Prioritizing Your Energy The Right Way For The Demands Of The Day | Ep 105

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to Never Stop Building, where we discuss all things business, growth and leveling up to become the most elite version of yourself. We're here to challenge fear and, shattered out, let's dive in Everybody. Welcome back to Never Stop Building. Your host, sam Kauffman, here as always, incredibly happy and excited and grateful to be talking to you today.

Speaker 1: 0:27

Hey, today's podcast topic is prioritization, and not just prioritization in what probably sounds like the most boring lame possibly I don't feel like listening to this podcast but prioritization in the sense of not just in the macro of how do I prioritize the big stuff, but more so in the micro, of how do I prioritize in the moment when seasons are changing? And this is not, this is to be distinguished of like. This is not a way for you to avoid doing the things that you need to be doing. This is a way for you to prioritize properly as to how much energy you actually output into the bucket that day. Right, and so you know like. I'll give you like real world examples so you kind of understand what I'm talking about right now. Like you know, from the last couple of months to now, what's been going on in my life required a prioritization, change of energy output, and so I still stuck to everything I wanted to stick to. I still stuck to the fitness goals, I still stuck to the cadences with my wife, I still stuck to the spending time with my kids. I still stuck to the career goals, I still stuck to the spiritual goals and I still hit. I still stuck to the goals. But the amount of energy and output, things got changed over the course of the months because the season had changed. We moved, things changed, we shifted things. With the remodel company, I took the leadership role with WinRaid Consulting, went all in on coaching and sales and marketing for WinRaid, and so in all of those transition periods I couldn't do the same output into the buckets the same way that I did them from January to October of last year.

Speaker 1: 2:15

And what I've seen happen with people and I see this because I used to be this right what I've seen happen with people is that when the season changes and the pivot is necessary and the energy output has to shift, people panic and more often than not people actually quit goals altogether because it's if I can't give it 100% of my energy and attention, I might as well give it 0% of my energy and attention and it's just way off base. Showing up every day is not 100% all the time. Every time. Showing up every day means showing up every day, and so what I want to share is like how to recognize some triggers of when energy outputs need to change, and I think the first one that's the easiest to recognize is that you're mentally distracted when you show up for the thing. And so if you're showing up to the gym and you just cannot stop thinking about the anxiety of that other thing, that other thing that needs your attention, that other thing that's bothering you, that other thing that really needs something, and maybe it's something that you're avoiding and it very well might be something that you're avoiding a decision, you're avoiding making a conversation, you're avoiding having a relationship, you're avoiding, maybe, ending money, you're avoiding spending or a financial decision, you're avoiding making whatever it might be like those that thing. That's a trigger for me. If I'm in the gym, or I'm with my wife, or I'm with my kids, or I'm at work, and I'm constantly eaten up by the anxiety and angst of a thought that won't go away and keeps coming up and keeps coming up. It's my trigger to go, take action, and now that could be a quick action. It might not take a ton of energy, but what's happening is like.

Speaker 1: 3:58

I'll give you an example yesterday morning, yesterday morning you know, I go to the gym in the morning for weight training. We go train at six at the gym and yesterday morning I had a work thing bothering me and it wasn't even a big deal, it was just a report input that I needed to get done. That I just I was going to do it the night before but, honestly, my days have been super full, like full full. Like working at life 18 hours every single day, just trying to get six hours of sleep at best, which you know, it is what it is. I love it working at life 18 hours a day, and what I chose that morning was to go get my report inputted instead of getting to the gym by the designated time. I would rather sacrifice six minutes of my workout to get this thing done, because, had I not, I never would have stopped thinking about it.

Speaker 1: 4:57

To me, that's a prioritization shift for the thing that I believe really needs my attention and, to be honest, how do I trigger, like, what really needs my attention? It's not typically the thing I want to do more, one of the triggers. For me, personally, is acknowledging the thing that's giving me the angst, giving me the anxiety, giving me the obsessive thoughts. That's really the thing that I want to knock out more than anything else. Most days that's not the case. Most days I'm caught up. Most days I don't forget to do my end of day, whatever I wanted to do, the end of the day. Most days I'm super disciplined, but that day before I chose shutting it down and I chose suspending some time in my family and I chose sleeping as a prioritization. And the next morning I chose to get caught up on something that would have bothered me for three hours had I waited until quote unquote work started to get that done, and so I made the intentional shift and pivot of my energy and my time to do the thing that would cause the angst. Now I do this often.

Speaker 1: 6:02

Everybody goes through different levels of overthinking. What I've learned about myself is that I'm very, very good at overthinking and I've done it my entire life, and so one of the things that has really bred probably the most results in my life has been working towards eliminating overthinking by working towards acknowledging the triggers of when I'm overthinking and then shifting the process completely on decision making and, like that to me, eliminates so much wasted energy expenditure. Because that's pretty much what happens here. It's not that the pillars don't matter, it's that in the moment, the season, the week, that's what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about so much like like oh, it's q2. And because it's q2, I kind of want to shift some focus over here. I want to I'm talking about in the micro.

Speaker 1: 6:56

The micro is what gets most people. Most people understand the macro and you, when you show somebody how to lay out a year, year goals, year planning for their business, for their life, for their marriage, whatever, it's very comprehensible. How to lay it out, how to see it, how to visualize it, the process of your watching this, either like in a reel or on YouTube, the post that's behind me, that wall, is like we just knocked a bunch of those off from q1, which is awesome. But most people understand that macro. Where I feel like people get lost is inside of the micro decision making that leads to the real, real result and the real eliminated angst and anxiety. And the micro decision making is the hardest because when you make a decision to, say, work instead of get to the gym by a certain time or spend time with your kids, because the trigger like I'll give you another.

Speaker 1: 7:48

I like to use my own life examples to share this stuff because I don't think there's anything more valuable than actual experience or witness right. Experience or witness opinions can be valuable in certain circumstances, for sure, but typically an opinion is most valuable when it is based out of wisdom which is gained over time, either through witness experience, something like that. But generally it's not just made up and I'll give you my kids, the past couple nights have like really wanted my attention and I didn't really pick up on it much. Like, even when I work really hard, even when I'm like 430 up nonstop till 7, 730 at night, even in those days, like I always, always, always, I would say 95% or more of the time of the days of the year I make time for my kids in the evening. Sometimes it's 30 minutes and I fall asleep on the couch, and sometimes it's two hours to watch a movie or through whatever. We definitely spend a ton of time on weekends. Like I prioritize my family big time. Like I don't, I would never not do that. One day they're gonna be old enough that they're not gonna wanna hang out with me like this anymore and when that time comes, shit. I'll just spend more time with my wife or we'll just work more, make more money, whatever. But in this season, with the age they're at and the fact that they wanna hang out with mom and dad like I'm, I like being a dad. I love being a dad. That's important to me, always has been.

Speaker 1: 9:20

Now, that being said, the other night the kids were like kind of hanging all over me. I didn't notice, I wasn't complaining, I liked when my kids wanna spend time with me. But my wife came up and said hey, you need to book a little bit more time with the kids. I got a little defensive and I was like, man, I'm here every night like I'm doing what are you like? What the hell? Like I am making time. I know I'm tired, I know I'm a little exhausted, I know things are happening, but like I am making time and doing the things.

Speaker 1: 9:48

And she was like, yeah, but they're showing the triggers right. They're making it clear subconsciously that they need more of you. That's why they're hanging all over you, they're touching you, they're hugging you, they want your attention, they're making jokes, they're like arguing over talking to you Like they're feeling like they need more of you and in the moment, like that's hard to hear and like I didn't wanna hear it because I want to believe that I'm doing everything that I can and I'm doing all that is possible and I'm putting my energy in the right buckets. But sometimes we're not always putting our energy in the right buckets and the flip side of that too is part of my like proactive communication. Response to that was I'll give them more.

Speaker 1: 10:31

But I'm also in a season of. I'm also in a season of of really full days, and I can't promise or guarantee that like right, this moment I'm gonna have a lot more consistently. Like this is sort of what it's going to be. But like that night I went and very intentionally spend extra time. The next night I intentionally went and spend extra time, but that it just won't be every night.

Speaker 1: 10:54

But see, like where we can shift energy for a day or two makes all the difference. And it doesn't have to derail everything that you're working on, because I've still hit all of the things I needed to hit. I just shifted around a little bit. I did it one or two things a little earlier. I got some stuff done a little quicker. You know, like my workouts are typically about seventy to seventy five minutes. I've been knocking them out in fifty to sixty two minutes ish. Like you can do a lot, like you can shorten rest times, lift not quite as heavy. Like you can do a lot to shift energy output, Still be able to hit all of the things and have more energy for other stuff. You know so, like I can't do that necessarily, like with work, and I'm not gonna do that with my wife on date night and I don't want to do that spending time with my kids. But the area is like going to the gym. The area is like, really, there are areas that are Very much for me, that are very long term, that have, no, they're not gonna end, they're not going anywhere, they're not relationship focused and though they are incredibly important, I can prioritize properly.

Speaker 1: 11:52

To say like this will sacrifice some energy, this will sacrifice some energy. I take the bottom. Say like five things are most important to me, right. Like there's five roles that are most important to me. Right, husband, father career. Right, director of revenue career, my, my relationship with God is first. As for an athlete, right, like those are the most important. And then, like we got, we do some friends stuff intermittently but, admittedly, like, even the friend stuff is very much rooted in family and spirituality and like our church family and friends. So, anyway, my point being, those in the five ish buckets that I'm willing to give myself to, I have to be able to prioritize properly the energy output into each bucket and be able to sacrifice From the sacrifice of all bucket. And so, like this week, again, like athlete, is the sacrifice of all bucket from a output perspective, but then, from, like, an eating perspective, I make sure I'm 100% on target because it makes me, makes me feel like I'm hitting the goals right.

Speaker 1: 12:59

So, same thing with, like, when it happens to be, if we do sacrifice a date night, like if my wife and I do cancel shift, pivot, a date night, it's usually with very good intention and very good focus. We do it. We do it every once in a while. We had a date night coming up a couple of weeks ago. We realized there was a second thing on the calendar that was a one on one thing for us. We were like you know what we could? Definitely that is definitely a date. Let's do that. We cancelled the other one, why we both went and did more work stuff, like we sacrificed that to put more energy into work stuff, because that's what was more important in that moment we knew something else was coming up.

Speaker 1: 13:36

That's the point that I'm trying to make is, if you can be super intentional and this does require some discipline and some some like long term with. The discipline doesn't require you to keep a calendar. This does require you to proactively communicate with your spouse, kids, friends, co workers, teams, employees, leaders. This does require you to internally recognize triggers and understand when shifts are coming and shifts need to happen, making those shifts and then remembering and realizing that they're not permanent. Nothing that you do here from an energy shift perspective has to be permanent.

Speaker 1: 14:10

Sometimes we just need to have and flow inside of what is needed to get the best of most output in that moment, for that day, for that situation, and you can do that while still hitting every single thing that you need to hit. You don't have to sacrifice your championship day. You don't have to sacrifice what's important to you. Don't sacrifice your goals to shift energy and do what's most important for you. So look, if you're dealing with a prioritization problem, if you're dealing with feeling some angst, like you're getting torn eight different directions. If you feel like every time you're doing one thing, you're thinking about another thing, that's the trigger. Hold the trigger on the other thing. Shift some, shift some output over to something else. Take some time down in one pillar, put some more time to another pillar. Don't be afraid to play with it for a day or two and feel, feel whether or not that alignment is working and see if that energy shift is fixing the problem that you're dealing with.