Sometimes actions don’t give results. It is frustrating, but the harder you try, the more pushback you get. You will get even more frustrated, and you become stressed. This will impact your levels of energy.
I have encountered different situations in my life that caused me to feel that way.
Some things you can’t control
When my father was diagnosed and given six months to live. I managed to visit him and say my goodbyes. It was a beautiful time with the family.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 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. This meant that going home could have been for two months, three months, maybe even longer. I couldn’t miss that much from college. In the end, I got a phone call, that it was time to come home.
It may sound cold and calculated when I say it. What I learned from this, is that sometimes you simply cannot control what is going to happen.
So much action, no results
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. I had the feeling that I was pursuing ideas that weren’t 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.
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 the results you want?
The power of doing nothing
Stop taking action, and don’t feel guilty about it.
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,” were going through my head. I started to drop out the program I was part of. I invested so much money, but at that moment, they were just not serving me. What I needed was time. All of this combined with a period of stress and uncertainty in my day job lead to the inevitable.
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.
This happened to me before, during these times, I spent my weekends locked up in my bedroom, during the evenings I watch TV. I hide from the world.
Recognise patterns in your life
The last time this happened to was when I was performing an exercise at the gym. It felt great and 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. I noticed a pattern in my life.
It appeared, that 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. My unconscious was telling me “No, no success allowed for you.” But now I realise what happened.
Monitor your levels of energy
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, the only thing I manage to do in such a situation is watching TV. What do you in such a situation?
I already had coaches to hold me accountable, but I needed something else. What I needed was a change of energy. After speaking with a friend, I committed myself to work with a couple of people raising my levels of energy.
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 for not doing anything grew stronger. Once again I ignored everybody and everything.
Discover the power within
I stopped myself. I sat down with myself and I started to meditate, looking for the answer to what I should be doing instead. When the answer came, I noticed my energy levels change. Things started to flow again. I became more optimistic, as I started to go back to writing blog articles and promoting myself on social media. By the middle of January, my levels were back to normal. We are all different, so the signs that you suffer from low energy are different for everybody.
The signs of low levels of energy
We are all different. However, I believe that our bodies respond the same way. If you expend 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 ‘health issue’ 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.
How to recharge your batteries
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.
Calm your mind
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.
