> *“The world belongs to the energetic.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson* Your energy levels are one of the main determinants for your success. It's the baseline. If you have no energy, you can't really do anything. (also why [[Knowledge Workers are Athletes]]) And btw - it's a great proxy for how good your **physical** and **mental [[Health as the Baseline|health]]** are. Last but not least - **energy is correlated with happiness**. When did you last see an energetic person who was very unhappy? Yet, energy in our society is extremely underrated. You should be **beaming with energy**. What does this mean? It means that you should have such excess energy that you're: - developing passion for work - wanting to talk faster and louder (don't force yourself to do this lol) - skipping instead of walking (make sure to [[Grow Down]]) - emotionally vibrant - creative - assertive You really want energy in 3 places: - physical - so you don't get tired before the day is over - mental - so you can remain alert & focused for a long time - emotional - so you can be cheerful & optimistic I'm frequently told: > "you always have so much energy" It's one of my favorite compliments to receive. *...Personally, I always feel like I have much less than e.g 6 years ago for example - but that's neither here nor there.* ### Low Energy If we flip it - we can clearly see how not having energy is one of the worst diseases you can have. Here are some symptoms: - ***irritability*** - anything that has to be done will annoy you - and a lot of things need to be done to maintain an average life, let alone an outstanding one - The second order effect is that many (normal) things will not be enjoyable - no motivation/enthusiasm - brain fog - low confidence (especially in the face of adversity) - laziness leading to the ***path of least resistance*** - in today's world, it means you'll be addicted to cheap dopamine from social media, the phone and other time-wasting technologies - ***social isolation*** & less friends - you'll feel like going out less. - People also don't like to be friends with people who are low energy because you bring them down - ***depression*** and sadness (amidst other negative emotions) - correlation != causation, but every depressed person is extremely low energy Despite all these, society has sort of normalized low energy today. Walk outside and take a close look examining people - examine the way they walk, the way they speak and the way they stare. All you'll see is low energy. ### Where Does the Energy Come From? That's for another note. Two things: - 🔥 most energy is generated - it doesn't come by itself - 🔻 a lot of things drain your energy - you have to eliminate them ### I Can't, I Have To `<EXCUSE>` Many people will make excuses why they can't be high energy (and everything else, honestly). Even the ultra-ambitious will work themselves to the literal bone and deprive their body of sleep & other necessities for the achievement of some "higher" goal (...like simply making a ton of money for themselves and their shareholders). To this, I have one question: > *"Who wants to live like that?" - Stan* It's totally fine to temporarily not be in a position where you can afford all the primal luxuries like sleep, rest, relaxation - that's fine. Go through it. But one should always have the goal of getting away from that and if you don't do the minimum you can to get out of that bad loop - you're misguided. # Energy as Currency Your currency in life is basically a combination of [[Return on Time (RoT)|Time]] and Energy. Both are: - going down with age - finite - going away regardless of how you spend it Life is always a matter of [opportunity cost](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81Q-jkFdTFM). There are high ROI and low ROI ways to spend your time and energy. Be careful ✌️