Strategic Coach Resources

Freedom from energy-draining activities, relationships, situations, and obligations.

Staying at your best.

Free Days™ are 24-hour stretches of meaningful, uninterrupted time away from all business-related thinking and activity. Free Days lead to a feeling of rejuvenation, and are characteristically followed by periods of increased creativity and renewed energy. But that energy doesn’t always last. In this article, you’ll discover the factors that contribute to this loss, and ways you can reclaim your freedom of energy to create an environment that supports personal and professional success and happiness.

Genius takes energy.

Young entrepreneurs tend to have a lot of energy, and when you have an abundance of anything, it often seems less important to use it wisely. But when you have many talents, capabilities, and opportunities, there’s a high cost to investing your energy where the return is less than stellar. Many entrepreneurs find themselves in situations where they are only able to express a small part of their genius or apply a small amount of their creativity because they have involved themselves over the years in a great number of energy-draining relationships, situations, and obligations. I was no exception.

From the depths to the heights.

In August of 1978, my first marriage and my first business both failed. It was the lowest point of my life. For the next six months, I lacked personal energy. But I realized during this period that I had allowed myself to be trapped inside energy-draining, stressful, and unrewarding situations. I vowed at the beginning of 1979 to transform every aspect of my life over the next 25 years. Quarter by quarter since then, my entire universe of relationships and activities, both at work and in my personal life, has altered into a place where my energy is constantly supported and increased. This reclaimed energy has made it possible for me and my wife and partner Babs to grow the business exponentially and to dramatically improve our quality of life at the same time.

First step: Clean up that mess!

Now there’s a familiar phrase from childhood we hoped we’d never hear again. But as adults we’re still very good at creating messes — in fact, we refine the process, coming up with much more sophisticated and complex messes to get ourselves into, including legal messes and relationship messes. A “mess” is simply an obligation without an equivalent commitment (M=O-C, if you like). As our opportunities grow, we encounter greater demands on our energy, concern, and attention. As a result, entrepreneurs can become accustomed to being over-committed. This creates a breeding ground for messes. The bigger a mess gets, the more energy it takes to fix. Even ignoring a mess drains energy. When you allow messes to exist you have less to give creatively, and your genius goes into hiding while you grudgingly spend your time and energy on damage control. When you redirect your energy into situations that support and enhance it, you free up your best abilities for more rewarding uses.

Commitment, not victimhood.

Every time you increase the energy you have to devote to worthwhile things, you also increase the value of your life to you and to many others. Therefore, committing yourself to greater energy is a commitment to a greater life. To make this commitment, you have to free yourself from all sense that you are a victim of your circumstances, or of certain relationships, or of any particular situation. You have to give up all victimhood. Your energy is yours to give, and it’s important to acknowledge your role in portioning it out.

Your energetic bank account.

Energy is your contribution to, and your reward from, other people, circumstances, and projects. Look at the circumstances of your life over the next 30 days. What situations or relationships are draining your energy? Do you have messes that need to be cleaned up? All progress starts by telling the truth. Try to identify just three energy-draining situations, big or small, that you are committed to transforming in the next 90 days. Then focus on creating strategies to free yourself from each of them. Consider delegation as a possibility. Perhaps someone in your environment who also has a commitment to this task or situation can help. Giving something away that you’re loathe to deal with might just open up a great opportunity for someone else. If you do have to deal with the situation yourself, think about how much better you’ll feel once it’s finally resolved and what you can do with all the energy you reclaim in the future as a result. Focusing on the freedom of energy allows you to leverage your creativity and talents to create the kind of life you want in less time and with greater enjoyment.