Manage Burnout for Peak Performance: Manage Your Physical Energy

How is your energy level? What about your physical energy?

If you’re anything like the clients I work with, you’ve experienced some shifts over the last 12 months, mostly related to stress. We know that too much stress without recuperation can deplete our energy, and wreak havoc on our health. Left unchecked, our body’s natural cortisol response can actually weaken our immune system. Add overeating and imbibing, we block energy production and motivation.

Some of the following strategies and tactic will help to jump-start your motivation and boost your physical energy:

• Move your body. Even if it’s only a minute of stretching, jumping up and down, or a turn about a room, corridor, or neighborhood, it can generate good feelings and elevate your mood. I have leveled up my yoga practice.
• Identify SMART Stretch Goals. Your physical SMART goals can (and need to) be related to activities and exercise, food and drink consumption, rest and relaxation, and wellness checkups with your medical care provider. (Yes, many of us have allowed these to lapse this year.) Like a big, hairy, audacious goal (BHAG), your stretch goal can be something you dream of achieving and be beyond your current capacity. In other words, you have no real idea of how to accomplish your goal. If you do know how to get it done, then it’s not really a stretch goal.
• Create healthy habits and routines that support your goals. If you find yourself lacking the necessary motivation, willpower, or discipline to complete the activities that will help you reach your goals, don’t feel bad. The reality is that the effort needed to make a decision and take action depletes our mental and physical energy. To conserve precious brain energy, create healthy habits and routines that are automatic and eliminate decision-making.

Physical Energy in Your Worklife

While we typically acknowledge that managers succumb to burnout most frequently, no one is exempt. Idealists, perfectionists, and the highly conscientious who are dedicated and committed to doing well are particularly vulnerable. As a leader in business, help others boost their physical energy:

• Ensure work environments are safe.
• Invest in building, equipment, and systems maintenance and needed upgrades.
• Learn to recognize the warning signs of burnout, before it happens. Are you or others around you easily annoyed? Are there people in your network expressing impatience or discontent? Now is not the time to ignore it. Explore with empathy and curiosity.

Peak performance requires attention to physical energy, especially when under intense pressures and not to be trivialized as “common sense”.

What action are you taking with regards to your physical energy management?

This continuing series dives deep into the four dimensions of energy. I’d love to hear from you. How have you been managing burnout? Where are you “emotionally” at this moment? Let me know how you are doing. You can reach me on LinkedIn, and on Maestro’s Facebook. You can also contact me at [email protected].

Contact me if you are interested in participating in an EQ-i 2.0 or EQ360 assessment. Or, check out the online mini-course Your Building Blocks to Emotional Well-Being and Resilience. The mini-course is complimentary for a limited time with exclusive bonuses valued at $350.