In this episode I take a step back to look at the ways our health impacts our lives and decision-making.
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Seven Ways To Increase Your Energy, And Boost Your Earning Power
We’re going to go a little bit in a different direction than what I normally do, but this is going to be very valuable for you in your pursuit of growing your finances, financial ability to create more money, earn more money, and ultimately keep and grow it, and building indestructible wealth. We’re going to talk to you about how your energy affects everything in your financial life, performance, and ability to generate more money.
Here’s the thing. If your body is toxic, then your mind and your life are probably toxic too. In a world where everything probably offends somebody, I don’t know if this is very popular, but it’s true nonetheless. I see people all the time who are overweight, like the 40% obesity of adults in America, which is the highest rate ever recorded pretending to be teachers. What are you teaching? What not to do? Physicians heal thyself.
With all love and respect, if you can’t control what you put in your mouth and what you do with your body, there’s simply no way you can control what you do with your mind. Forty-three percent of people surveyed said that they are too exhausted to perform their daily work. Question, do you think the fuel that you put into your body has anything to do with that? If you don’t, I ask you to reconsider.
Forty-five million Americans go on a diet each and every year. Why is it that most don’t change? Why is it they start and restart? I’ve been in the nutrition, health, and fitness business for several years. I see this all the time. Start, stop, start, stop, bottom line is the mind is toxic. When you can’t think clearly you have no discipline as a result. There’s an underlying feeling and thought that’s rooted somewhere in their self-identity that builds the habits. The habits create the actions and the actions create the results.
What does this have to do with making more money, leadership, business, and entrepreneurialism? It has everything to do with it. If you dream of being an entrepreneur and a leader and most do in today’s world, then you can absolutely have to have a tremendous amount of energy. If you think that you can climb up that mountain with twenty extra pounds strapped to your back or your hips, you got to think again. Clean the vehicle and fuel, and the performance is automatically going to improve. It doesn’t end there, but this is where it begins.
Increase Your Energy: If you can’t control what you put in your mouth and what you do with your body, there’s simply no way you can control what you do with your mind.
I’m going to give you guys seven things to consider to help you boost your energy dramatically and make yourself more productive and be able to increase your earning power, ability to make better decisions, and improve the clarity of those decisions, and everything else in your life is going to change. Most of us are trying to do the best that we can. When the demands of life exceed our capacity, we start making choices that get us through our days and nights, but they start taking a toll over time.
We survive on too little sleep. This is not me, but I’m not saying we, but people walked down fast foods on the run, fueled up with coffee, cool-down with alcohol, and sleeping pills at night. Faced with those relentless demands at work, we become short-tempered and easily distracted. We return home from long days at work feeling exhausted. I’ve been guilty of this in the past. We experienced our families not as a source of joy and renewal, but as one more demand in an already overburdened life.
The term 24/7 describes a world in which work never ends. We use words like obsessed, crazed, and overwhelmed, not to describe insanity, but instead to characterize our everyday lives. Here’s the thing, we’ve always thought that managing time efficiently is the key, but this book that I read called The Power of Full Engagement, argues that energy, not time is the fundamental currency of high performance.
I had to think about this a lot, and I’m going to have to read this book again because this was a difficult concept for me to get my mind around. This was discovered when I went to the Landmark Forum class, and they had us figure out do a lot of like exercises and thinking and figure out what is our number one mantra. Mine has always been, “Don’t waste my time.” I guard my time carefully. It’s not that easy to get a piece of my time. You got to earn it. This is where I had a little bit of trouble at first, grasping this concept of energy, being more important than time.
Think about it, there are plenty of days where I’ve had to put in 8, 9 or 10 hours of work, but the energy throughout that 8, 9 or 10 hours was not there. When that happens, it doesn’t matter how much time you put in, it’s what amount of energy, effort, and focus goes into those hours. You can realistically work two hours of highly energized productivity, and that could trump a ten-hour day where you didn’t feel good and weren’t able to perform at your best.
If you dream of being an entrepreneur and a leader in today's world, then you absolutely have to have a tremendous amount of energy. Click To TweetThink about these scenarios right here. You attend a four-hour meeting, maybe it’s on Zoom or live. Not a single second is wasted, but during the final two hours, your energy level drops off like crazy, and you struggled to stay focused. Have you ever been there? You raced through an incredibly detailed scheduled twelve-hour day, but by mid-day, your energy has turned negative. You’re impatient, edgy, and irritable. You set aside some time to be with your children when you get home at the end of the day, but you’re so distracted by thoughts about work that you never give them your full attention. I’ve been there.
You remember your spouse’s birthday, you fucking better remember your spouse’s birthday, essentially, if you’re the male. You cannot forget your wife’s birthday. I’ve not done that, but your computer or your iPhone alerts you, but by the evening, you’re too tired to go out and celebrate. Performance, health, and happiness are grounded in the skillful management of energy.
To be fully engaged, we’ve got to be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interest. Full engagement begins with feeling eager to get to work in the morning, equally happy to return home in the evening, and capable of setting clear boundaries between the two. You’ve got to be able to immerse yourself and whatever mission that you’re on, whether it’s a creative challenge at work, managing a team of people on a project or in a business, spending time with your loved ones, or simply having fun. Less than 30% of American workers are fully engaged at work. It’s crazy.
I want to talk to you guys about how you can get your energy levels up. None of these are earth-shattering. I’m going to give you a couple of different ideas that things that maybe you haven’t heard before, but ultimately these are not anything that you’re going to be like, “This is earth-shattering. This is incredibly enlightening.” These are some basic fundamentals, but sometimes we’ve got to be reminded of the fundamentals over and over again, or maybe we’ve got off track with the fundamentals and we need to be hit with them once again.
Here’s the first thing, what are you having for breakfast? Do you skip breakfast? You’re loading up on caffeine and that’s your breakfast, or are you rushing out the door with a Pop-Tart, bagel, piece of toast, or any high carbohydrate type breakfast that’s going to spike your blood sugar right away, but then you’re going to have a mid-morning crash or mid-afternoon crash at the very least?
Increase Your Energy: Most of us are just trying to do the best that we can. When the demands of life exceed our capacity, we start making choices that get us through our days and nights, but they start taking a toll over time.
Healthy Breakfast
A healthy, nutritious, vitamin, and mineral-packed breakfast is absolutely key. I never miss breakfast. I’ve trained my body when I wake up, I’m hungry. I have a healthy meal replacement protein shake that taste delicious. I’ve been in the nutrition business for many years. We have the number one meal replacement protein shake on the entire planet and that’s what I start my day with or I’ll have protein waffles. That incorporates the protein powders along with eggs and some oats and the protein powder and some water, it’s a really easy recipe.
Why don’t you message me? I’ll give it to you. Those are great. I love the protein waffles or I’ll have maybe some meal prep. I have a meal prep service that gives me, one or two breakfasts a week to mix it up. I’ll have some eggs and maybe some breakfast and sweet potatoes. A good healthy protein-based breakfast loaded with vitamins and minerals. If you want it to taste good, you’ve got to work on that. Make sure that you’d look forward to having it. You don’t want to be like, “God, I wake up. I’ve got to have breakfast.” Make sure that it’s good.
Hydration
Number two, you’ve got to stay hydrated. For the entire day, I have a big old Yeti filled with water. I down it 4, 5 or 6 times a day, I’m getting at least. I don’t count it, but it’s a bare minimum of a gallon of water. You’re supposed to have at least half your body weight in ounces of water. I recommend going over that to make sure that you’re adequately hydrated.
Water is life. Have you ever been sluggish and tired, and you go take a shower then you feel revitalized or re-energized? Water is life-giving. Most of your body is made up of water. You’re going to think clearer. You’re going to flush out all those excess toxins that you steadily accumulate in American life. It’s completely boosting your immunity. There’s a list of about 25 different benefits to drinking water. Typically, I do water and some green tea throughout the day as well. There’s also an herbal latte, which is a tea that doesn’t have quite so much caffeine, so that’s a great additional supplement that I do. I love how I feel when I’m properly hydrated.
Workout
Number three, workout, but here’s the key, what are you doing and what time are you doing it? What I realized about my body type, I’m an ectomorph, so it’s very difficult to gain muscle. In order to boost testosterone and keep my testosterone levels high, I found that the only real way to do that is to lift weights. My body demands that I lift weights multiple times a week. If I’m not, I can tell, my immunity and energy levels drop. I start losing muscle mass pretty quickly. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.
Health and happiness are grounded in the skillful management of energy. Click To TweetWhat time are you working out? In addition to lifting weights, I’ll usually do about twenty minutes of cardio after, so that I can get everything done right then and there in an hour. I want to be done in an hour or less. I don’t want to be in the gym for two hours. I’ve got plenty of other pressing matters and things that I need to take care of, but I want to make sure that I’m taking care of the body temple.
What I found is I had to work with the time that made sense for me and then figure out with the help of my health practitioner that I needed to work out late in the afternoon or early evening for two reasons. Number one by then, my body’s had plenty of calories, fuel, carbohydrates, and all the things that I need to get a great workout and stay focused and not feel lethargic.
I’ve been going around 4:35 and used to always go first thing in the morning, almost on empty stomach, wake up, and hit the gym. That’s fine too. Some days I have to do that, but for the most part, I get my best workout right in that 4:35 timeframe, and then it helps me in the evening to calm down. I have a real hard time calming down my mind, body, and soul in the evening to sit back and relax and enjoy with my family because I’m always thinking about work. I’m a recovering workaholic. I’ve got to figure out ways to not use alcohol in the evening as a way to calm my mind and reduce stress. Lifting weights and getting a hard workout in at that timeframe has helped me to calm my mind down in the evenings. That’s been great.
Detox
Number four, you’ve got to constantly detoxify. We’re assaulted with toxins. In fact, I had my own toxic mold story. Several years ago, back in 2008, we moved into our second home. This was the home right when we were expecting our newborn son, John so we needed to upgrade the floor plan and get into a little bit bigger house in a better location. This was down by the beach and the golf course that was coming in so we moved, but little did we know what we were moving into.
My son and I, John, where my office was in his bedroom were on the side of the house that got a massive toxic mold exposure. We both started getting extremely ill quite often. He was on a nebulizer most of his first year to two years of life. I was getting sick every other week. My energy level plummeted and I crashed. I didn’t know what was going on.
The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal
It wasn’t even until a few years ago when I sought out the help of a functional medicine practitioner and a functional medicine doctor, they go to the root cause or the core reasons why things aren’t working for you and your body. She determined and run some tests and figure out that, “You’ve got toxic mold.” There are ways to test for it. My son tested for it as well. It’s through the Great Plains Laboratory and they figured it out, “You’ve got mold.” We both had the same type of mold. I’m very confident that that’s where it all started back in 2008.
What helps things like toxic mold exposures? I believe that there’s a very high percentage of Americans that have had toxic mold exposure that doesn’t even realize that that’s what’s going on, but it disrupts everything in your body. It’s very hard to eliminate for some people. Some people can eliminate it very easily and for others for some reason, it doesn’t happen quite so easily. You got to take some serious measures in order to take it out.
I started a protocol with a new functional medicine provider and one of those was the sauna. I was going to an infrared sauna at the local tanning salon but found that to be a little bit too difficult with timing and everything, I couldn’t always get in when I wanted. I said, “Screw it. I’m going to buy a sauna.” We bought one and put it in our basement.
Sunlighten was the brand that was recommended by my health practitioner and that’s made a huge difference. I feel so much better. I’m really hot so I take a cold shower right after and that boosts your immunity and helps reduce inflammation in your body. You’ll feel totally re-energized. It doesn’t sound appealing, but it’s not that hard to do after you’ve gotten superheated up in the sauna. That’s the best time and the only time that I do it.
I don’t have the discipline to walk in without being superheated up from the sauna and taking a cold shower, but if you’ve heard about the benefits of cold showers or ice baths, it’s very real and you feel amazing. I can 100% testify that my immunity has gone up. There have been several times when my family’s been sick and normally, I would catch it, and I haven’t caught a thing.
Take that day off. That's all about restoring and rejuvenating so you can keep doing fun things. You just have to be able to forget about work and go do something that you enjoy. Click To TweetOn number two, supplementation. There’s supplementation that you can take that cleanses out your body. There are plenty of great supplements on the market that you can do. We’ve been utilizing a 21-day cleanse supplement for many years and those are great. Take it quarterly and it does a great cleansing of the body, and then the third thing is called an ion foot detox. You can get this machine for $170 and I saw it online. These are fantastic. They pull toxins out of your body through your feet. You can do it on your hands as well.
If anybody thinks that these don’t work, you got to see the picture of last summer. I have somebody that runs it for me so I don’t have to mess with it, but you can purchase this. It’s a lot cheaper to purchase the machine and run it yourself, but I pay somebody to do it. She told me, “You have mold in your chest from playing golf. I’m like, “Are you kidding me? Come on.”
I was feeling sluggish and terrible. Sure enough, as I did ion foot detox and green mold came out on my feet. Once that detox happened, I felt like a whole new man. Those three things right there are fantastic for detoxing. In addition, the previous three, a healthy breakfast, plenty of water, and a workout to sweat are all going to help you detox things and pull toxins out of your body as well.
Unplugging From Work
Number five, unplug. Your body and mind are not meant to constantly be going 24/7. You’ve got to be able to unplug, restore, and rejuvenate yourself. What does that look like? We always take a day off. I’ve always taken a day off. Sundays is always been a day where I unplug. I don’t do any work rarely unless we have a conference or some type of event, but I’m taking that day off. That’s all about restoring, rejuvenating, doing fun things, and being with my family. Maybe that’s taking an afternoon nap, watching football on NFL Sundays, or doing something that I enjoy, and not working. That’s been great to restore my energy for tackling the busy week.
You got to be able to forget about work and go do something that you enjoy. Do you have a hobby that you can plug in and that’s where your mind can totally focus on and not think about anything else? You want to be pursuing those hobbies. You’re supposed to be like a kid, all playful and wanting to play, and do things that are fun that re-energize you.
Increase Your Energy: Full engagement begins with feeling eager to get to work in the morning, happy to return home in the evening and capable of setting clear boundaries between the two.
I know I’m in a much better mood and better as a person when I get to do things like golf, get my workouts in, or go play Poker. Those are all things that rejuvenate me and my energy and help me to basically to restore and unwind. Make sure that you’re working in time for those hobbies and those things that you like to do, and unplug completely.
Functional Medicine Provider
Number six, as I’ve already alluded to, find a functional medicine provider. There are things going on in your energy and body that you’re like, “I do not feel my best and no matter what I do, I’m not getting there.” I highly suggest that you do a search and find a functional medicine provider and try something different. These types of doctors are the medicine of the future. They’re still very uncommon. There are still, only 3% to 5% of the population that goes to a functional medicine provider, but they go to the core root causes of what’s going on. They run a lot of tests and diagnostics to determine what’s going on in your body.
Back in 2008, when I was not feeling well, my primary care physician said, “Wash your hands and take some zinc.” That wasn’t the answer. There are lots more underlying things that were going on in my body that was causing me to not be able to fight off infection. You want to be able to have somebody that can set you up on a new protocol that’s going to help you to restore yourself to your 100% optimal health.
Oura Ring
Number seven, get an Oura Ring. This is going to help you to determine your sleep. Most importantly, it also tells you your activity level and how many calories you burned, but this ring has sensors built into it. It was about $250. You’ve got to know your ring size and order these right online. They’re fantastic. What they’re telling you in the morning after you wake up is your sleep score. I’ve got a sleep score of 73. It tells you your total sleep, efficiency, restfulness, REM sleep, deep sleep, and latency, which is how fast it takes you to get to bed and then the timing of your sleep. It gives you a sleep score and all those factors.
I’m in the red on some of these. I’ve got a sleep score of 84. I woke up and felt great. It correlates with how you wake up and how you feel during the day with what your sleep was. This gives you the ability to tell how well you’re sleeping at night and what areas of your sleep you need to work on. What I’m going to do is keep looking at my sleep score. What’s going on? What are some factors that are determining how well or how poorly I slept? What time did I get to bed? Did I eat right before bed?
Increase Your Energy: You want to be able to have somebody that can set you up on a new protocol. That’s going to help you to restore yourself to your 100% optimal health.
I started eliminating eating a lot right before bed. I used to get hungry late at night and load up a ton of protein, but then your body is trying to digest that protein overnight. Your body is causing you maybe not to sleep as well. I started eliminating that. I was taking all my supplements right before bed. Those are designed to give you energy, so that wasn’t working. I moved those back to my last set by about 6:00 or 7:00 PM when we have dinner, so that way I do feel good throughout the evening. By the time I go to bed, they’re not still working. They’ve been dissolved.
Let’s recap. 1) A healthy protein-based breakfast loaded with vitamins and minerals. 2) Hydration, so drinking tons of water and watching out for things that dehydrate you like coffee, alcohol, and sodas. 3) Do a workout. Move your body. A good combination of strength training and cardiovascular training is a good workout. Also, what time is your workout, 4) Detox which includes a sauna, supplementation, and an ion foot detox. 5) Unplug, which means take a day off, one day off per week. At least forget about work. Do something that you enjoy and something fun.
6) Find a functional medicine provider. Do a Google search and look at reviews. Get into one and see how they can help you change your health and life. 7) It’s the Oura Ring. This is going to help you determine how well you’re sleeping and how much activity you’re doing. It’s a fantastic breakthrough in technology that can help you guys determine how to improve your sleep. If you’re sleeping the right amount, you’re getting a great sleep score. That’s going to make your energy level more effective all throughout the day.
Pick up this book. I highly recommend The Power of Full Engagement. It’s going to change how you look at maximizing your energy levels and performance. Let’s face it, when you’re a high-performing and highly energetic person, you think you’re not going to make more money and not going to be able to make better decisions with your finances because your mind’s clear. When you’re sluggish and tired, that does not relate to the most highly effective decision-making processes. You’re not going to be at your best.
Let’s look at these things. Where could you improve? Maybe not tackling all seven at the same time. This might be a little bit overwhelming, but what are some of these that you can immediately, not procrastinate, and take action on changing your habits so that you can be a high impact and high earner that you deserve to be.
