The Energy Circle
I’ve got a problem, and I think you might too.
Things are too loud.
There’s too much going on. I doubt any of us are thrilled by the push-and-pull nature life’s got on us. Yet, day-by-day we succumb to our lifestyle more than our goals.
Instead of being deliberate in our actions, we’re deliberate in our planning, but reactive in our actions. Every week we go through the same rut of an exhausting workday and a mentally defeating recovery session after work. Maybe -if we’re feeling it- we get a workout in or cook a healthy meal. And if we get both in, then that’s a guaranteed day with zero time left for anything else but sleep.
What about side projects? What about friendships? Relationships? These shouldn’t all have to be crammed into a 48-hour “weekend” that’s supposed to be a brief opportunity to walk through life on our own terms.
Now, my issue with all of this is there’s nothing out there that solves the core problem here. We bite off more than we can chew (thinking it’s normal) and then spend the rest of our days reactively trying to juggle it all.
And nowhere along the way is anyone telling us to pause. To take a step back from something and clear the plate. Instead, gurus tell us we just need to add one more thing: a journaling block, a breathing exercise, maybe even a new planner so we can juggle it all even better.
A mirage of personal progress, maybe. But really, it’s a cycle that doesn’t allow us to win. Just everyone else.
To me, we need to be realistic. Disciplined, even (I know, scary word). But not with our actions. With our planning. We’ve got too many shiny objects to attend to and not enough time to do so.
Below is a quick exercise you can do to see where you might be able to free up some time and quiet down the noise.
I wanted to learn how to make music with Ableton last year and stumbled upon a kid on YouTube doing just that. Funny enough, his first 10 minutes of one of his videos had nothing to do with music and everything to do with this.
System 1.1 — Energy Circle
Take a blank page and draw a circle in the middle.
Around it, write down every active “thing” in your life right now. Draw each “thing” as a ray of sunshine shooting out from your circle. Don’t just add tasks like a job, but commitments too. A job search. Gym routine. Dating. Reading list. Business idea. Weekend plans. Family expectations. Group chats. Be detailed and honest!
Then, ask yourself:
Which lines, if removed or reduced, would immediately free up my time for the more important rays?
You don’t need to redesign your whole life here and you definitely don’t have to shelve some rays forever.
But give yourself the grace to say it’s okay to come back to a certain ray of sunshine at a later date.
Believe me, the noise will start to quiet down, you’ll find more energy/time, and the rays of sunshine you shelved for now will display their true importance to you in due time.
I write a newsletter on living more deliberately that comes out every other Sunday. This was the first issue I ever published.
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