need Enough Activation Energy
"Activation energy is needed for everything from getting up in the morning to revolutions. It's the ingredient that starts a reaction, breaking apart the current state of affairs and transforming it into something new. When we have enough activation energy, we have the power to finish a reaction, achieving a sustainable result. We know the amount of activation energy is correct when enough new connections form that it becomes impossible to revert back to the way we were. In chemistry, activation energy is the energy that must be delivered to a chemical system in order to initiate a reaction, breaking bonds so that new ones can form...
Creating lasting change is harder than creating change. Don't underestimate the activation energy required to not only break apart existing bonds, but to create new ones, strong ones. Some reactions are not quick, and all take some degree of effort. Trying to accurately estimate the activation energy required means you're less likely to quit too early. You won't run out of gas on the way up the hill or stop supporting a team during its transition phase. If you have enough activation energy, reactions will keep going, finishing what was started and forming new bonds that will then take a significant reinvestment of activation energy to break. Real change takes effort. Invest more than you think you need to, and you just might get there."
The Great Mental Models Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry, and Biology
Hiring Secrets from Warren Buffet: What Is More Important Than Intelligence and Energy?
"You’re looking for three things, generally, in a person,” says Buffett. “Intelligence, energy, and integrity. And if they don’t have the last one, don’t even bother with the first two. I tell them, ‘Everyone here has the intelligence and energy—you wouldn’t be here otherwise. But the integrity is up to you.”
Source: Farnam Street Blog
Warren Buffet: The Three Things I Look For In A Person - Farnam Street Blog
Mojo
As always, to finish in music, songs from M and Modjo that will get your mojo in action :)
Follow your red threads and keep up your good energy,
Arina
Image: from It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be, by Paul Arden