Today at work, I was thinking about how my current social interactions (in a low energy state) differ from social interactions I’ve had over the past few months (a great deal of which I spent in a high energy state). I realized that the one differing factor was that level of energy.

And it’s so much more than just that. Besides effecting my behavior, I can also see changes in my levels of motivation, my ability to focus and even my eyesight! It’s truly amazing how much is effected by one simple thing.

This discovery actually boosted my motivation and got me excited, which is the only reason I’m writing this now. Seriously, I hit the brick wall four hours into a ten hour shift. I seriously don’t know how I managed to make it through those next two hours until I started thinking about my energy levels. The next four were pretty good, because I was talking to myself the entire time about energy levels and motivation and stuff.

I wanted to have a list of methods to raise energy levels to put in here, but I wasn’t able to come up with anything novel – just the basics: eat regularly, have something to look forward to, give yourself a reason to go on (having people around to watch/say, “I tolda so, ya failure” really does the trick for me).

There are some basic, easy ways to increase energy temporarily. One of my favorites is milk shakes, but I think I’m starting to lean towards icees and slushies, because there’s no dairy to cloud the mind. Apples are also amazing; I’ve had times when I didn’t want to do anything but lay around, but someone brought me an apple and as soon as it was in my mouth, I managed to move for the first time in half an hour. Generally, though, liquids work better because you can get more in your system faster, but I think fruits should be just about as good, because of the juice.

It’s a popular Mormon tale that an apple will wake you up more than caffeine, which I believe to be true. An apple will add energy to your system, while caffeine will simply trick your body into thinking it has the energy (leading to a crash when your body figures out you’ve been lying to it).

When I was doing plays, we were always told to have ENERGY (and to enunciate)! On the high energy nights, you could truly feel how much better we performed. That actually extends to everything. Energy effects your ability to do anything, even to see!