As you play games, check emails, or watch TikTok videos, you notice your phone’s battery slowly depleting. By the time it hits 20%, you’re freaking out. When you go below 15% and the battery image changes to red, you’re scrambling to find a charger.
We pay attention to one kind of battery more than anything else. And it’s costing us.
Instead of paying attention to your phone’s battery, start paying attention to your body battery.
Are You Paying Attention To Your Body Battery?
As a runner, I understand the importance of maintaining my body’s energy levels. Now, it’s not a real battery, but it’s something to be aware of.
My Garmin Instinct watch helps me to keep track of it through the Garmin Connect app.
As long as I’m wearing my watch, I can open up the app, make a few swipes, and see how Garmin thinks my body is doing. Is it fully charged? It may be after a nice, long nap. Is it almost depleted? It may be if I’ve run a marathon or spent a day out walking with my wife.
I’ve noticed something as I’ve begun to pay attention to my body’s battery levels: I function much better when I’m well-rested and fully charged.
What happens when my body battery begins to deplete? I find myself:
- More irritated
- Less focused
- With foggy memory
- Making poor decisions
It’s not a good situation to find myself in. I know you’ve been there as well.
When you’re well-rested, you look back on some of the decisions you’ve made. You tell yourself you never would have decided that. But you did. Alternatively, you may have a friend come up and ask you a question related to a recent conversation. You can’t remember what you or they said.
It’s dangerous. Not just to you but to your organization and family and friends.
The more we run on fumes, the more we’re going to mess up. Make mistakes. Choose the wrong thing.
Let’s start to make taking care of ourselves a bit more of a priority. Let’s find ways to recharge those body batteries we take for granted.
If we don’t, we’re not going to like where we end up.
3 Ways To Recharge Your Body Battery
What can we do to recharge? How can we top off our body battery? Here are three things that work for me. They can work for you, too. Or, maybe, you’ll find something else that works for you.
1. Put down your electronics:
Technology can be a significant contributor to draining your battery. That’s why it’s wise to put down your phone, tablet, or laptop.
The more we’re on it, the more we’re disconnected from the world. The more we’re burning our batteries.
Put down your electronics for a few hours each day.
2. Get outdoors:
I like to run, so I use that as my get-outdoors time. I try to spend at least 30-60 minutes outside each day. It’s a challenging thing to do on some days, but it is a much-needed exercise.
When you get outdoors, you’re able to connect with nature, breathe fresh air, and see the sun. All of which our bodies crave.
Get outdoors. It’ll do you good.
3. Do something you love:
We may say we love our jobs, but when our livelihood depends on what we do, our jobs can become a drain on our body battery. It’s a good thing to step away from your job and into something you genuinely enjoy.
It may be woodworking, going to a great band, or relaxing at the beach.
When you partake in something you love, you charge your batteries.
