Unless you work at NASA the term escape velocity is a foreign concept but that’s about to change. Escape velocity is the speed that a rocket needs to be traveling to break free of the gravitational pull of the earth and it is based on Newton’s third law of physics.
Any spacecraft or rocket wishing to successfully leave the surface of the earth needs to be accelerating at the rate of 7 miles per second, approximately 33 times the speed of sound (Mach 33) or nearly 25,000 miles per hour. Now that’s moving.
On the surface, it might appear that escape velocity is all about speed, but that’s a bit misleading as it has more to do with… the use and expenditure of energy. Speed is the byproduct of energy and we’ll come back to that point in just a moment.
To escape from earth’s gravity, a rocket demands an enormous amount of energy; a controlled explosion that requires a herculean type effort battling against the forces of gravity is required. In this post, we draw a parallel to the energy it takes you to break inertia and sustain the action.
The energy it takes to move you is a mere fraction of what it takes to move a rocket, but this energy is not to be minimized. To get fully engaged, you need a good amount of energy and I want to impress upon you the idea that energy, not time is the fundamental currency of performance at times, high performance.
Also, we’ll talk about how you can apply the principles of escape velocity to your life and the achievement of your goals.
It’s an undeniable fact that we are all reservoirs of energy as everything that we do from interacting with colleagues and making important decisions to spending time with the family and taking the dog for a walk, all requires energy.
Every one of our thoughts, emotions and behaviors has an energy consequence for better or for worse and as obvious as it seems, we too often fail to consider the critical role of energy in our lives, largely because when don’t see it or consider it until we don’t have enough of it.
Absent of the correct quality, quantity and focus and forces of energy we all become compromised in any activity we undertake. It’s truly disturbing to see the immense amount of personal and professional entrepreneurial and corporate potential that is being squandered due to the lack of understanding, disregard, and misuse of energy.
Everything from lack of sleep, unhealthy eating habits, lack of exercise, negativity, small self-absorption (living lost in our heads with nonstop thoughts), unfocused strategies and goals and tactical things like poorly run meetings, sitting in front of the TV etc., as well as living outside the bounds of our own biology on a daily, weekly and monthly basis are all contributing factors to energy loss.
The most productive members of society have the unique ability to both engage fully and disengage periodically. The act of disengagement allows for reflection and renewal.
They understand that continuous engagement without proper renewal leads to progressively depleted energy levels and it is this understanding that allows them to perform as consistently high levels relative to those who are feeling tired all the time, fatigued and sometimes chronically, whether they admit or not.
An abundance of natural energy is available to you, to contribute to and receive from other people, circumstances, and projects. High performers understand that they are free to cut loose from things in their life; that is, relationships, situations, activities, habits, and obligations that drain their energy disproportionately to the rewards.
As these high maintenance, unwanted, stressful elements are reduced and eliminated, they free up their most valuable talents and find themselves surrounded by an environment that supports and promotes their energy. This reclaimed energy makes it possible for you to grow your business or career with consistency, to dramatically improve the quality of your life and create a lifestyle that supports personal and professional success and happiness.
Every time you increase the energy you have, to devote to more rewarding uses, you also increase the value of your life to you and to many others. Therefore, committing yourself to greater energy is a commitment to a greater life.
We all have far more control over our energy than we realize or leverage. And while the number of hours in a day is fixed, the quality and quantity of energy available to us are not. There is so much talk and focus on getting a high ROI—Return on Investment. However, the real action and competitive imbalance are found in maximizing your ROIe—your return on your investment of energy.
Our energy can be broken down into two sources of energy, summarized very basically as vital (electrical) and nutrients (food, including what we eat, sun, air, water etc.), which are used in four distinct ways as human beings with a body-mind that requires (simply put) a charge and nourishment, to move and act, generate thoughts and emotions that guide us as we accomplish and achieve our goals.
Upgrading not only how we harness, maintain and manage to the undifferentiated sources of energy in our lives and leveraging the optimization of each these human capacities with a lifestyle that is skillful provides you with an enormous opportunity to operate more at high or peak performance states and thus enjoy the power of full engagement.
Note: Contrary to recent thinking, about the power of full engagement physical energy, emotional energy, mental energy and spiritual energy are not distinct energies. In reality, they are undifferentiated but that universal energy is stimulated and experienced physically, mentally, emotionally and ultimately spiritually. All of these experiences are human capacities that require care and development for you to both unleash and manage your natural energy and potential.
The first is your physical energy, how healthy are you? The second is your emotional energy, how happy are you? The third is your mental energy, how long can you focus and for how long? And the fourth element of energy is your spiritual energy, why are you doing what you’re doing? What is the purpose of your life?
And quite frankly what’s referred to as spiritual energy is an overlay to your primary source of energy.
We can never forget that performance, optimal health and genuine happiness are grounded in the skillful art of energy management. Peak performance is an exotic combination of energy requirements which include the greatest quantity and highest quality, the clearest focus and maximum force of energy that’s why your challenge is to self-diagnose to be very selfish in how you manage your energy.
The objective is to eliminate all distractions in your life that haphazardly consume your energy and hold you back. To say goodbye to anything that undermines your ability to be a fully engaged high-performing human being especially when it matters most and to a lesser extent on vacations ;-).
You do that by making sure you living in balance, fueling your body right and keeping your body fit and focused for success and then isolating each of the four areas of energy and asking yourself these questions:
- What are the things that rob me of my energy, the specific things that prevent me from living at my physical best with optimal energy levels?Think, eating, drinking, sleep and exercise habits. As well as any behavior that robs you of your energy.
- What are the things that cause me to be emotional, that further robs me of my energy? Think the specific people and places, things, and circumstances that prevent you from being calm, happy and more joyful?Focus on the people in your life and any high maintenance drama-filled relationships and stressful situations you are coping with, that need to be resolved through either change or elimination that drain your life force.
- What are the things that rob me mentally; the specific things that rob you of your time and focus and which undermine your productivity in any area of your life?Focus on your physical environment, on the distractions inefficient systems or customs that are dysfunctional, which slow things down and which need correction or elimination.And find out, about the greatest and most important lifestyle change you’ll ever make or even can make, by finding out…
- What steps do you need to take to get grounded in who you really are? So that you are no longer robbed of all the energy being taken up by an unresolved, cluttered mind that is driving you a little bit crazy and how you can clean that up.
This means discovering what your highest purpose is and then getting your thinking on the same team by addressing any stories you are telling about you and your life, that are affecting your physiological self-esteem and self-worth and any self-limiting beliefs that create inner duress.
Then identify any habit behaviors temptations or weakness that steal your energy. What are the specific people, places and things that prevent you from fulfilling your highest purpose?
By doing this exercise you will in effect be putting the principle of escape velocity into practice as the key objective is to escape the death grip of mediocrity and low performance—to escape the stranglehold of stress, and distractions that hold you back, to escape the seduction of the comfort zone and ultimately escape the gravitational pull of any person, place or thing that leashes your natural energy and potential from flowing in the direction you want.
The ultimate measure of our lives is not how long we live, even though we all want that to be long, but rather how well we can manage our energy in the time we are each given and that is precisely why energy management is so crucial.
In Performance Lifestyle training you will learn the principles, practices and overall defacto energy management strategy preceded by the science and essential guidelines (This is called Performance Living 101) that you need to be in tune with to harness and maintain the energy you need to then manage in your performance lifestyle.
In closing remember, in your efforts to lead a fulfilling life full of accomplishment and achievement, you must always regularly and systematically regenerate your life force. Every human capacity is powered by life force, and you are always either stimulating or recuperating your energy in any given moment. To stay strong, and live with optimal energy levels, learn the science and the principles, the practices and the overall lifestyle for performance so you can live in balance with vibrant health and peace of mind.
