Introducing: ‘First, know thyself’ Series E#01: How to master your 4 Energy Tanks 🔋

🧩 The Wanderer Newsletter #02

Hello there!

In “The Wanderer” newsletter I share some learnings & experiences lived along the way of building a tech company and meeting great people. It does not constitute in any manner universal truths, far from it, but more methods, ideas & thought-processes that can broaden your own perspectives when approaching your day-to-day challenges, help you advance on your goals and live a better life.

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💡 Introducing ’First, know thyself’ Series

“The inner world rules the outer world.”

This fancy quote expresses what happens everyday: our history, our views of the world, our awareness dictate how we behave, act or communicate with others. It makes it easy for us to resonate with similar type of people, or more challenging with some that are coming from a different angle.

Knowing oneself and these beliefs is a powerful tool if you want to build, create, collaborate or live great experiences.

Every time I’ve witnessed wise people do great things or be inspiring, this was most often because they had a deep understanding of the following:

• Their purpose and their values 🌅

  Being able to articulate the Why they wanted to do something. Being conscious of their purpose in life, being able to also express how they wanted to do it. Tools and methods exist to help you put words on this quest of purpose, and clarify the values that make your own personal system

• How they and others communicate 🗣

  DISC or Processcom frameworks can help here. Knowing what they need to know to contribute and answering these needs: do they always need to know the objective? do they need to have a good relationship with you to contribute? do they need to understand the broader context?

  Understanding their behaviors under stress on top of their natural ways of communication can help them maximise not only their impact but also the harmony of their personal or work relationship.

• How to put their Energy at work 🔋

  They were able to use not only their skills in problem-solving, but also their inner Energy to resolve the situations and lead others to achieve shared aspirations.

When I’ve seen it in action, it can be magical! At the end of series we will have a common glossary to use these different ideas moving forward and be able to (1) progress in the awareness of who we are (2) how people communicate (3) how we can put our energy at work. Let’s start the series with Energy.

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🔋 How to master your 4 Energy Tanks

— Photosynthesis chemical reaction, here the Sun brings the necessary Energy to make it happen.

As we learn in high-school, to allow a chemical reaction between A & B you have to bring energy. For the photosynthesis of CO2 into O2 for example the sun plays this role. The same principle applies in our everyday life. The difference is that the required energy comes from you. You bring this energy.

When you’re young, you cannot pass an exam, perform a sport competition or a concert if you’re low on energy. And we all received sound advice like this in our youth: “Sleep well the night before your test” - “Try to free your mind and be in the moment” - “Be positive, or you’re going to fail your driver license!”.

All of these are in fact words that encourage us to pump up our Energy tanks. Get them above the threshold below which we’re not a great person to be around, do not drive harmony around us or do not achieve good work.

Building, creating, giving birth to ideas & projects or building a new relationship works the same. You have to put a lot of energy into it.

The first step to progress towards mastery is the awareness of the different types of Energy. Then, the trick is to identify what small activities can help you restore these tanks. In order to build a system around it.

If you do this, you maximise at least your chances to do great and trigger good luck for your projects 🍀🤞!

What are these 4 energy tanks?

— During the day the level of our energy tank varies, sometimes going below the threshold where we’re not a great person to be around to or are not performing well.

• 🏃🏻‍♀️ Physical Energy: “Mens sana in corpore sano”. Eating, drinking or sleeping habits impact it. Typically this tank goes down as the day advances. Personally, this is why I often try to do the highest-demanding energy activities in the morning. And also exercise a few times a week.

• 🌤 Emotional Energy: this tank links to our emotions and our mood. Life events and personal problems can impact it. Being aware of our current mood and how it impacts our behaviours is key.

• ⚡️ Mental Energy: when you have a lot on your mind (family, friends, personal things, other tasks than the one you’re onto) your mental energy can be impacted. You lack focus. You cannot stay more than 10 minutes without having your mind wandering around. Being able to compartmentalise is a muscle to practice. To ensure when you’re onto something, you can stay 1h focused on it. Another trick can be to tackle what’s on your mind, because if you don’t you cannot properly do what you’re supposed to.

• 🌅 Spiritual Energy: this tank is filled when what we’re living and doing everyday is aligned with our life purpose and our values. When we’re in peace with what we are living. When we feel our day-to-day job makes sense. The environment around us, the people we work with hold the same values close to their heart. When there’s a mismatch this is when this tank is low. In the 3rd article of this series we will explore more how to verbalise these elements (at least from a professional point of view) and start optimising our life around it.
  

✅ Practical checklist to master your energy tanks:

• Know your energy tanks: Physical, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual.

• Organise your daily routine & activities according to the moments when you have enough energy to tackle them.

• Create room & space in the day to identify where your levels are and what impact they can have on your behaviours or communication.

• Physical energy is the easiest tank to improve through discipline: sleep, eating & drinking habits, taking well deserved holidays but ‘professional fatigue’ kicks in.

• Mental energy (focus) can be improved through traditional productivity and concentration technics (ex: Pomodoro, breaking work into small pieces, avoiding interruptions to stay in flow, forcing your mind to stay focus and not wander around, etc).

• For Emotional energy I found music to help a lot, as well postponing when I am just not in the right state of mind.

• Spiritual energy is the longest to improve as it requires to align what you do with your purpose & values. For example it can be achieved through a change of work, environment or team.

There are unique & personal ways to recharge these tanks. What matters is to have this in mind if you're not performing great, or not having a great relationship with other people. Knowing how to fill these tanks will enable you to achieve your goals and more importantly live a life with more harmony.

— Nico