(ThyBlackMan.com) Think about this: How much money – both now and in future earnings – are you losing because you simply don’t have the energy to perform all of your essential, everyday tasks? What if you had more energy to go back to school and complete that degree plan? To write that book you’ve been contemplating forever? Or just to take your kids to the park for a game of touch football? How much difference would it make in your economic and spiritual personal economy?
The National Federation of Professional Trainers defines the word ‘fitness’ in part as “having the ENERGY and strength to perform daily activities vigorously and alertly, with energy left over to enjoy leisure activities or to meet emergency demands.” This one principle is clear: your energy level is closely connected to your personal productivity. Personal productivity is simply how much you accomplish in a given time frame and it’s measured by the number of established goals you actually reach. Are you being productive?
A recent Gallup poll shows that American businesses are losing an estimated 153 billion per year to lost productivity due to absenteeism – which is mainly the result of low energy. Let’s reduce that to a personal level: If American workers are chalking up billion of bucks per year to the American economy in lost productivity, how much of your time, talent and money are you forking up to your well-being due to low energy?
You can feel better, look better and perform better today! If you want to boost your personal productivity and live a more enriching life, try these five
activators to boosting your energy:
Activator 1: Get a vision
“Write the vision, make it plain” was uttered by a biblical prophet centuries ago but those words still hold true today: you must have an idea – a goal – that you are aiming for. If you have no goal, get one! Dr. Benjamin Hooks – mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – said it best: the only thing worse than low aim is no aim. When you have a vision of what you want to be and accomplish, you are drawn to it like a magnet. The vision is the BIG picture; the ideal, the blueprint. Once you have that firmly established in your mind, you become more productive and you will be amazed at how easily the details begin to fill themselves in.
Activator 2: Eat less more often
How and what we eat has a huge effect on energy. Boost your personal productivity by eating efficiently! Think of the wood-burning stove on a winter day: most of the wood is put in the stove during morning and then bits and pieces are added throughout the day. At night, the fire burns itself out, but it still simmers. Our bodies are designed in the same manner. Eating less more often is a great way to not only maintain weight levels, but it also goes a long way toward boosting your metabolism. The higher your metabolism, the greater your energy level.
Activator 3: Hydrate
Water is nature’s energy drink! Hydration plays a crucial role in boosting metabolism but, more to the point, being hydrated leads to a feeling of mental clarity. When you are properly hydrated you think better, you feel better and, most importantly, you produce better. There are many schools of thought on exactly how much water you should drink. I suggest to my clients anywhere from a gallon to six liters per day.
Activator 4: Get active
There’s not much difference between a de-conditioned body and a de-conditioned brain! Get up and move! Don’t be an idle body. Who needs a treadmill at home? Get out in the elements and take a daily morning and afternoon walk. If nothing else, walk the stairs at work before AND after your lunch break. Stop looking for the closest and most convenient parking space when you visit the mall or supermarket. Park far and walk! Use your body as a dumbbell by doing natural body weight movements. Pushups and planks are a great start.
Activator 5: Sit in silence
To suggest the art of silence in order to increase personal productivity may sound counter-productive. But the truth is you amass greater mental power by meditating than by any other activity than reading a great book! The key to boosting your personal productivity is to recharge and refresh. When you sit in silence, you hit the ‘reset’ button. Find a quiet place in your home; turn off the cell, television and close your mind to everything but the present moment. Breathe deeply several times without worrying about the pattern of your breathing (that will come later). The great thing about this activator is you can do it for just several minutes a day and really feel the results.
By boosting your energy you will boost your personal productivity. You will feel better, look better and perform better!
