Life can be hard at times. Some days, or weeks can feel like a bit of a slog. Often, even though we have dreams and plans, we try to set and achieve goals, we just can’t muster up the energy to do so. Because getting through the day seems tricky enough.
Why is this? Why do we often feel so drained or tired? Yes life is busy and we are all guilty of trying to shove too much in, but is this the real reason so many women just feel really exhausted?
Much of the reason that we feel drained is because we are allowing things, circumstances or people in our lives to drain us. Think about it for a moment, what is it in your life that you’re just putting up with or not getting around to sorting, that is stealing away precious energy from you?
Grab a notebook and pencil and let’s start to make a list. Use the following categories to give you a start;
- Physical – could be clutter, an untidy desk, drab decor, that kind of thing.
- People – who is sucking the life out of you? Which friends, family members, colleagues or social/ community groups are draining your energy?
- Behaviour – what are the things about your own behaviour that gets you down?
- Appearance – is there something about the way you present yourself that you are not happy with, which is possible for you to change?
- Health – do you have any unhealthy habits which could be draining you too?
What things could be on these lists? here are some examples from my own life and those of clients that I have coached;
- An untidy and cluttered bedroom which was making it difficult to relax before sleep
- A tendency to gossip and get caught up in other people’s drama
- Never making time to mend their clothing, shoes etc
- Drinking a glass of wine every evening to take the edge off the day
- Staying on a committee where decisions are never made and meetings are unfocused
- Not telling loved ones when they are crossing boundaries and then resenting them
- Spending lunchtimes with a colleague who is very negative about others in the workplace
- Always losing or misplacing keys, wallet etc.
- Talking about but never starting a fitness regime
None of these things is huge and certainly when you write it down, everything looks relatively easy to tackle; blitz the room, keep wine for weekends only, set aside time each month to care for clothes, resign from the committee etc.
But each of these things is an energy suck and when you have a whole collection of them, as we often do, it’s easy to see why we feel drained and hacked off.
Look back at your own list. Imagine how much better you would feel if you got just those first five things sorted? And better still, when you moved onto the next five?
When you identify and start to eliminate the things that drain you, it’s amazing how much else you achieve. Goals that seemed hard to attain suddenly become much easier and when we remove mental, emotional and physical clutter from our life, it makes space for the good stuff to show up, and show up it does!
Start tomorrow, even better, start today. Do the exercise, write the lists, pick the tasks and get going. Soon that drained feeling will be a thing of the past.