Posts Tagged ‘energy’

Do you eat to live or live to eat…?

This is a very controversial subject and we may have different views, but we have to agree on one thing: food is a very important part of our lives.  Without it we will die physically. It is also often an integral part of socialising. Just consider how many times food plays a central role when meeting up or going out with friends or family.

Although food plays an important role in our society, it is important to remember that the primary role of food: is to be fuel for our bodies. Food is primarily important for nutrition, NOT indulgence! If you want to live with energy and increase our performance, we must consider the effect of different types of food on our physical, emotional and mental states.

For example if you eat loads of sugar and fat you will definitely experience a rise in blood sugar and a temporary “lift”, but soon thereafter you will experience a sudden drop in your energy levels and feel tired. If you want to sustain your energy throughout your day, there are two simple strategies.

1. Eat a low GI diet, (GI = glycemic index.) Foods which have a low GI slowly release energy during the day and in this way sustain you for longer periods of time. You will therefore not experience large variations in your energy levels during the day.

Examples of low GI foods are: full grain, bran, oatmeal, milk and whole wheat bread.

2. Eat around six smaller meals instead of three large means. Blood sugar levels tend to drop after a few hours.

By eating small, healthy portions of low GI food through the day, you will sustain your energy levels throughout the day.

These two eating habits will help you to work with energy throughout the day. Allowing you to work harder for longer without feeling additional strain! This will have a huge positive effect on your performance.

Have you ever wished you could just stand out above the crowd? Wished that you could be someone extraordinary or do something extraordinary, which will inspire others? Yearning for something that will give you the edge in your performance, something that will help you to be recognised by your peers as well as your superiors, something that will help you to really LEAP forward and upwards in life?

All of us do, at least at some point in our lives.

In order to find the essence of what it is that makes people stand out, we need to look at those individuals who give the impression that they have something special, an unnamed quality, a certain “X-factor”. We all know people like that, those who appear to stand out above the crowd, individuals who take everything in their stride and always seem to have loads of energy – The Obama’s, Oprah’s, Richard Brandson’s, Mandela’s and Steve Job’s of this world. When the odds are against them, they seem to rise to the occasion and thrive under enormous pressure. There is a lot that we can learn from them. One of their biggest success / performance characteristics is that they Live with Energy And Passion. It is this attitude, drive and commitment that makes them LEAP in life and rise above the rest. They believe in what they are doing and they go for it 100% without holding anything back.

Realise that it is possible for you to do and have the same. If they can do it, so can you! Here are two suggestions how you could develop this winning attitude of these extraordinary individuals.

The first suggestion is that you need to understand that there are two very important sides to living with high levels of energy. On the one hand, you need to constantly push yourself just outside of your comfort zone. This means that you must always strive to improve yourself in every area of your life and not be afraid to try something new.

You have to consciously decide to challenge yourself. At first this is a very difficult choice to make. It’s not easy to deliberately move outside of your comfort zone. The uncertainty will increase the fear inside you. Expect this, but know that in the bigger picture you are increasing your capacity and performance, which is the difference between ordinary and extraordinary.

On the other hand you also need to allow yourself time to recover your expended energy. You were not made to constantly push ourselves without taking time to recover. If you do, you will eventually have no energy left and just fade away or burn out. Recovery time is essential! Regain your spent energy and give your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual muscles time to grow. The key to high energy levels is to find the right balance between pushing yourself and then taking time to recover. In our “Energy to Perform” seminar we give specific suggestions on how to do this in order to increase your performance immediately.

The second suggestion is that it is just as important to live with passion as it is to live with energy. Your level of passion or enthusiasm is a direct consequence of how much you believe in what you are doing. If you know what your purpose in life is, if you truly believe in it and bought into it whole-heartedly, you will be overflowing with energy, passion and drive. If you are passionate about what you are doing, you will go the extra mile effortlessly. You will not do anything half heartedly. Passionate people are those who’ve incorporated their vision and their purpose into every area of their lives. They live their passion – and this inspires others to also take action.

To live with such passion, ask yourself what you truly believe your mission and life purpose is. Write and rewrite it until you have it in a single sentence. Put this “statement of purpose” somewhere where you can see it on a daily basis and read it every day until it becomes part of who you are. Make it your ultimate mission in life to fulfil this purpose. You’ll find that your passion will increase the more you commit to this purpose.

If you want to stand out above the rest and be an extraordinary person, you need to be passionate about what you are doing. If you want to be able to carry on fulfilling your life purpose when others around you are quitting, you need to make sure that you have made the expending and renewal of energy a daily habit in your life.

Live with Energy And Passion in everything you do and you will truly be outstanding – you will LEAP in Life!