Today. I want to talk about the difference between energizers and drainers, and I want to expose you to a tool that will help you categorize them both. And I think the clarity that you'll get from that exercise will be key because one of the things that can oftentimes engulf us in midlife is again... Sometimes there's a malaise, there's a fog, there's a haze. There's something obscuring the clarity that we need to truly get at what it is that we want and what we don't want. And sometimes pulling back that veil simply requires us to download things from our brains and get them out on paper... Cause your body tells the score.
There are a lot of things that we encounter during a day, during a week, during a month, during a lifetime that we know get under our skin- that we know drain us of energy, sucks the life out of us, depletes our souls in particular ways. And we may have never actually given them voice. We may have never actually gotten clarity on what those things are and capture them and crystallize them in ways that we can look at them and then actually deal with them and make decisions about them.
I recently did this at my day job, my nine to five. I've got a number of roles that I fulfill at my work. I've got a title that is not all encompassing of what I actually do. It's one part of what I do, but it's only one fourth of what I do. So the title itself is quite deceptive. But there is a function that I perform at work that I have come to realize (I may have always known it for awhile), but I've come to realize actually drains me.
I don't look forward to doing this function. I don't look forward to being responsible for this area of the business. I don't want to be the expert in this area of the business, over these functions. I don't want to have these responsibilities and there is no part of me that desires to get better or improve in this particular area.
Now I don't want this area of the business to fall. I don't want it to fail. It's obviously an essential part of the business. Otherwise, why have me do it? Why have it be a part? So I recognize it has to get done, but at the same time know that I don't want to be the one to do it because it is not something that lights me up.
And not everything in life has to light you up. Not everything has to be something that you look forward to, but make sure that it's not something that actually takes life from you, that drains you of energy, that you know makes you weary just to think about it. And that's what this area of my work life does for me. That's what's happened.
And I made a decision about a week or so ago. I actually probably made this decision quite a while that I was going to get rid of this function from my life that I was going to one way or another, no longer be doing this thing. The plan a was to simply let my superiors know that, listen, this is no longer a function that I want to do. I would rather give it to someone else. Here's our plan to transition it.
And I would rather focus on the other things that I have on my plate. Cause that's where I believe I can add the most value or even add more value and not have my attention split in so many different directions. That was plan A. Plan B was that if I could not agree to let the company separate me from those responsibilities then I will separating myself from the company. That would be plan B.
So I had a conversation with my leadership and expressed to them my desire, what I would prefer to be doing, how I envision the transition going, who I would envision transitioning this responsibility to and by when it could happen. And I was never worried that it would be met with negativity. I presumed that if I brought it in a thoughtful manner, that it would be met with equal honor respect, and it was. My leadership was okay with that, honored my desire to no longer do this, respected my plan to transition it to someone else, supports it and plans to be an advocate for it happening.
And I put forth a date that was probably a little aggressive and I kinda knew that probably wouldn't happen by then. I've been with this company long enough to know that things of this nature, the moving of the chess pieces on the board, tends to happen at specific times during a year so that I pretty much knew.
So that's one of the things that I am in the process of removing from my life because it drains me. So when it comes to energizers and drainers, there's something that's called an energy audit and you can go www.secondhalfsuccessplan.com/post/episode5. And you'll see the show notes there, but you'll also see a place where you can download this energy audit.
It's a worksheet that I've created. I did not invent this. I don't know who invented this. I learned of this. And I thought it was very, very good and I wanted to bring it to my audience.
But it's basically where you do an audit in five areas of your life. People, places, projects, habits, and thoughts.
And there are two columns under each of these categories on one column you have energizers. And on the other side, you have drainers and you simply list on one side, the things that energize you, the people that energize you, the places, the projects, the habits, the thoughts that energize you, that give you life, that bring you joy, where you experience pleasure. And the other side, you list those things that drain you. The things that are going to suck your soul, steal your life essence. That you don't look forward to doing, they make you worry. You tire of doing it. Your body physically responds negatively to these things.
They drain you and you make a list of these things.
Maybe not all of them at once. It could be a growing list. Sometimes you encounter certain things. This can be anything from the minor to the major, the mundane, to the miraculous. But it's helpful to make this list because what you see very clearly the things that again, give you life, the things that drain you of that life.
And once you have that list solidly created, then you make a concerted effort to once a week select something from that list, either from the Energizer list or from the draining list and make a concerted effort to remove that from your life that week, if you can. So again, if I made this list, this this function with my job, what was one of those things that I wanted to release- that I wanted to get rid of out of my life, because it drains me.
And so I've taken the steps to remove that from my life. It could be other things like there's a certain chore that, you no longer want to do... To the degree that you can delegate it or eliminate it, do that. So that will be exercise.
So again, www.secondhalfsuccessplan.com/post/episode5. There'll be a link for you to download this sheet. I highly encourage you to do this. The clarity that you'll get from seeing these things on paper adding to it over time, seeing things eliminated over time, simply shifting more of your time and your energy towards those things that at the very least don't drain you of life and even better. If you can add things that energize you, you'll be all the more better for it. Take care.
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