Work harder? Take more action? Sometimes actions don’t give results. It is frustrating, but the harder you push, the more pushback you get. You will get even more frustrated, and you become stressed. And before you know you are running on low levels of energy.
I have encountered different situations in my life that caused me to feel that way.
Photo by Warren Wong on Unsplash
You can’t control everything
When my father was diagnosed and given six months to live. I managed to visit him and say my goodbyes. But towards the end, when he was deteriorating rapidly, I decided I wanted to be there with my family.
I lived in Australia where I was studying photography at the time. My family lived in The Netherlands. I was scheming, planning and organising, trying to work it out with my college so that I could go back.
But we didn’t know when it was going to happen. There was no set date that my father would pass away. Going home could have been for two months, three months, maybe even longer. I couldn’t miss that much from college. I was stuck.
In the end, I got a phone call; it was time to come home. The lesson was simple: you can’t always control what is going to happen.
What are you spending your resources on?
Another time I experienced that is when I was starting to build my business. I was spending all my time, money and energy on Facebook marketing without getting solid returns. The ideas I was persuing didn’t feel right for me. I was working with a coaching program, and they believed I had to take action. Talk to more people, connect with more people. Try to convince people to sign up for my program, even if it would take me two hours on the phone to achieve that. It wasn’t working.
Stop doing, and don’t feel guilty about it.
There is so much pressure on us to take action. You often hear people say, without action, there are no results. But I was taking action. So much so that every other area in my life was suffering. My conclusions were that action doesn’t always give you results. The question is: What do you do when hard work doesn’t give you results?
Can you do nothing?
I found it hard to do. I felt guilty. Thoughts like “I’m wasting my time,” “What ‘s my coach going to say about me, they won’t be happy with me,” where going through my head. I started to drop out. I invested so much money, but at that moment, the program was not serving me. All of this combined with a period of stress and uncertainty in my day job lead to the inevitable.
We want you to know that it is essential to take time from your busy schedule and to relax your mind. Only in this relaxed state, do you create the space for new ideas to come to you.
My mind and body gave up
I had a breakdown. There is no other way I can describe it. My body gave up, and I had no more energy to expand. I didn’t want to think, socialise or put in any more effort and energy to make things happen. I stopped living. Unlike other times I managed to go to the gym, but apart from that I watched TV, spent my weekends locked up in my bedroom. I was hiding from the world. It wasn’t the first time this happened to me.
The last time this happened to was when I was performing an exercise at the gym. I was proud and excited for doing such a great job. The next second I felt all energy drain out of me. I became sick, and I had to stay indoors for at least two weeks, most of it was spent sleeping. But I noticed a pattern.
Stop wasting energy without recharging.
Every time I was putting in a lot of energy in work exercise and working on my business something happened. It was as if I wasn’t allowed to be successful. Like my unconscious was telling me “No, no success allowed for you.”
But now I realise what happened.
I kept spending all this energy, but it never got recharged. When you keep spending and spending, you go broke. My body responded by stopping me. I stopped everything, and the only thing I manage to do in such a situation is watching TV.
A different approach was needed. I already had coaches to hold me accountable. My life energy needed boosting. After speaking to a friend, I started working with precisely the right people. I committed myself to work with these people until my list of personal challenges is resolved.
A brand new cycle begins
Christmas came. Life was looking up, and my energy levels started to improve. But as soon as the year changed from 2018 to 2019, my energy levels deteriorated. The fear of facing my coaches and the guilt I was feeling grew stronger. Once again I ignored everybody and everything.
But then suddenly I noticed my energy levels change. Things started to flow again. I became more optimistic, as I began to go back to writing blog articles and promoting myself on social media. By the middle of January, my levels were back to normal. I don’t believe I am alone.
Are you spending too much energy?
We are all different. However, I believe that our bodies respond in the same way. If you spend all your energy, you’ll run out. You’ll end up suffering from fatigue, stress, maybe depression, or something happens. An accident, an illness.
Have you ever heard people say “My ‘XYZ’ made me think about what matters to me? I slowed down and now spent more time with my loved ones.” Don’t let it come that far.
Recharge your batteries before your body fails
Find ways how you can recharge your batteries. You can’t keep spending energy on something that is not going to give you energy back. You’ll end up drained. Your career, partner, friends, housemates, they can all drain your energy. There are ways to replenish your energy.
When you exercise a lot, they recommend that you replenish with supplements such as magnesium and some people use a personal trainer to get extra benefits and expertise to get better results.
In the same way, you can “supplement” your energy levels through exercises such as yoga and meditation. You can also visit practitioners who can help you identify and eliminate the factor that is draining your energy to help you lift your energy levels.
Connect with me and find out how I can help you to improve your energy levels and build a life worth living.
