After my last post, I’m assuming you and your team haven’t quite found the time to create a forensic spreadsheet of every energy-boosting and energy-draining moment from the past week. Your cups are likely near full by mid-January. So start small.
👉 Identify just a handful of your highest-energy and lowest-energy moments from the past week.
To do this well, we have to look at work and relationships as relational, not transactional. From an energy perspective, one-offs matter far less than recurring patterns.
Ask yourself and your team:
- What triggered those moments?
- What was your role in them? Did you amplify or dampen them?
- Critically: what patterns did you notice?
Because here’s the thing: it’s rare that something completely novel drains us.
More often, it’s something that’s pi$$ed us off before — so we react with expectation (consciously or not).
Common energy drains (sound familiar?)
- Meetings that run on and on and on, go nowhere, and end without a decision
- Strong contributions going unrecognised
- Promised resources not materialising
- Perceived favourites getting a free pass after poor performance
- So-and-so (the Rambler) rambling on so you can’t get your work done
* When any of these happen for the first time, they probably don’t drain much energy.
Add the word “again” to the end of each — you can almost feel the crash.
Less common — but powerful — energy gains
- A team member unexpectedly giving your efforts a shout-out
- Leadership sharing responsibility or decision-making more broadly
- Clear boundaries (e.g. a protected lunch hour with no meetings)
- Making it to the workout class you nearly cancelled
- An old contact who’s notorious for not keeping in touch reaches out “just to say hi”
__________________________________________________________________
When we examine patterns from an energy perspective— individually and collectively — the questions become:
➡️ Which habits add energy?
➡️ Which are neutral?
➡️ Which consistently drain it?
That pattern recognition is critical to understanding your and your team’s true energy reservoir.
In my own reflection, I realised I unintentionally spent far more energy focusing on what drained my energy than what boosted it. Neurologically, that’s no surprise. Humans are wired with a negativity bias — a survival mechanism designed to prioritise threat. Helpful once. Less so in a 24/7, always-on world.
Once I started consciously noticing the people, environments, and behaviours that boost my and my team’s energy, the impact was immediate — not just on me, but on those around me.
So here’s a couple of thoughts to ponder:
- Who/what boosted your and your team’s energy this week?
- Did you acknowledge them?
Beyond yoga retreats and meditation apps (both valid at the right time), how might we intentionally design our routines and relationships — workplaces, homes, and communities — to optimise energy and therefore performance?
This is the work I do: helping teams discover hidden (often in plain sight) energy drains, redesign routines, and improve performance without burning people out. If you’re curious what this could look like in your organisation, feel free to reach out.
💪 Bonus Fit Tip – Focusing on Physical Energy Boosting too!
The world’s leading longevity expert, Dr. Peter Attia, highlights a striking correlation between longevity and two strength benchmarks. The first:
👉 Can a man Farmer’s Carry his bodyweight, or a woman ¾ of her bodyweight, continuously for one minute (½ in each hand)?
Why it matters: it signals preserved strength, grip, balance, and metabolic resilience — all critical for avoiding age-related decline, frailty, and early mortality.
Energy isn’t abstract. It’s built — or drained — by patterns we repeat.
