Action Killer #3: Fatigue
Have you ever woke up and been staring at something you didn’t recognize, only to remember you weren’t sleeping in your bed?
Well, I did that once while working at 10x Marketing. I pulled a late night, probably to play video games, and then just slept underneath my desk. I dozed off about 3 or 4 and then woke at about 7 when a coworker came into our room.
He got us some blueberry tea and tried to revive me. I don’t know if there was something in the tea or if it was just the 3 hrs of sleep I was running off of, but my vision began to blur and I wasn’t quite sure if I was still sleeping or if I was again in the land of the waking.
You don’t need to be this tired to feel the effects that physical fatigue can have on your ability to act. Getting a little amount of sleep is known to case impairments not only in vision like I was having, but also lapses in judgement, concentration and memory. So even if action in this state is plausible it’s not optimal to be sure.
In addition to the physical fatigue that has definitely drained my energy to take action towards my goals I have noticed that when I don’t take time to meditate and consider my life I get caught up in all the busynes of life and another type of fatigue crushes me, mental fatigue.
Lastly, when I have this level of drain I begin to see how far I am from my goals and get discouraged. My motivation wanes and I am even less likely to take action. And this because I have convinced myself, even if it’s unspoken, that I can’t accomplish what I set out to do. Thus inaction breeds inaction.
So, recently I have found that for me, some essentials to curbing fatigue are:
- 30 minutes of aerobic exercise each morning, I break a sweat, it feels great!
- Eating some good fats and proteins at about 2 hr intervals throughout the day
- Getting 7 1/2 hrs of sleep
- Drinking 1/2 my weight in ounces of water throughout the day
- Stretching or doing a little yoga throughout the day so I’m not sitting all day
I really don’t have worry about my action taking ability taking a dive if I am proactively giving my the body energy & rest that it needs.
Do you struggle with fatigue? What do YOU do that gives you the energy to take action towards your goals?