The energy you have to spend on what you want to do today and in the future is the total energy you generate minus the amount that’s lost to the dreaded energy suckers.

Let’s start on the supply side…

You do generate energy, quite literally. Of course we are not aware of this happening so we don’t think of it that way. But it’s true. Most of us have more energy than we need. It just doesn’t always feel that way.

Let’s look at the demand side…

Like some massive octopus in a schlock sci-fi film, energy attracts suckers. Energy suckers swarm all around you in a feeding frenzy and they will leave you with nothing if they can, because there’s another just like you around the corner.

The energy suckers take many forms.

Here are just some of them -

1. Bad Environment

Too noisy, too hot, too cold, too light, too dark, bad feng shui (don’t laugh – who likes sitting with their back to the door?)

I once had a client who said of one of her charges “she’s easily distracted”. She worked in an entirely open plan office with no baffles and 75 people standing up doing telesales. Easily distracted! She’d need to be comatose not to be distracted.

Get your “area” sorted.

2. Bad Relationships

Continuing to deal with people who don’t play the game fairly: who are aggressive, passive aggressive or passive. People who don’t have their Mum in the office, so they use you as a surrogate. People who wish to cast you as a major player in whatever mini-psycho drama consumes them this week.

The greatest things you will come across in this life are people, but not all of them. Some, I’m afraid, do not live up to the billing.

Kiss them good bye.

3. Bad Self-Management

Big no-no. From pretending you have goals to only doing what you like; the list of possible self-management failures is long, long, long. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result – madness as Einstein said. Fearing failure whilst understanding that fear of failure guarantees failure.

As Steve Jobs said (before he knew of his final illness) – “we are all going to die, so what is it you’re scared of losing?”

Manage thyself!

4. Bad Management

Not treating management as a skill to be learned (the real British disease).

I used to do chemistry. I’d make molecules. Sometimes I’d turn A into B into C into D….all the way to L (I think the longest piece of synthesis I did was 12 steps). If you do each step 80% optimally (which is very, very respectable in chemistry), what percentage of the potential yield do you end up with?

Answer: 6.9%.

That’s 93.1% of your potential down the pan.

Management is different but I hope you get my point.

Coarsely speaking in my world: RB x RS x RO = RL

(Rubbish Prospecting x Rubbish Selling x Rubbish Operations = Rubbish Life)

Get educated.

5. Rubbish Staff

If you have rubbish staff it’s your fault. They are the product of your management. The only exception is where you have a bad apple. But if they’re still around – it’s your fault. Key message – it’s your fault and when it isn’t, it’s still your fault.

6. Not saying “No”

Do not prioritise helping others ahead of turning your own goals into past achievements unless the other person is paying your bills or dealing with some other fundamental need that keeps you perky and…balanced. Even then…

7. Perfectionism…

…is simply fear of failure, fear of criticism, fear of what you should really be doing and/or self indulgence dressed up in a Versace suit pretending to be a virtue.

Unmask this imposter before he has his way with you.

8. Being a Monkey Magnet

Perhaps the most nefarious example of 4 and 6 above. Someone else’s problem (monkey) is seldom yours. Make sure their monkey remains firmly on their back.

9. Not eating frogs

Do the worst thing you have to do today first. If you have to eat a frog, eat it. Eat it first.

If you don’t, it will gorge on your energy all day, making it bigger, and you still must eat it.

10. Failing to define the next step

If something’s on your mind and bothering you it’s probably because you have not defined the next thing to do; the next step. So this thing sits there poking you in the ribs every ten minutes until you address it.

So address it.

There’s more…being a pessimist…watching TV…I could go on. And on.

Most of us have huge amounts of energy but it’s a precious thing and massive sci-fi octopi in their myriad guises will steal it from us if we let them.

So don’t let them.

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The success of a venture, from the smallest marketing idea to an entire new business venture, depends on a lot of things, of course. One of them is speed of implementation.

Simply getting out there and doing whatever needs to be done quickly is of critical importance.  There is only so much you can do mentally (all non-action is mental). You cannot plan-do-review if there’s no doing.

So why do we sometimes implement so slowly, or even worse, not at all?

A number of reasons –

1. Knowledge Gaps.

Management is not about gaining total clarity before acting, it’s about hitting the 80/20 sweet spot where 20% of the money and time that could be spent in preparation is spent yielding 80% of the achievable clarity. Then management is about execution, with a beady eye on the risks.

2. Perfectionism.

Waiting for the perfect moment to act. This is silly because there is no perfect moment.

However, there is the optimal moment. The moment when, allowing for the imperfections of life, conditions are propitious. Even sub-optimal may be OK. Sub-optimal does not mean “destined to fail”. It just means things could be better but things can always be better.

3. Fear of Failure.

I believe there is no species on earth possessing the ability of us humans to talk ourselves out of action. What causes this fear?

It is, simply, doubt. Or uncertainty. We have doubt and uncertainty because we are intelligent. We see overwhelming confidence in others as naivety, or worse, stupidity. Our analytical brains cannot help but have doubt, to see the uncertainties.

So accept doubt for what it is – a marker of intelligence, and then use that intelligence to act anyway, despite the uncertainty.

The higher the speed of implementation the quicker you will be successful. Doing stuff gets results and results allow you to fine tune and get better results. Isn’t it wonderful that we get better at something the more we do it? Wouldn’t it be strange if this was not so?

It is also true that the higher the speed of implementation the quicker you will fail. This doesn’t sound good but it is good. Not everything we do will work. If we implement quickly we will see failure coming earlier and then we can stop or change tack with minimal loss of money and time. The alternative is that we implement slowly and it takes years to find out what we have been doing isn’t getting us to our destination. And the price of that is colossal, in money and, critically, time.

So, how to implement with real pace, with real speed?

Well of course there’s all the usual management best practice that I bang on about all the time like getting everyone’s motivation sorted out; planning – sufficiently detailed while avoiding perfectionism; setting goals and deadlines; defining your high-payoff activities and using blocktime to leverage this most precious of resources etc etc etc etc etc.

These “outer game” tools and techniques are good.

But maybe there’s a few elements of the “inner game” that need addressing –

• Motivation – drill down really far into the “why”; the “reason for action”. This requires real insight and honesty and rigour but when you crack it it will power you straight through to your destination.
• Learn to see doubt and uncertainty as your friends, without whom you would be very, very lost. They are signposts towards what risks we need to manage, not excuses for inaction.
• Subjugate your ego – everything and I mean everything is secondary to the achievement of the goals. This means that you should get out of the way. Get off the critical path. Delegate and outsource until everyone’s eyes water, and don’t allow anything to be held up or delayed because someone is waiting for you to do something and you haven’t got around to it. Don’t worry – when you are successful everyone will know it was you in the driving seat.