Enlisting the Energy of Others

“The energy of the mind is the essence of life.” ~ Aristotle, The Philosophy of Aristotle

Starting out in the TV industry, I had a very distinct role model for completing a day of work.

You may know it well. This was the typical business model derived from the Western idealized notion of hard work, and it looked like this: going to the office early, staying late, and always meeting deadlines. The end result would inevitably consist of: coming home exhausted, spending most evenings just being tired, and watching TV until I fell asleep. To this day, this appears to be the standard working lifestyle for most people in the world.

I quickly realized that I had been intuitively operating under a completely different standard for working efficiently and expending my creative energy. In fact, I found that I was getting more work done while having fun in the process! I was a master at finding ways to meet multiple goals with less effort. I learned to recruit others for assistance and team-work. I maintained a lot of interests and passions, I got plenty of exercise, I upheld a great sense of humor, and I managed a full-time career in addition to running a household. My lifestyle was not deprived of social connections, reading books, or entertainment. I also committed myself to continuous learning. In short, I integrated all areas of my life. My career and my private life were not mutually exclusive realms.

In my years in the production business, and in my own coaching practice, I have come to find that the biggest challenge is in motivating others to putting in a truly productive and creative 8-10 hours on the job, day after day, for weeks on end. The staff didn’t have a good reserve of energy stored up to finish a contractual job, and sometimes the project either dragged on forever or was done in a mediocre fashion.

Naturally, I felt compelled to have a heart-to-heart with each of the staff. I asked them about their personal lives, and what they do after work. I was genuinely interested in hearing about what they would really need to feel balanced and content.

The biggest complaint was of needing more energy to:

• Consistently focus their creativity and productivity on the job for 8-10 hours a day, every day.
• Do more than flop on the couch in front of the TV after work.
• Explore and develop new interests and activities in their spare time.
• Exercise or play sports.
• Spend quality time with family and friends on the weekend.

Without a way to renew their energy levels abundantly, people will rarely accomplish all they set out to do. Even if they do, they might find they do it half-heartedly, merely going through the motions, so that the satisfaction one could derive from it is greatly diminished.
Consequently, I started my quest, searching for my own answers to modern workday energy dilemmas:

• How could I produce 14 hours of work for weeks at a time without losing my enthusiasm, creativity and enjoyment of the work I am producing…?

• While simultaneously maintaining my energy, mood, happiness, and well-being for the duration of the project?
The answer was: I was lucky enough to have been using Energy Engineering intuitively. Then, I studied a few ideas on how to use energy engineering, so you can do the same!