I’m a big believer in following a high energy path with anything you’re working on. If you don’t feel energy at the center of your body when you think about next steps in what you’re doing, it may be time for a change.

Eye rolls and sighs are your body’s clue that you’re on a low energy path. Sometimes these are obvious – oh, my! But sometimes only you can see and hear them like maybe when:

• Someone is going on a little too long with a story.
• Your boss asks you to do something you don’t like to do.
• You’re around someone who is so awkwardly organized you feel time draining away.
• You’re in class and a professor goes off on a topic you know nothing about.
• You’re running errands and get stuck in traffic.

Eye rolls are a sign that you’re trying to physically move away from a low-energy suck – and your eyes want to lead the escape! And big sighs are a desperate measure to get oxygen to your brain to keep you awake. Take both as a powerful sign that it’s time to focus and re-engage with what you’re doing. Or stop doing it.

I know. Making a change isn’t easy. So sometimes, you have to take what you have and just make it a little better. And then learn to stay away from that energy suck in the future!

How can you make a change in the examples above?

You don’t want to be rude and eye roll and sigh at a story that goes on too long. So can you listen harder? Find details in the story that you might not know? And next time this person comes along with a story, step away before it starts so you don’t feel trapped?

And when your boss has you doing you work you don’t like – does your boss think you like this kind of work and maybe you need to have a discussion? Or are you in the wrong job? If you’re not fully engaged with your work, you’re probably not doing a great job and you’re probably not happy which can leak out to other parts of your life.

When you’re around someone who is wasting your time, you can help them get organized to make things smoother. Or you can practice empathy and really feel for them as a person. And then you can avoid working with them in the future by being busy with work that fully engages you.

When you’ve lost the thread in a class, you can either drop out and try again later. Or make yourself focus. If the topic doesn’t engage you, study the people around you. Or ponder how the professor presents the material. If you were teaching this class, how would you teach it differently?

If your energy sinks when you get stuck in traffic, rather than fight it, use your time to engage. Listen to audio books or podcasts while you wait. Or study the colors around you. The weather outside. The details of your car’s dash. Or compose a song or short poem in your head about this traffic! When you don’t have control over your time, you have a wonderful opportunity to take a deep breath and relax into a few minutes of forced time to ponder.

And here’s one final thought. You can keep doing eye rolls and sighs. But do you really want to be that person? Do you want to sit next to that person? Do you want to be married to that person? Probably not. So why be that person? Wouldn’t it be more fun to head off in a high energy direction?

I’m headed off to Florida tomorrow to spend a week with family. I feel a bubble of happy, high energy building :). I hope you’re up to something awesome this weekend!

Last weekend, I was hiking with a friend at Wolfneck Park in Freeport, ME. We saw several Osprey nests along the coast. Check out this shot from my fun zoom camera! Isn’t she a beauty? And what an organized nest :).

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