Saturday, February 9, 2008

The Secret To Endless Energy – How To Do Everything Well

What is it about life that makes us think that it requires endless energy levels simply to survive? Are you caught in the ‘rat race?’ Are you required to do exceedingly more with exceedingly less? Are you suffering burn out? Does your vigour level wane as the day and week unfolds? And are more people looking to you to solve their problems than you can handle? Questions!! Noise! Had enough??
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Life is almost a fight, a frantic one at that, to discover or rekindle energy levels just to earn the right to time off, and time to rest.
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Dave Fleming tells the story of one who had “enormous energy.”[1] E. Stanley Jones lived and worked in the early- to mid-twentieth Century, in India. A person with passion for people and a friend and influencer of Ghandi’s, Jones had a simple philosophy for the provision of personal power. He said, “I’ve learned to... obey the laws of God, get a creative task [and] be absorbed in helping others.”[2] Jones’ discovered was that if he could be “gripped” with a passion (the creative task) he could tap into incredible depths of energy resource. It couldn’t be something that someone else dreamt up for him; it had to be his to work.
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I have found it possible at times in my life to extract so much more out of myself than I previously would have thought possible. And every time it had something to do with this type of positive vitality of mission and purpose; there was something ‘bigger than me’ to work for, and it was breathtaking just living.
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Is endless oomph really for “everything?” That’s just the point in where we fail. We try to do it all and that’s where we come unstuck. It all depends on what we define “everything” to be, doesn’t it? “Everything” should be:
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- Aligned with our life roles and goals;
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- Anything that gives us an instinctive or natural burst of energy that drives us positively in our venture toward life goals and mission; and,
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- Prioritised from our Values, which are from that sense of what we actually live for.
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If you begin from your values and life roles and goals you’ll soon find your passions, and what drives you.
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- Think about being the best example you can be in each life role you play;
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- Stay healthy by eating well and exercising and sleeping adequately;
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- Think of others and serve them;
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- Plan ahead by anticipating things before they happen; and
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... Soon you will be living on a super abundance of energy.
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A wonderful thing grows from this vivacity. “When we find our creative selves and sources, we are passionately compelled to give them away.”[3] This is a legacy for anyone and everyone we know to tap into. It’s contagious.[4] Don’t become, or copy, someone else. Becoming “me,” the original me, is a source of huge energy and potential. Become authentic—become you.
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One word of caution: The only thing you have to temper when you achieve endless energy levels is how much you tap into them. No one can, or should, sustain endless energy levels at all times; we all need rest. Rest to recharge and rejuvenate ourselves.
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We must learn to listen to ourselves and our bodies and try to keep our minds creative and fresh. This can only be accomplished if we occasionally slow down enough to a stop and reflect on life.
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© Steve J. Wickham, 2008. All rights reserved Worldwide.
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[1] Dave Fleming’s, Leadership Wisdom from Unlikely Voices: People of yesterday speak to leaders of today, (emergentYS Books (Youth Specialties) Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2004), p. 81f.
[2] E. Stanley Jones, Song of Ascents: A Spiritual Autobiography, (Abingdon Press, 1968), p. 338. Cited in Dave Fleming’s, Ibid., p. 82.
[3] Fleming, Op cit., p. 83.
[4] Fleming, Ibid., p. 84.
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This article is also featured on EzineArticles at: http://EzineArticles.com/?id=976081

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