Welcome to a new blog designed to have you thrive in business and life with tips that will help you create winning habits to optimize performance, generate powerful results and live with more positivity every day.

My goal is to empower you to take bigger steps than you ever thought possible by providing tools and techniques to immediately improve your results professionally and personally.

Maximize energy rather than manage time

In a world of 24/7 accessibility and need-it-yesterday mindsets, even the best time managers struggle. We expected technology to save us time, and yet many of us are drawn to check for the latest text, email or message. Terms like “crazy” and “overwhelmed” are commonplace to describe our everyday lives.

If you could wake up tomorrow with significantly more positive and focused energy to spend at work and with your family, what impact would it have on your life?

Managing energy rather than time is the secret of high performance. The number of hours in a day are set but the amount of energy and the quality of that energy is not. In the new world, energy is our most precious resource.

Learning how to manage energy more effectively is transformative to the individual and the organization.

Great leaders are the gatekeepers of organizational energy. They manage their own energy, and they invest, activate and encourage the expansion of growth in others.

Studies of professional athletes and top performers show they are successful in areas where they have created rituals to help them stay focused, energetic and positive, shown in the book “The Power Of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.

Here are some areas where you can implement successful rituals:

Diet: what are the foods and drinks which support your energy (vegetables, fruit, water, lean proteins), and which don’t (fast food, alcohol, pop, sugar)?

Exercise: science and health studies prove strength training and aerobic training feed the brain and calm the nervous system. In fact, if you build a workout into your day, you will be able to be more focused, patient and creative throughout the day.

Renewal: studies of top athletes and high performers have shown taking a break from work every 90-120 minutes allows the brain to operate at optimum rather than using up your fuel, running on empty by day’s end and becoming irritable managing others.

Behavior: what behavior is getting in the way of your success? Are you a procrastinator? Are you impatient and short with colleagues? Do you neglect to do the calls you need to make your business a success? Behavior is driven by what is important to us. Exploring values is the key to understanding what motivates you, what gets in your way and what fulfills you. If you had food, shelter and community, what are the values you couldn’t live without? Define your values and your strengths, and determine the purpose of why you do what you do. Use your renewal breaks to honor an important value and to set goals to move you into action with meaning.

Positivity: when we are fully engaged in our work, we feel positive, in flow and aware of our strengths. When we are idle, our inner critic has a chance to do a tap dance and turn a 2% truth into a self-defeating story that robs us of our confidence, makes our dreams seem out of reach and causes us lose perspective about our strengths.

Continuous effort: be consistent, and do activities that have made you successful in the past. Professional athletes put on the miles – good days or bad. If you put out the energy and effort – the rewards will come. They may not look the way you expected however diligent effort is rewarded with success.

If you were to make two changes in diet, exercise, renewal or your behavior that would make a significant impact in your life, what would they be?

Create an alliance with a friend or colleague, and commit to them the changes. It takes 21 days to create a new habit and over 30 to lock it in. Mark your own progress, and update your accountability partner.

You are the master of your own energy. Conscious choices you make today will determine tomorrow’s success.