In today’s world people are getting sapped of energy all the time. As leaders, entrepreneurs and employees we need to understand this simple truth. We must manage our energy if we are to succeed.
Today we are bombarded with so many different stimuli vying for our attention (and yes, I appreciate the irony that this post is also one of them) that we must learn to focus.
Why?
Because
Energy Flows Where Attention Goes!
If you are constantly having a split focus you will use up all your energy and not have any left over for the really important things you want to accomplish.
I realised this firsthand back in 2004 in a rather painful example (or metaphor) for this principle of energy flows where attention goes.
I was in Austria snowboarding with friends and while away from them, on a snowboarding lesson, I was trying my hand at some off-piste snowboarding. Through the woods!
The group was instructed, one at a time, to do this jump. As I set off, I felt I was going a little too fast for it and so started to slow down but at the same time a small tree stub caught my eye and the more I focussed on it, saying to myself “I hope I don’t hit that!” the more I started veering towards it!
And what happened?
You guess it! I hit it full force and went flying over. As I fell, I put my hands out in front of me to cushion myself. And then I felt pain. Real PAIN!
Long story short, I felt I had done some serious damage. The instructor was useless and I ended up making my own way down the mountain and to hospital. There they said just keep it in a sling for a few weeks. When I returned home, I still felt something was up and eventually went to the emergency room (A&E) and got another X-ray. It was a clear break in the glenoid fossa (part of the shoulder).
Ultimately, even after getting me ready for surgery and wheeling me down, they decided not to operate. It took me a year of dedicated physio to get back to ‘normal’. I worked on it at times up to 3 hours a day! That was 11 years ago. Today, it still gives me trouble and I don’t have the range I do with the other arm, and there’s some funky stuff going on.
All because I didn’t truly appreciate the power of the statement
Energy Flows Where Attention Goes!
Now you know. Be careful about where you put your attention because your energy will soon follow.
What do you think about this? Have you got any similar examples of it playing out in real life for you?
