I’ve been doing a ton of research on energy as of late.
Time research and efficient use of my time has been a lifelong endeavor going back to my days of Instinctive Technologies when I began to truly grasp what automation and code could do to compress engineering cycles.
Money research for me has been an ongoing journey since about the age of 9 or 10. Buying Pepsi stock in the early 1990’s helped to fund my college education as it turns out.
I’m increasingly landing upon energy and action as being two very integral forces in the makeup of my future self. Energy as a concept can be characterized in a variety of ways. Hell, an entire blog could be dedicated just on the study of energy, and many are already out there.
I expect to be sharing a ton more on this notion of energy.
Energy can be felt and perceived on multiple levels by humans and other animals I believe.
In studying senior leadership and extraordinary performers, this notion of energy energy invariably comes up. Some refer to this as a force, as a vibration, as a vibe, as a frequency, as a resonance, and also as energy – I believe all of these labels are referring to the same thing.
In my career, I have been a direct beneficiary of this concept. I can remember a very compelling interview with a senior executive where I was meeting the head of HR and the CEO of the company. As I remember it, within ten minutes the interview had swung from initially being very formal, intense, and serious to even more intense and serious with a surreal left turn towards familiar.
What changed? Well, as the story goes – within five minutes the CEO exclaimed that he really thought I had ‘incredible energy and he liked that.’ This was a man that had built a $75,000,000 business from scratch, and he was being called to launch an even more audacious venture that ultimately transformed the IT landscape forever. I’ll never forget that initial conversation, as it was a stretch assignment that I had been sponsored into by another senior executive that saw something in me.
So what was it that he dug so much? I’m not entirely sure to be brutally honest.
I have studied a number of senior executives that have been fortunate enough to build sizable businesses and this notion of energy and polarity are both things that many times come up. I believe just being energy aware is a competitive advantage as many folks nowadays are not consciously perceiving the vibe or energy that they project.
It goes beyond the notion of non verbal communication or body posture.
It goes beyond the tonality of your language and cadence of speech.
It goes beyond the words and language patterns you invoke.
All of these are important, particularly when you work remotely and you have to connect with others via remote office arrangements. However, they do not represent the energetic vibe you project.
It is a set of, many times, subtle signs that can best be described as attractive or repulsive in terms of polarity. Energy can be magnetized in such a way so that you are attracting those around you to your cause. You can also send out a vibe that fundamentally turns people off, and they seek relief by removing you from their vicinity.
I’ll speak to this topic in terms of examples, and leave the theory to another time. The point here is to offer you some things to think about when it comes to energy being a real thing.
Here’s a provocative question – have you ever met an evil person? As in a complete stranger – did you feel that they had some serious badness about them? For me it is a very, very rare thing – in fact I can count on one hand how many times this has actually happened in the past two years especially. I’m not talking about a person that gives you a bad look on the train in the morning or the pissed off guy that is making you a sandwich at lunch – I’m talking about seriously dark energy hanging around a person.
The kind that takes your breath away.
Conversely, have you had the joy of experiencing someone that is radiant with exceptionally positive energy? You practically can see the glow coming off of them? I have been witness to handful of these people in my life over the last few years as well. I had the joy of working with someone that transcended the day to day and the job that they were in. It was an amazing thing to watch this individual transform even the most ardent critics into fans that would do anything to help this person out – within weeks of meeting this individual. These are the people that also cause a pause and in a good way – take your breath away.
I believe the constant and high output of the exceptionally evil/bad and wondrous/good energy is a rare thing reserved for very few of us. I think by and large, many of us have different ranges that we can hit – with most days being a bit variable even within the 24 hour period of that day.
If you have not ever been witness to an exceptionally positive or negative energy coming from an individual – have you had the experience on the fly in certain setting?
Have you ever seen someone under stress in an airport screaming at her kids to get their shoes on to make a plane? I just witnessed this in the past week with my boys. You could sense the energy level in that Orlando airport being sucked down as many watched this woman screaming and the son shrinking right in front of us all. Do you feel a shrinking in your positive vibes just reading this? I can tell you reliving it as I write this – I have to shake it off me physically. What a bummer for both the kid and for the mother.
Let’s say you work in an office environment, and you come into a meeting – the team is flat, clearly. Perhaps it is too early, and people have not yet had their Dunkin Donuts large iced coffee with Turbo… Well this recently happened to me, and the politeness is invoked with everyone as they join the meeting, ‘how are you today?’ With a bland, non inquisitive tone aimed at satisfying the social norms of most workplaces.
Instead of responding with an equal amount of robotic gesture and melancholy – how about changing the whole dynamic and stating ‘I am AWESOME today, things are going amazingly well.’ It will immediately polarize the situation, and likely pull people into a more positive vibe. However if you are being overly dramatic or just being an annoying positive jerk, by just stating the words that you are awesome — it will not work. If you are actually having an awesome day, and you offer this up from a place of authenticity – it will magnetize the conversation in a more positive manner.
Here’s another scenario – let’s say you see someone is stressed out – could be at work, could be at home. Give them some heartfelt appreciation and express some gratitude – watch their demeanor change and soften – perhaps even lighten up. The energy involved has been lightened.
What about someone being super tense? The body language says it all – teeth clenched, tightness in the facial expressions, and in their body.
And they are coming on a plane and they slam down into their seat next to you. Do you feel like they have a good energy and vibe about them?
Would they be welcoming a conversation from you before you take off?
What if someone came in on the other side of you (you have a middle seat in this scenario) and they are clearly very relaxed and their body language is one of openness.
Perhaps, they offer both you and Mr Tension to your right a free drink once you get airborne? What would that do to the entire energy equation for both you and your tense buddy sitting next to you.
Let’s play with this for a second.
You react right away with a ‘wow, thank you! I’ve never had anyone offer to buy me anything on a plane before – this is awe….’ As you get cut off by the now enraged guy sitting next to you with a ‘YOU THINK I NEED A DRINK??? No THANK YOU.’ And then he puts on his headphones and starts pounding out emails on his iPad…
Talk about a swerve of reactions, and the energy left behind is going to soak in on everyone.
So to close this out, energy is a resource that I believe is an underpinning ingredient in the quality of our life that many are not as conscious of as they could be if they slowed down just a bit to cultivate an increase in perception.
Energy is a dynamic that is fundamentally social in nature, indicates connectedness, and it permeates all interactions we have with ourselves and with others.
It sometimes garners jobs.
It sometimes garners increased attraction from those around you.
It sometimes can repulse others.
It can infuse entire cultures at home and at work in a dynamic manner.
It is absolutely real as a force in our lives.
I will be sharing more around how best to harness the energy you have into results. How to cultivate greater levels of energy in yourself. How to ensure you are not infected by energy drains around you. And I may even share some of the more esoteric theories that I have uncovered regarding the various energy systems that we as humans being can tap into.
