Do You Know How to Recharge Your Batteries?
Knowing how to recharge your personal energy levels is key to thriving through change, and making a positive contribution at work.
The Big Picture
Your energy levels will vary depending on your health and well-being, your engagement in your work, your rapport with your colleagues and the sense that you are making a difference in your contribution at work. Keeping your personal energy recharged is both about how you engage in the work environment and the activities you are involved in outside work. Your personal energy in the work environment can be recharged through good-quality dialogue with colleagues, or the stimulus of your work, or the creativity needed in taking forward projects. Your personal energy outside work will be related to your engagement with family and friends and the wider range of activities you are involved in.
In handling rapid change, keeping your personal energy levels recharged will be key to maintaining momentum and resilience. This may to involve carving out time in the working environment to engage with those people who give you energy and resolve. Outside of work, maintaining your personal energy will require deliberate planning. This includes the way you engage with other people and being selective about the type of intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual activities you are involved in.
Keeping fresh involves mental stimulus, emotional support and a sense of making a contribution that matters in terms of family or community life. It is also likely to involve some physical activity that enables you to keep your body and mind alert. Physical energy may not be related to age: I am conscious that I have more energy aged 68 years than I had 20 years earlier.
A Practical Example
Alex recognised the situations when her personal energy levels began to dip in the work environment. At such points she needed either a 10-minute break when she could turn her brain off, or a conversation for five minutes with one or two people who encouraged her. These were the people who gave her energy through their cheerfulness and positive demeanour.
Alex also watched how she spent her time out of the office. She knew that she needed a combination of good conversations and periods of rest and reflection alongside some intense, physical activity. Playing tennis was a passion for Alex, which she was able to do for most of the year because she was a member of a club that had indoor courts. The delight of playing tennis was a huge tonic to Alex and took her mind off work pressures.
Recharging Tips
- Keep a watchful eye on your energy levels and how they change during the week.
- Be deliberate in how you spend focused time with people at work who help raise your energy levels.
- Plan how you organise your time outside of work so that some of it is devoted to activities that will help raise your energy levels.
- Give priority to whatever activities help reinforce your physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual well-being.
