The BOLD (Sleepy?)
At the end of last week, I realized that I was exhausted. And I noticed that many of my friends, family, and clients were exhausted as well. What, I wondered, was at the root of this exhaustion?
We are all having a personal version of a global experience. That means that there are things we have in common and lessons to be learned from each other. Today, we explore one of the energy costs of change—habit disruption.
The Whisper (The Efficient Brain)
Our brains require a considerable share of our energy to accomplish the essential work of thought. It is estimated that roughly 20% of our energy is devoted to the basic needs of our brains.
To preserve energy, our brains develop algorithms to build efficiency into our thought patterns.
These algorithms include the assessments we use to make sense of our world. For instance, “Stoves with red burners are hot. Avoid them.” or, “Dogs with their ears flat and their teeth bared are showing aggression. Avoid them.”
The algorithms also include habits. We compress the steps of our routines to reduce the number of decisions we need to make. Think about your morning activities. How much energy do you devote to your actions in the morning? Do you brush your teeth almost without thinking? How mechanical are you as you make coffee or breakfast? If you commute, have you had the experience of arriving at work without any real memory of the drive? Did you run a red light?
These algorithms run all day long and they help to smooth our path and conserve our energy consumption. This is a good, efficient system.
What happens, then, when we disrupt our pattern to encourage change or our patterns are disrupted by unavoidable challenges? We have to expend extra energy to make decisions and determine a new path to achieve what we ordinarily do without thought. Or we have to decide if what we used to achieve is what we still want to create.
This takes energy.
At a time of disruption, it makes sense to pay extra attention to the sources of energy that can replenish us. Sleep, nutrition, exercise, introspection, rest, relaxation—all of the forms of self-investment in which we engage become that much more important.
Feed and rest your body to feed and rest your brain in order to preserve the creative thinking and innovation that is required for change. And right now, we are all being called upon to change. Give your brain a boost to increase your ability to find and respond to your hidden opportunities.
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