Kay:
So, now let’s get a little real. We talked about just how. Well, sometimes just how means that you’ve got to get brutally honest with yourself and take the action.
Shi:
Which is why we want to tackle right now activation, which is one of the things we love, and we love the word activate and we’re definitely both activators on the strengths finder scale. So, glad to see that ranking for us. So likely, if you attract what you are, you probably have some activator energy too. So, you’re like, all right, how do I activate on some of this? Just how. Integration, and that’s what we want to do right now.
Kay:
Right. So, we have some really practical tips for you in how we handle it all. Now we’ve refined some things over the years and figured a lot out about ourselves and had to do things the wrong way for a really long time in order to figure out how to do it right.
Shi:
And still do.
Kay:
Oh, yes.
Shi:
A work in progress.
Kay:
Another episode for another time. But one of the things that we want to talk about very, very first is this idea of your daily energy and how your energy flows as a human. Now, you might already know this, but just in case you don’t, there are a lot of different types of people out there and how energy flows through them. So, if you are someone who says, well, I’m just more of a night person, chances are, you actually are a night person and that’s okay.
Shi:
Absolutely. It is okay. A lot of the focus is around get up early and be an early riser and we are both early risers. That is a special time for both of us. But there are lots of different ways to express as a human. What’s important is knowing what’s your individual expression especially when it comes to energy distribution and tasks and being able to complete things and count on yourself. Now, for me personally, Shila here, I know that if I do not work out first thing in the morning, I will lose the motivation to do it and I will lose it very quickly. The routine that I’ve built for myself is I work out right when I wake up. In fact, I wake up kind of crazy early, like four o’clock in the morning so that I can run my six miles and be showered and ready to still take my kids to the bus stop at 6:40 and then on with my day. Now, I’m maniacal about that because I know I won’t do it in the afternoon and lots of people can, but I can’t.
Kay:
Well, a little bit of that self-awareness can go a long way in creating habit structures for yourself that are really important. I know that pretty much after 2:00 PM, I’m likely not going to get any really hard, critical thinking done in the day. If I have a big technical email or a campaign to review, or we’ve got to really dive deep into something that requires my extreme attention to detail, I have got to tackle that before 2:00 PM. Usually, try and tackle that even before noon, between nine and noon, trying to save more of those social activities or those creative thinking activities for the end of the day, because creative thinking for me is very easy whereas analytical thinking takes a lot of my energy. So, taking that when I’ve got the energy to do it. Taking those hard tasks and eating them while I’ve got the energy to do it, instead of saving it for the end of the day and taking the tasks that are easy for me to energetically accomplish at the beginning of the day has helped set us up for success and ultimately more productivity.
Shi:
Another practical way you can activate this kind of energy in your life is to always try and leave your physical surroundings in a neutral space, whether you’re leaving your desk in a neutral space at the end of the day or your kitchen after the end of a meal. This can really help you keep good habits strong, keep on top of duties and tasks that are likely reoccurring lots for you, and keep things tidy around you so that you can be free to have bigger thinking on the inside.
Kay:
You know, there’s a techno song that goes “Activate your energy. Take your time.” So, that is what we are doing. We activate our energy. We take control of our time, and we find out when are those times that we’re most productive. We arrange ourselves so that we have these disciplinary habits in place and then we really figure out what are our priorities and how do our priorities fit into that energetic structure. Shila’s priority is to ensure she gets out six miles a day. Her energetic structure means that that has to happen at the beginning of the day. So, you do a little bit of stock onto your priorities. You take stock throughout probably about a week of observing yourself as to when you have the most and least energy, and you start to design your days in a way that makes sense for you.
Shi:
Also, when you’re tackling a to-do list, don’t treat every item equally. I know, Kay and I both have running to-do lists at all times. You probably do as well. That’s got 8, 10, 12 items on it. When you look at that, not all of them are created the same and sometimes you’ve just got to get the little ones done so you can feel better and make some progress. But when you can try and tackle the ones that have the most meaning, that advance you the most, that are most critical and important to the outcome that you’re trying to seek. If you’re running a business, usually this is the activities that are most revenue-producing. These are money-making activities. So, when you look at your list, try and use those filters so that you can strategically think about what are the actions that align with those priorities Kay just mentioned.
Kay:
You’ve got to make that money all night. Yeah!
Shi:
Yeah.
Kay:
Right, and maybe that is something when you’re looking at those priorities, those money-making activities or those important activities. If you’re a stay-at-home parent and you homeschool your kids, it could be that, that educational piece with your kids and being present in that is that priority. So, finding what it is that pulls you in that current environment can really help you to understand where those activities need to go. Not always are the things that produce the things that pull you easy or fun, but you have to do them anyway. So, being able to get pulled toward those priorities and prioritizing them while you have the energy can be very helpful.
Shi:
Alright. Another helpful activation motivation here for you is something that Kay and I have both done, which is developed mantras, phrases, chants, or values that help you in those times where maybe your internal dialogue is not being as constructive as you would like to have something that you can say on repeat or that you can press play on the inside of your mind to help just redirect your awareness and attention. So, for Kay, it’s an easy, simple, five words that she focuses on and runs through. For me, it’s a series of eight behaviors or what I like to call my values and I say them through a chant. But both of us really lean on having some kind of preconceived little phrases or collection of words that we can focus our internal energy on when things aren’t being constructive.
Kay:
Well, if you’re anything like us, that internal dialogue, which we’ll talk about a little bit more next week. That internal dialogue can sometimes run a little bit out of control and so being able to have some preset values or a mantra or words of focus that you know will pull you out of destructive thinking and into constructive thinking can help you in those times when you wake up and the alarm goes off at 4:00 AM and everything in your body screams I don’t want to get on that treadmill and it’s cold and you have every reason to stay inside and you start justifying and all of that good stuff. You’re able to bring those values, bring those behaviors, bring that mantra forward, and use it as a catalyst for moving you toward the direction of your dreams. Now, we can’t take credit for this one. This one comes right from our mentor and our business partner, Mr. Joseph McClendon III who believes in the powers of what he calls incantations that really get rooted into your neurology. This is all about training your brain to default to something that is constructive for you maybe when your internal self is being destructive.
