15 Ways to Have More Energy (Part 3)

We’ve been talking about ways to have more energy this week. If you missed the first two posts in this series, read them here.

Here are three more ways to have more energy:

7. Set Goals

Without goals, you have no real purpose for going through your days. If you’re aiming at nothing, you’re not going to feel inspired, motivated, or driven. Goals give you momentum, passion for life, and a reason to wake up every morning excited about what lies ahead of you.

Good goals need to be specific, measurable, and realistic. I find it’s helpful to break big goals down into simple bite-sized pieces. Instead of setting a goal to read a book in one week, I’ll set a goal to read 2-3 chapters each day — enough to easily finish the book in a week.

By breaking my goals down into smaller chunks, it makes them much more manageable and doable — and I usually end up following through with more of them that way, too!

If you don’t have goals, start with something simple. At the beginning of the week, pick one or two small goals to accomplish, write them down, and then break them down into smaller pieces — and work on knocking them out little by little.

You’ll probably be amazed at how much more zest for life you’ll have when you actually have a destination in mind and a plan to get there. And you just might find that your renewed zeal for life helps you attack all of life with more energy and excitement!

8. Go To Bed Early

If you’re a night owl, you’re already shaking your head and skipping over this one. And it might not work for you.

For me personally, though, going to bed early on a consistent basis really helps me to feel more rested. When I feel more rested, I’m naturally much more energetic and cheerful. Rather than dragging through each day trying to keep my eyes open with toothpicks, I’m meeting the day with gusto.

I’ve found that I can’t commit to going to bed at 9 p.m. every single night, but if I aim to go to bed at 9 p.m., I’m much more likely to be in bed close to 10 p.m. It doesn’t always happen and I usually have one or two nights per week when I’m up past 11 p.m., but I rarely every stay up much past 11 p.m. — that’s really late for me! 🙂

As a result, I get more sleep — and I’m able to get up early most mornings, something that gives me a huge headstart on the day.

If you’d like to start going to bed earlier but you just feel like it’s not possible, sit down and really think through what your hindrances are. Do you need to cut out some of your evening activities or just turn off the TV or computer earlier? Do you need to eat dinner earlier and start your bedtime routine right after dinner?

For those of you who want to go to bed earlier but can’t seem to fall asleep much earlier than midnight, try getting up really early for two or three days in a row, plus adding some exercise into your schedule. You’ll probably find that by the second or third day, you’re starting to feel tired by 10 p.m.

And by the way, if you can at all help it: go to bed when you first start to feel drowsy at night. Don’t wait for your second wind to kick in. Just go to bed — you’ll be glad you did in the morning!

9. Make the Most of Your Mornings

What you do in the first two hours of your morning sets the tone for your whole day.

If you drag yourself out of bed after hitting the snooze button eight times, stumble into the kitchen, turn on your laptop or phone and waste 45 minutes trying to wake yourself up, you’re not setting yourself up for a day of success.

Think about what five things you’d really like to do in the same order each morning, write these down, and commit to getting up and doing them every single morning for the next three weeks.

It will be hard to follow your five things morning routine at first, but stick with it and it will pay off. I promise!

Making the most of your mornings will give you momentum for the rest of your day!

{And by the way, for those of you moms out there who are already feeling defeated because your mornings are so unpredictable when you have little people underfoot: don’t feel badly if you don’t always do all five things perfectly in the same order every day for three weeks. Life happens and perfection is impossible. Do the best you can do and remember that making progress in the right direction — even if it seems like microscopic progress — is still moving in the right direction!}

…To be continued tomorrow.

photo courtesy of BigStock