The Business Skills Collection: 30 Minute Reads. Bate Nicholas

olas Bate

      30 minute reads

      What will this book do for you?

      Energy. If you are reading this you would probably like some more. Perhaps to be able to stay fully alert in all those meetings, to feel like going to the gym at lunchtime, or simply to just do something with your evenings. What happened? Once, when you were a toddler, nothing could stop you! Then, as a child playing 5-a-side every lunch time and even as a teenager who could skip a night's sleep with no real downside. But now … now you seem on autocue and survival mode a lot of the time, clutching your latte to go: the “buzz” has gone.

      Most of us would probably distinguish two kinds of personal energy. There's the “mental” kind: that's feeling like doing something, having the willpower to make it happen. You've just come back from a fantastic vacation feeling pretty well-rested and had planned to go for a swim most lunchtimes but somehow a spot of retail therapy seems more attractive: you lack the mental energy, the willpower to make the swimming happen. And there's the “physical” kind: that's the “oomph” in your muscles. So although you would actually really like to get out into the garden, as it is such a lovely summer's evening, and do a bit of watering and tidying up you are just so physically shattered from the long day at the office, you cannot get off the sofa: you lack the physical energy.

      The two are strongly linked: the salesperson who closes a great deal (a wonderful mental boost) she has been chasing for months suddenly finds untold reserves of physical energy and decides to go hit the gym before going to celebrate at the pub. The person who takes a walk every lunchtime whatever their work load or the weather finds he has more “drive” to cope with poorly-run conference calls with head office in the US.

      The goal of this book is help you have more energy. Energy for every day, for dealing with the kids and the team and the email, as well as energy for the “other” stuff such as your start-up plans and archery class. We will look at the two threads we have mentioned: physical energy, that is the stamina and the “oomph” we need for so many activities; and the mental energy, that is the focus, clarity and willpower.

      Here's the structure of Bags of Energy Now

       Section 1: Boosting Your Physical and Mental Energy. We'll introduce you to two simple approaches, one to boost physical energy and one to boost mental. Both are straightforward and easy to implement.

       Section 2: Meditation: Relaxing Your Mind. Our first big idea – that we can keep stress at bay and hence we can reduce the impact of one of the biggest removers of our energy: anxiety.

       Section 3: Exercise for Boundless Energy. This won't surprise you. You know that when you feel fit you feel you have boundless energy. But this section will show you how to do it easily.

       Section 4: Nutrition for a Healthy Body. A simple diet for more energy.

       Section 5: Blissful Sleep. One of the biggest daily problems for so many: poor sleep and hence tiredness and a lack of “oomph”. How to restore great sleep and all that comes with that.

       Section 6: “Hands-On”. We're “in our heads too much”. Restoring the energy balance with some “hands-on” work.

       Section 7: Understand the Journey. Feeling you don't know where your career is going or what you are trying to do … it's no wonder your top energy drains. How to get clarity and understanding of what you are trying to do.

       Section 8: Group Connect. Friends, family … they keep the energy drainers at bay. How to keep connected in a busy, busy world.

       Section 9: Switch Your Perspective. The stress buster. Just when you feel energy plummeting, switch your perspective, look at it another way.

       Section 10: Your Action Plan. Your personal checklist to success.

      The majority of the sections will start with the big idea (e.g. getting exercise to work) and then explain how to address that challenge in more detail. There will then be a mini case study: those at home or work with the same challenges you have, that we all have; this gives us a chance to see how they implement practically the concepts. We'll also make sure your toughest questions are answered before a final summary. Everything in this book is tried and tested: it is both pragmatic and practical. We encourage you to start using the ideas immediately as that's the way this digital version was designed.

      Read on …

1

      Boosting Your Physical and Mental Energy

      The Challenge

      “Having energy” can appear elusive and complicated. We certainly remember a time when we had loads and we can still have our great days. Holidays do help but too often we simply come down with the flu. An extra coffee is OK in a meeting but one in the evening spoils our sleep. We don't allow the kids cola, so why do we knock it back several times a day to try and keep alert? And sometimes we'd like to push back on a daft idea in the marketing meeting but to be honest we simply can't be bothered. Yes, that mental buzz and that physical drive seem horribly elusive.

      In this first section, let's simplify the concept and understand how it can be within your grasp.

      The Detail

      Firstly, the two kinds of energy, mental and physical, are interrelated. So the good news is that anything you can do to improve physical will help mental and vice versa.

      And for each kind of energy, there are four main drivers or initiators of great energy.

      Firstly, physical – the drivers or components of great physical energy are:

      1. Sleep. Ask your family doctor what's the biggest worry for which his/her patients seek help and they will reveal that it is “TATT” or “tired all the time” syndrome. And that's because for an increasing number of us, sleep is not doing what it's meant to, i.e., taking a pleasantly tired body, allowing it to drop into that wonderful state called sleep for around eight hours and waking up totally refreshed and ready to face an exciting brand new day. Instead, sleep has become a troubled, low-quality experience, which seems increasingly problematic as we get older and/or take on more responsibility. We're going to show you how to get great sleep, consistently. And thus boost your daily energy reserves.

      2. Exercise. This won't surprise you. You know how fitness not only gives you strength and stamina, but also helps you feel good. But there are so many challenges: finding the time, the possible expense of a gym and/or pool and not least, the “pain” of getting fit again. We'll show you how to overcome every one of those apparent problems and much more easily than you might currently suspect.

      3. Diet. Most of us would probably agree that too much alcohol the evening before an important busy day is not a wise move. But if alcohol is the most obvious one, what else affects your energy? What does boost your energy without “cheating”? (A coffee, as you will see, is an example of a cheat. Nothing wrong with that so long as you are aware.)

      4. Meditation. Time out. Increasingly recognized as critical in a world of interrupt, distraction and too little time to just “be”. We show you a simple form of meditation and answer all of your questions. From “I have no time with my young children” to “you won't catch me doing something as weird as that”. It will also be revealed that meditation is a particularly powerful energy booster in that it not only helps you to feel physically better, but mentally, too.