Health

Are you drained as a parent?!

Having kids disrupts your old routines, your old habits. Things you might have done for years and years now feel like dragging you down, are not motivating you anymore. The interrupted nights early mornings and constant demand for attention, don’t help in this area as well. Sound familiar?

Draining your energy.

Important to understand is that you drain your energy, this might have gone unnoticed before but with kids you might starting to notice this. To be honest I never paid attention to what drained my energy. I just did my work, what was expected from me and at the end of the day went home. But now with kids I have less time to recharge myself and I get punished for draining all my energy during the day.

Energy drainers.

To be honest I when I became a dad, I had a period that I did not like my job anymore. I had this before but never thought much about is. But now I know that this is just a signal that I let my work drain my energy to much. I don’t do work that get me into the zone or in the flow. But these activities are important. These activities are probably the activities we see as fun and we love to do. These might even get use excited. This is where we gain energy.

Reversing your drainers into gainers

Yes, it is that simple you should convert your energy drainers into energy gainers. But how? First you need to be aware what is draining the energy from you. For me, its long meetings with many people and having to wait to the point that everybody is aligned, this process takes time but for me it is hard work. Especially if I have to explain it again and again. There are a few ways of dealing with it, first is focusing on the positive, for example I am helping others to understand, or you picture the bigger picture, by looking what this will help to achieve. Important to know here is that what you focus on impacts what you will notice. (more on this in a next blog)

Gain that energy.

To conclude, you are the keeper of your energy levels. Be aware what gives and takes energy from you. The simple conclusion is do more of what gives you energy and if that is not possible try to shift your mindset and try to find the positive in what you are doing, in what you are contributing towards.