One of the key elements in getting the most out of your life is finding what energizes you…and by that, I don’t mean coffee!!! For each of us, there are things that bring us energy instead of taking energy away from us. Passion is an example. When you feel passionate about something, it fuels you, drives you to keep going when your body is tired or when obstacles are in front of you. If you are an extrovert, then being around people will bring you energy, whereas introverts recharge when they spend time alone. Energy is a powerful thing and it’s best to understand how it works for you so that you can harness it.
Finding what energizes you can help you to bring balance to your life by ensuring that you make that one thing a priority. We all have to do things that do not meet that definition. I am not energized by doing the laundry or grocery shopping or scrubbing toilets, but that doesn’t mean that I can stop doing them. It means that I need to mix in some of the things that do bring me energy and help me recharge so that I won’t burn out doing the things that take from me.
The first time I discovered the power of something that energizes was back when we were foster parents. I quickly realized that a new baby energized me like nothing else. From the moment we would get the phone call asking us to take a new baby, I had a sudden burst of energy and it would last for many months. Holding a precious new life in my arms and getting the privilege of pouring love into a heart that had already been hurt was electrifying. The sleepless nights and extra laundry hardly affected me because the high from being able to care for a baby kept me going. Whenever we had a new baby, I was like the Energizer Bunny! There was nothing I couldn’t accomplish. The energy that I got from holding that new baby helped me be a better mom to my other kids, do more housework, be creative, get more work done, and feel more joy.
But of course babies grow up and sometimes foster babies went back to birth parents or to live with extended family. I suppose we could have continued to take new babies, but as we had adopted several of them and our home was bursting at the seams, it didn’t seem like a prudent idea and so I had to find something else to motivate me.
In order to find what energizes you, ask yourself the following questions:
- What drives me?
- What could I talk about for hours?
- What do I feel passionately about?
- What do I do where I feel less tired afterwards than I did before I started?
- What do I get so excited about that I want to tell everyone I know?
- How do I re-charge?
Once you have determined what energizes you, find a way to infuse that into your life more often. That will help you to do a better job at all of the things you do, not just that one thing.
Join us this month as I share ways to help you move towards the life you want to live. Join me in the challenge. Ready to jump off the cliff?