E=WELL, EVERYTHING ...The Lost Discipline

Give it a rest Guys

OK, that sounded harsh. It wasn’t meant as a rebuke … it’s my introduction to this post.

Here’s the looking glass model again.

Now notice the title: Mobilizing, Focusing and Renewing Energy. Today I want to dig deeper into the “renewing” part.

Our society has lost all knowledge about the importance of recovery and renewal. Everyone acts like they’re an energizer bunny that can just keep going and going and going. We look suspiciously at people who walk around saying that they talk to God, but we do nothing about the millions who walk around acting as if they ARE God (as evidenced by their belief that they have a limitless supply of energy …. which is measured by their complete lack of pursuing energy renewal).

We have an energy crisis …. a human energy crisis. I’m a broken record on this topic and will continue to be until people listen. We are finite creatures with limited energy … energy which must be renewed and energy which must be focused for optimal use (we’ll get into that in much more detail in August).

Energy Renewal

From the June 8 post, let me remind you of Energy Principle # 2:

Because energy capacity diminishes both with overuse and underuse, we must balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy recovery.

Both of you know what happens you maintain exertion for too long without a break; you get fatigued. You are capable of lifting a 10-lb weight straight out to the side (arm extended sideways) 200 times … if you did it in 20 sets of 10-reps, followed by a period of rest between each set. Get it all done in 10 minutes. But if I told you to simply hold a 3-lb weight out the side (arm extended) for 10 minutes, even Schwarzenegger would shake his head NO. Why? Because with very little life experience we all quickly learn that it is not intensity of energy expenditure that produces burnout, impaired performance and physical breakdown … but rather the duration of expenditure without recovery. This is why interval training has become such a key part of physical training. Even marathoners spend the majority of their time in interval training … because it strengthens the mind as well as the body.

Speaking of the mind, it turns out that it works the same way. You’ve seen people (maybe even yourself) work on a crossword puzzle until they get stuck. They set it down and go grab a coffee or take a walk or just do something else. 10 minutes later they return, pick it up, and get 3 or 4 more words. Did they get smarter in those 10 minutes? Of course not – they simply gave themselves recovery. The brain, like the body, requires a recovery period between periods of stress or exertion.

We tend to understand physical fatigue more readily. The muscles physically fatigue and we feel that burn when, in the absence of oxygen, glucose and glycogen is used as a fuel, and the rapid breakdown of these “sugars” produces lactic acid. We are less aware of the biochemistry of mental fatigue … that a natural depletion of specific chemicals occurs and lessens the ability for synaptic firing. The mechanisms are different, but we can also experience emotional and spiritual fatigue, requiring recovery and renewal in those areas as well.

Regarding the natural fatigue of life, here some technical aspects of how to think about this as it relates to our emotional side:

See if you can assign the following 20 emotions to the 4 quadrants (hint: 5 in each):

Serene    Angry    Burned out    Confident    Depressed    Joyful    Fearful    Tranquil

Anxious    Relaxed    Exhausted    Mellow    Connected    Challenged    Defensive

Defeated    Resentful    Hopeless    Peaceful    Invigorated

This means that we need to become aware of which emotions are high/low negative and which are high/low positive. The negative ones provide us a barometer of dysfunctions within us. As for the positive ones, we need to intentionally oscillate between high and low for the sake of energy renewal.

Here is a simpler version that I hope resonates with you. It helped me when I first saw it.

Recovery is a lost discipline. What I have learned is that I need to intentionally – strategically – tactically, building recovery into my life … into my routines … into my schedule. The world around me is suffering spectacularly from this lack of discipline. Society itself even seems to be hardwired against it, spreading the notion that taking time for a break or rest is a sign of weakness. Actually, it is a sign of wisdom. The final 10 years of my career were my most productive … BECAUSE I learned to build recovery into my routines. More specifically, I built strategic disengagement into my life … that way, I was able to be more fully engaged when I needed to be.

I love you both very much.

Dad