Jim Cathart is a friend and a great speaker. To manage your energy, Jim feels you need to find the pace at which you perform best. This is the "zone" at which you are most creative, unstressed, happy, and productive. He defines the "zones" as follows:
- Above The Zone: First you experience stress and frustration, then anxiety, and finally burnout. At this level you are overwhelming yourself with too many things to accomplish at one time. Lighten up a bit to get back on track.
- In The Zone: You are at your best. Not stressed, going with the flow of work naturally, productive and self assured, challenged but not overwhelmed, motivated and able to roll with problems.
- Below The Zone: First you experience boredom, then apathy, and finally depression. You feel useless and artificial; self-esteem suffers. Bite off more and take greated challenges to get back on track.
Finally, protecting and replensihing your emotional energy is critical for every leader. Mira Kirshenbaum, in her book The Emotional Energy Factor, offers a refreshing, down-to-earth approach:
First you plug the leaks: learn to recognize what drains your energy…life situations, toxic people, or habits such as worry, indecision, or guilt. Second, you identify what fills your tank – pleasure, solitude, anticipation, or fun – and give yourself more.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Looks perfectly straight to me. Of course, I’m also the type of person who allegedly [ahem! allegedly] agree with everything.
I think what he said is right. You need to put yourself as at a place where you think you wouldn’t have problems working. When you do that you are more likely to come up with more results. You should always find your zone. You’ll know your in the zone when your not stressed, work, and don’t get too mad.
I think that this guy gave me a good idea as to what people should be doing. It also gave me good perspective of what surfing is like. I liked that he described what his driver was like. He sounded liek a good Christian.
I agree, it gives new meaning to the word “selfish” which is not always a bad thing as we all once believed or have been told. Take stock of your life, no one is going to live your life for you.
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