Every week I have the opportunity to meet with about 40-50 highly successful men and women through an organization called ELC Roundtable. You can learn more about it here. Last week the question was asked: How do you stay personally energized? I thought it was a great question and wanted to share some bullets points from the meeting with you:

First, there are two views you must consider. The 25,000 foot view. In other words how do you stay personally energized when we look at your life as a whole…from beginning to end. Next is the granular view or daily view.

How do stay energized from the 25,000 foot view: You must have something worth living for…a desire of doing something with your life that is bigger than yourself. Most people find this type of desire in the spiritual world, this gives them purpose and keeps energized from the 25,000 foot view. One of my favorite books on this topic is The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. I’ve read this book over 40 times and highly recommend you pick up a copy here.

Now let’s move on to the tougher one…how do I stay energized on a day to day basis.

For me personally, I used to have a terrible “I” disease. That’s right it was just terrible. I used to stay in bed until 2:30pm. I’d sleep all day and stay up all night because there’s no real responsibility that late at night. My life was all about me.

So I had to change my perception on life to helping others and what I needed to do to make that happen. One thing I had to do is wake up earlier. But I hated waking up early…i tried it all and you know what I’m talking about: multiple alarms…set up all over the room…freezing cold showers…THE SNOOZE BUTTON so you could start the waking up process an hour before the time you really need up

Yep I’ve been there, luckily I broke the bad habit. Now I wake up at 5am every morning 7 days a week…yes, even if I’m on vacation. Here’s what I did:

One, I had to have a routine in my life…a routine that allowed me NOT to think. This has developed over the years but today my routine is this:

1. Wake up at 5am.
2. Read a chapter of The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.
3. Journal.
4. Read a chapter of Proverbs.
5. Do either 200 sit-ups or push-ups, depending on the day.
6. Pray.
7. Show, dress and start the day.

So now when I wake up, I don’t have to think, I go straight to my library and grab The Purpose Driven Life and start reading where I left off.

Another tactic I often use is setting a negative consequence for myself. There are two severely powerful consequences I have found that work for me.

• If I don’t achieve this (insert goal here) then I eat a can of Alpo Dog Food…unfortunitely I’ve eating 2 cans in my life!
• If I don’t achieve this (insert goal here) then I write a $100 check to an organization I would never support. Example: the KKK or if you’re a big time republican, send the democrat nominee a check to help him campaign.

If you completely, honestly follow through on the above tactics…trust me you won’t wake up after 5am more than a couple of times

Here are some more bullet points from the group:

• Find a job that you are passionate about
• Find a job that allows you to help other people
• Find a job that takes the focus off of you
• Association: make sure you associate with people who are passionate about life
• Exercise: exercise creates energy and high self-esteem
• Mindset: change your mind-set to this, “we’re only here for a short time, why wouldn’t I want to do something that brings me joy and happiness.
• New Information: learn something new, this brings you new ideas and ideas create energy.
• Be Grateful: think of all the things you have instead of what you don’t have.
• Self-talk: this is huge, you can simply put your self in a good mood with lots of energy just by talking to yourself…talk to your self in a positive manner, pump yourself up! Click Here for a great resource on self-talk.
• Have fun in everything you, laugh and remember there’s no such thing as a big deal.

So I hope this helps you to create a ton of energy in your life. We all have a lot to be excited about, stop focusing on the negative and begin to focus on the positive.

To Your Success in Business and In Life.

Tom

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