Without fuel your car doesn’t move. Without battery charge your smartphone is not that smart. And, without energy you’re not going to make a whole lot happen. It’s simple, it’s basic and it’s vital. We all need energy. So, how do you gain more energy?
The usual, and super-useful, suggestions include:
There’s also another way that might surprise you…
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In Adam Grant’s eye-opening book Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success, he points to a century old study by psychologist Anitra Karsten (Page 168-9). She invited participants to work on a repetitive task for as long as they enjoyed it and when they became tired they were able to stop. The tasks were simple things like reading poetry out aloud or drawing pictures.
Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer retells the research… Participants would keep going until their hands were numb or their voices were hoarse. Physically they were spent. The researcher then asked them to do a similar and different task. For instance, the people drawing were asked to sign their name. And, the poetry readers were asked to talk about the task they had been set. In each case, the tired and worn-out participants were easily able to summon the energy to complete the new task.
Langer concludes: “…the change of context brought renewed energy.”
This is one of the most powerful aspects of creating a manifesto: it creates a new context to operate from and therefore renewed energy. The old story about the motivational power of building a cathedral as compared to merely stacking bricks to build a wall is useful here. The context you decide to operate from is crucial. And, when you want a refresh, a recharge or a bolt of new energy, then reframing what you do might be highly useful too.
Here are three ways you can reframe what you do to shift your context:
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