What is draining your resource pool?

By Tracy Brinkmann

Imagine that your body is a car. Your fuel is obviously the food you put inside it, much like the gasoline you pump into the tank of any Ford, Chevy or Dodge etc. This fuel is converted into energy to propel you along your life’s course, physically and mentally. The car uses the spinning motion of the engine to generate electricity for the lights, radio, power windows, power brakes, sensors, air conditioning, safety equipment and so on. When you use more and more of these pieces of equipment on your car, your fuel is depleted faster and faster. Most of us have experienced the fuel drain when driving a long distance running the air conditioning on full blast versus how much fuel is used when the air conditioning on is not on. Or the drain on the engine when climbing a steep hill with air conditioning on versus much easier the car seems to negotiate that same hill without the air conditioning on.

These same principles work on you in your daily life. As you go though your daily activities your level of energy needs rise along with your fuel consumption. If your working hard on a stressful job you use up energy quickly and your fuel level decreases. Pausing for a good meal, pumping fuel back into your ‘tank’ raises your level back up. But one thing we need to know is that it is not always what we do that has a drain on your pool of fuel. Every action you take of course has a drain in your pool of resources. But one thing many folks do not consider is actions you do not take can have a serious drain on your fuel tank, mentally, and emotionally. Taking away energy that could be put to far more productive use. Think about if for a moment, you get up early, take an invigorating shower, and you are off to work. You listen to good music or positive motivational material on the way to work. You are feeling great as you pull up to the office.

Getting to the door you open it and there it is, the disorganized room that you have been meaning to clean up for some time. This instantly has a depleting effect on your energy reserves, bringing them down. To build on this, on your way to lunch later you remember that you need to get your oil changed, more than seven hundred miles ago. More energy gets drained away.

These are only a couple simple examples. What if you have parents that live more than a thousand miles away and you realize that they are not going to be around much longer? Or, you are working on that big project and keep putting off that one task that really is not the most appealing to you, yet is critical to the completion of the project. These are just a couple more things that will drain your energy away and yet you are not ‘doing’ anything. So you can see it is not only what you do that depletes your energy, there is also what you do not do. They distract you, make you feel guilty, and siphon away at your fuel reserves. All this energy would be far better used on accomplishing your goals.

If you flip open the hood of your car you will see power cords and fuel lines connecting the engine to all the individual components of your car. This same principle works in your life, all those inactivitys have a ‘power cord’ to them draining your battery of its precious resources. Watt by watt, gallon by gallon all these power cords and fuel lines to things like unreturned phone calls, needed oil changes, disorganized desks and homes, unappealing yet necessary tasks undone, late bills etc., all of these will slowly (or often quickly) deplete your fuel tank. What you need to do is sit down and identify and eliminate all this drainage from your life.

Below I am including a few things that are common drains on your energy resources:

Spending too many hours in front of the Television

Car needs an oil change or other service/repair

Disorganized desk, office, home, garage

Clothing that is tattered or in need of update

Home décor that does not nurture your values/preferences

Negative people
Not being in a supportive relationship
Being in a relationship that needs to end
Working with people that result in you compromising your values

Lack of proper or needed office equipment
Overwhelmed with the mass of information that is bombarding you
Avoiding conflict or confrontation
Consistently stressful work leaving you exhausted/unsatisfied
Not enjoying your job

No personal interests that stimulate your mind
Having a health issue that you are not getting help with from a qualified professional
Not getting regular physical/dental check-ups
Partaking in food that is not good for you too often

Too much month at the end of the money
Paying bills late
Paying taxes late
No plan for your financial future
Insufficient insurance coverage (life, home, auto etc)

These are but a few examples to get you started on your own list. Once you sit down and compile your personal list of items stealing from your energy pool, count how many there are. Now do you see where a lot of your energy is going? While you may not be taking action on these, you will still be expending energy on them by way of them stealing it from you. Suppose the list above was your list and each one of them represented two watts of power. Now if you only have one hundred watts to work with each day, these twenty-three items would be stealing forty-six watts from your daily one hundred. Forty six percent of your energy is depleted as a result of your inactivity, leaving you with only fifty-four of your original one hundred watts. This will obviously have a serious impact on what you can get accomplished in your activities towards your goals, dreams and desires.

But now that you realize these are stealing away from your ability to reach your goals. You can reapply some of that stolen energy to get them accomplished and cleared off of your to-do list. The simply action of beginning to work on these items, that are distracting and draining you, will give you a tremendous relief. As you take care of these one by one you will begin to additionally feel a sense of accomplishment and a boost in your energy. This boost will be a motivating force for you to take on and clear off the next item. The action on the next item will again fuel your relief, sense of accomplishment and give you yet another resulting energy boost. Through the action on each item the cycle will begin again, until you have pulled the plug on all your energy draining items.

Imagine what you will be able to do when you go from fifty-four watts up to ninety or even your full one hundred. You will feel better, you will work more effectively and efficiently and you will get more done towards your goals. Mostly I personally believe the biggest win is that you will enjoy your life ever so much more.