6. Develop and Restore your Energy

listening to seven keys to reclaiming yourtime, energy and productivity, a Himalaya learning audio course. Be sure tocheck out all of the other exclusive courses in the Himalaya app or onhimalaya.com. Welcome back everyone. It's episode six and I'm very excited tochat about energy. We're going to talk about developing and restoring yourenergy.

[00:00:41] So the first step for before wekind of even jump into develop, you really need to ask yourself the question, whatmotivates me. What is your quote, unquote, what do you live for again? What isyour motivation? You don't really have anything that's motivating you. Thenit's going to be very hard to develop your energy, and you're not going to feelthe need to restore or develop your energy.

[00:01:20] So what's your motivation, yourwhy is a purpose cause or belief that drives everything you do? Um, Simon Sinekhas a book called start with why I definitely recommend checking that book out.Give you some ideas that you're trying to figure out what your, why is. Um, forme personally, my, why is I believe that.

[00:01:49] A healthy leader, assistant ahealthy leader, executive assistant is the top contributor to an executives,health and success. This is foundational to what I do, and it's thefoundational belief behind what I do. So as an executive assistant coach andauthor and speaker and podcast host. This is what drives me.

[00:02:17] This is, this is the why, butwhat do I do is different than my why? So what I do is I help assistance becomeconfident game-changing leaders and I help executives hire, equip, and empowerleader assistance. Now I'm just sharing this as an example, you know, your why.Odds are, are not going to be the same, um, or your why and your what are notgoing to be the same as my why and what, but again, just answer the simplequestion.

[00:02:50] What motivates you? What do youlive for? What's your, why? What's your purpose, um, behind what you do andwhat is the belief system that drives everything you do? There are differentways to wrestle with this question. Um, that's for a different pod course, I'mnot going to go too, too much more into this.

[00:03:17] Um, but I wanted to set the tonefor our conversation on energy, um, and just encourage you to figure out whatyour, why is, figure out what your purpose is, figure out what you live for.Um, because otherwise it's going to be a challenge too. Like I said earlier,develop or restore your energy. All right. So take, take some time, figure thatout.

[00:03:42] Um, and once you know whatmotivates you maybe even hit pause on this episode, if you need to think aboutit for a little bit. Um, but now that you know what motivates you, here are afew ways to develop your energy. First one is exercise. Now, I know this is a,this isn't necessarily a new idea. Uh, it's an old idea, but sometimes the oldideas are the ones that you need to pay attention to.

[00:04:15] Um, we always look for these newways to do things or these mind blowing, you know, extravagant ideas that.Change your life? Well, sometimes it's, it's the simple, old truths, um, thatcan really help you develop your energy. So exercise, uh, maybe it's, you know,odds are, you're probably somebody that has to stare at a computer a lot during,during the day at work.

[00:04:41] So get up, go for a walk duringyour lunch break. If you're on a phone call, go for a walk while you're on thephone, use the stairs instead of the elevator, just do anything you can to getactive. Uh, do jumping jacks in the break room, uh, whatever you need to do toget your blood pump in, do some cardio with some weights.

[00:05:05] Do yoga, whatever it is that youreally enjoy. And, um, maybe you don't enjoy it, but you can really getmotivated to exercise in that, in that way. Maybe it's playing tennis orswimming so on. Um, so again, exercise is one of the best ways to develop your,if you find that you're not energetic, you struggle too.

[00:05:30] Really sustain yourselfthroughout the day. Uh, lack of exercise could be that issue for you. Uh,another way to develop your energy is sleep. I know I am guilty of this. I didit last night. I stayed up for an extra hour and a half looking at Twitter onmy phone when I could have gotten an extra hour of sleep, um, by just leavingmy phone in the other room.

[00:05:57] Um, So sleep is so critical. Weneed, I think, seven hours. Most of us need at least seven hours of sleep everynight. Um, so again, if you're lacking energy, You probably aren't gettingenough sleep or exercise. Another thing though is healthy food. So, um, again,I'm preaching to the choir here. I am guilty of wanting treats and, you know,eating junk food because it's easy when you're hungry in the afternoon at workto just grab some, you know, Doritos or whatever it is, but healthy food canreally energize you.

[00:06:40] Whereas. Unhealthy food canreally drain you. Um, emotional and spiritual health is another way to developyour energy. So maybe it's meditation. Um, maybe it is maybe you're a religiousperson and you like praying or, um, listening to spiritual music or maybereading your Bible. Again, maybe it's meditating.

[00:07:11] Maybe it's sitting in silencefor 15 minutes during your lunch break to kind of take deep breaths and relaxand kind of reset yourself. And then emotionally, sometimes this means becomingmore self-aware by going to see a therapist. And I'll talk a little bit moreabout this in the next episode, when I talk about resisting burnout.

[00:07:35] Um, but, um, Emotional and spiritualhealth. So you're not just a physical being, you're not just a mental,analytical being. You are an emotional and spiritual being. And so if you avoidand ignore your emotional and spiritual health, you're not going to bedeveloping your energy. Uh, one thing that I like to do with, um, to develop myemotional health is to.

[00:08:06] Talk through things with mywife. Now this could be like verbally processing. Um, this could be, you know,hashing out a, uh, issue or having whatever, but it's very helpful for me todevelop my energy and develop my emotional. Health by talking with otherpeople, um, and not just living inside my head. So maybe it could be calling afriend, calling a family member, um, talking with your spouse or partner,something that really stimulates your emotions, not just your mind, um, can bevery good for developing your energy.

[00:08:55] Okay. The last part. I I want totalk about is restoring your energy. How do you restore your energy? So you mayexercise frequently. Make it good sleep. You may eat healthy, maybe spirituallyand emotionally healthy. But there are times when you just have, there areseasons when you just run out and you need to restore your energy.

[00:09:18] And actually I'll take thatback. There are seasons, but there are also regular rhythms that you have tohave in order to restore your energy. So how can we restore our energy? Thefirst tip is they cations. I recommend taking vacations every year, probably acouple, few times a year. Use all of your paid time off.

[00:09:51] Um, and when I say vacation, Imean a real vacation. I mean, turning off your phone, not checking email, youcan't go on vacation for a week and check your email the whole week and thencome back and say that you you're restored and you've got your energy back andthat you had a great vacation. That's not a vacation.

[00:10:09] So take a real vacation once ortwice, maybe three times a year, depending on your situation, um, can be astaycation. It can be travel, whatever, as long as it's offline off the grid,uh, from your work life. And then the second tip on restoring your energy isevery weekend. Take a 24 hour break from email.

[00:10:37] Instant message and work. So,um, you might call this a 24 hour Sabbath. It doesn't have to be Sunday. Itdoesn't have to be Saturday. It could be Friday night at 6:00 PM till Saturdaynight at 6:00 PM. It could be Saturday at 1:00 PM to Sunday at 1:00 PM. Howeveryou do it, just make sure you have 24 hours straight every weekend.

[00:11:06] And if you have to shift it oneweekend because of a big project or whatever fine. Instead of doing a 9:00 AMto 9:00 AM, Saturday to 9:00 AM Sunday, maybe you do 9:00 PM Saturday to 9:00PM. Sunday. It doesn't really matter. What matters is that you have a 24 hournon interruption time. 24 hour offline, no email, no work, no calls, no texts,no instant messages for 24 hours straight every single weekend.

[00:11:39] This is the biggest key to mycurrent health. Uh, and in my executives, current rhythms, um, this is huge. Ifthere's no reason that you have to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week.Sure. You might have to work six and a half days or whatever. Um, but havingthat 24 hour break, just kind of resets you and helps you restore your energy.

[00:12:03] So again, first thing is takereal vacations, but then have a 24 hour Sabbath. 24 hour break every weekend aswell. And then the last thing under restore your energy is to change yourscenery. So get a change in scenery. Now this could mean maybe you go to theLake for the weekends, or maybe you have a second home that you can escape toon Friday nights and come back Saturday nights.

[00:12:36] Um, sometimes it's as simple asgoing in. To your garage in your backyard, um, and kind of spending some timein there. Sometimes it could be while you're at work in the middle of the day,instead of sitting at your desk for eight hours straight, maybe you go offsitefor lunch and then you stay offsite for another hour or so working from theremote site.

[00:13:05] I found this is very helpfulwhen I get stuck on a project or I really just get in a rut. It's just, justget up, take my laptop, leave my desk. Maybe even go to a conference room andwork in a conference room for an hour or two sometimes go down the street to acoffee shop. Or if it's at the end of the day, I might even go and work fromfour to 5:00 PM at a, at a local bar for happy hour, whatever it is that youneed to do wherever you, you have options to go to.

[00:13:34] Take advantage of those. Get achange in scenery to really mix things up and give you that jolt of energy. Allright. So recap for episode six, the key to reclaiming your time, energy andproductivity is to develop and restore your energy. But again, figure out whatyour motivation is. What's your, why, what do you live for?

[00:14:02] And then once, you know, whatmotivates you develop your energy with exercise, sleep, healthy, food, andemotional and spiritual health. Making sure you spend time on your emotionaland spiritual health, and then restoring your energy. Take a real vacation. Um,a couple of times a year. Use all of your paid time off, don't be one of theseAmericans that, you know, says, Oh, I've got 30 days and I've only used 30 daysof PTO.

[00:14:38] And I've only used two of them,or I've only used seven of them this year. And Oh, well, don't be like that.Take all of your paid time off and then take a 24 hour Sabbath every weekend.No email, no calls, no work for 24 hours straight. And then change in scenery.So try to move a move from your desk and find a different spot and get thatjolt of energy, um, just from a change in scenery.

[00:15:05] So I hope this is helpful. Um,these are the things that have helped my executive. And other executives thatI've worked with and other assistants I've worked with and helped myself, um,develop and restore my energy. And so I hope that they help you do the same.All right. We've reached our last and final episode coming up is episode seven,the seventh key to reclaiming your time, energy and productivity, and that'sresisting burnout.

[00:15:36] So we're going to talk aboutthat in the next episode. Stay tuned. Look forward to it. Have a good one. Whatyou just heard was seven keys to reclaiming your time, energy and productivity,a Himalaya learning audio course. Be sure to check out all of the otherexclusive courses in the Himalaya app or on himalaya.com.