In this era of debates and discussions around energy usage, climate change and green new deal, managing energy is not only important externally but internally in our personal and professional lives as well. Productivity can be proportional to how well we manage our so-called internal energy in all aspects of our lives. I am a Vaccine Research & Development Scientist and my wife graduated with top honors in Power Systems Engineering and coincidentally is an Energy Engineer. What has worked very well for us in our professional careers and our home-team is how we have managed our everyday energy.
The concept of managing energy was novel to me before I got introduced to the Energy Audit Debrief Guide through a work-related survey from The Energy Audit® – Debrief Guide, © 2018 The Energy Project®. I could have easily deleted the email and moved on but I am actually glad I decided to spend 15 minutes completing it. The four dimensions of energy (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual) as stated in the energy audit test is an excellent indicator of your current spectrum ranging from “Fully Energized” to “Burned out”. In simple terms, let us consider stress or anxiety as an indicator of negative energy while joy and elation as positive. I strongly feel that our energy levels are a strong indicator of performance or lack thereof! So tracking them is absolutely vital for ourselves and also for our colleagues at work. I definitely think my wife and I can always do better but knowing where to begin is critical, just like getting in shape (reminds my wife)!
I had the opportunity to listen into a recent live seminar by Arianna Huffington at a women’s leadership forum. I concur with the popular belief that perfection is an enemy of progress. A lot of professionals get burned out at work which in turn impacts our relationships at home. I strongly urge you to retrospect if you share a similar feeling. It is very important to pick your battles, have a strong sense of WHY you are doing what you are doing and align with the vision of the company. We spend way too much time at work to stress out on perfection and negatively impact relationships with friends/family. If expectations demand you to seek perfection, it’s time to have that crucial conversation about alignment with your manager, peers, friends or family.