energy – Sam Makhoul

November 4, 2013

5 Tips on Managing Your Energy Levels at Work: Part 1

Are you distracted, stressed or worried about your to-do list at work? Does your energy wane in and out as you progress throughout the day and leave important tasks half-done or undone? Are you making errors that could be avoided?

Managing our energy levels at work is just as important as managing the energy levels of our mind and body. I’d love to share with you 5 personal tips that have helped me manage my energy at work.

DON’T CHECK YOUR EMAIL FIRST THING IN THE MORNING. Emails are time vampires. You will get reeled into reading or doing stuff that is not important. Before you know it you will have wasted an hour of your day before you even get started. And you would have wasted your most valuable energy on the least important stuff.
TURN OFF ALL TECHNOLOGY for the first 60 minutes of the day and focus on doing your most important work.
TURN ELECTRONIC NOTIFICATIONS OFF. You know what I am talking about here: rings, vibrations telling you that you have an email or SMS. You could be assessing something or talking to a customer and suddenly you get a message. Now you’re focusing not on what you are doing or on what the customer is saying. But on who could that message be from? That break in concentration will lead to poor service or mistakes. The other dangerous thing about notifications is that they constantly train our mind to focus on what else can we be doing next? Instead of what is happening now. It takes us out of the moment. Turn them off and check emails and SMS when you want to.
BRAIN DUMP in your diary at the end of each day. Write your ‘to do’ for the next day. It gets things out of your mind so you can switch off and focus on your family.
FOCUS ON A PURPOSE AND A MISSION. Don’t make your job just about making money. You will not be inspired. I know you think that people are motivated by money, but all the research suggests otherwise. The psychology of working has changed since the GFC. We want to be motivated by the mission more than anything. Put purpose before profit. I know what you are thinking. This is fanciful. Work and business is all about making money. Wharton Business School recently published a book that shows that companies that are focused on purpose before profit made the most money. They outperformed the S & P 500 by a ratio of 9 to 1.

Is there something you do to manage your energy levels and focus at work? Please share your strategies; I’d love to hear them.

August 27, 2012

7 Tips that can change your life in 7 days – Tip 1

In my personal coaching I often concentrate on sharing tips with clients that will have the most immediate and profound impact on their life. I do this because I find that most people have little patience for long-term goals. They want results quickly. And most clients also have considerable knowledge of health and nutrition. So their issue is not lack of knowledge but rather sifting through the plethora of information to find what works best for them. So over the past 2 years I have kept a log of what works on everybody, quickly and surely.

Here is the FIRST tip.

Get more sunlight. Vitamin D is the most common deficiency among people in the Western World. It has been linked with increased risk of cancer, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, depression and fatigue. It is also the easiest deficiency to fix. All you need to do is get more sunlight directly onto your skin (preferably the morning sun up to 1pm when the spectrum is most beneficial and least harmful). So strip down and exp

ose yourself 🙂 back/front, arms/legs and even the face (but wear sunglasses). If you have light skin then all you need is about 20 mins of sunlight. If you are dark, then you need up to double that time. Within 7 days of this extra vitamin D you will experience an amazing amount of new energy.

Most people avoid the sun for two reasons. Firstly, they are scared to get skin cancer. Secondly, they don’t have the time.

As for the first reason, research has shown that it’s not the sun that gives you skin cancer, but rather it is sunburn. Research also shows that people who burn easily are antioxidant deficient. In other words, the lack of nutrients in their system makes their cells susceptible to sunburn. So the answer is not to avoid the sun, the answer is to get more antioxidants in your body. (Super foods with the most antioxidants are beans and berries.) Pharmaceutical companies know this but it is easier for them to sell you sunscreen with dangerous chemicals than to tell you to change your lifestyle.

As for the second reason, well it’s really up to you. If you value your health, then you would do everything you can to gets some sun. Even if you are at work, you can aside time during morning tea and lunch to get out into the sun. Thankfully the parts of the body that absorb the most Vitamin D are the hands, arms, face and feet. If you work in a job that does not allow you the time to get out into the sun, then I suggest you quit. Your health is everything. Don’t take it for granted. And the sun is the single most important nutrient for your body. Don’t take it for granted either. It supports all life on this fragile planet of ours.

In my next blog post I will share with you the 2nd most important tip that will unleash your energy levels. And remember that energy is everything. If you have high energy everything else in life tends to fall into place nicely. You are more confident, positive, attractive and your performance at work and at play will sky rocket!

April 27, 2011

Meditation is Detox for the Mind

This morning I tweeted, “meditation is detox for the mind.” I subsequently had a few people asking me what I do for meditation. My answer came as a surprise to some and was dismissed by others. ‘It can’t be that simple, surely!’ came the reply by many Type A personalities. ‘Why not, it works for me’, I responded (also a Type A).

If I had to write a book on meditation it would contain only one sentence. (Why the need to over analyse and complicate something so innate and natural?)

You see, the objective of meditation is relaxation.

Relaxation is the third branch in our Tree of Health. The other two being food and exercise of course. I have learned (the hard way) that relaxing is just as important as eating well and exercising. If you do not make time to relax, you will eventually run out of puff. Even the most successful people (in sport and business), who are passionate about their game, make time to relax.

But what I have noticed is that everyone relaxes differently. For some it may be winding down at the end of the day by reading a book. For others, a hot bath.

Many, however, find that the best way to relax is through meditation.

There are many practices of meditation. You can sit and focus on how your breath moves your stomach in and out. You can repeat a soothing word softly to yourself, which acts as a calming affirmation. You can listen to soft music or you can sit underneath the shade of a tree, listening to the sounds of nature.

For me, the best meditation is sleep. Yes, Sleep! Going to bed early and waking early keeps me calmly active and actively calm all day. Also, napping in the afternoon calms my mind and de-clutters my thinking. It’s part of my daily detox of the mind. It’s that simple!

And, I do some of my best strategic thinking after my naps.

What type of meditation works for you?

April 26, 2011

UNLEASH YOUR ENERGY

Our source of energy comes not from what we eat. Food is just fuel. Our bodies still need a spark to turn that fuel into physical energy.

I have met people who eat well, exercise, relax and still suffer from chronic fatigue. What they don’t realise and what most health practitioners will not admit, is that our true source of energy comes from our hearts and minds.

People who do not fill their life with activities that give them passion and purpose are rudderless. They drift along aimlessly. Consequently they lack that spark in their life.

Here are seven steps to unleashing your energy. I go through these steps daily and journal how they apply to each area of my life: Health and Fitness, Love, Family, Work and Business, Friendship, Learning, Wealth Creation and Charity.

Step 1: Focus on your goals & dreams to ignite your passion. This is the initial spark that primes your body’s physical energy.

Step 2: Take daily action with courage and your energy will rise to the surface and manifest itself.

Step 3: Be motivated by love in everything you do to ensure that you do not waste energy on negative emotions.

Step 4: Accept the winds of change that life blows your way. Don’t waste energy resisting its lessons and opportunities

Step 5: Be grateful for what you have. Don’t waste energy focusing on what you do not have.

Step 6: Give of your time and wealth to others in need and your energy will multiply.

Step 7: Be fearless and adventurous in life and you will perpetuate the energy you get from discovering new goals and dreams.

These steps adopt a pattern of thinking I call the Circle of Positive Thinking (COPT). I have been living by COPT all my adult life. I am happy to share the specifics with you, if you email me direct at sam@sammakhoul.com

It is the most powerful way I know to creating health, happiness and prosperity.

Regards, Sam.

March 2, 2011

THREE SUPER NUTRIENTS

In our quest for good health we have forgotten THREE very powerful SUPER nutrients that can help us live long, healthy and happy lives.

I was at the World Wellness Project in Melbourne on Thursday 8th Feb. I had the privilege of briefly addressing the delegates about health and wellness. I planned to talk about “Hitting the Reset Button” but one of the speakers (John Toomey) said something, which I thought deserved to be elaborated upon. John mentioned how some people live to a ripe old age even though they may break all the rules of nutrition. Some even smoke and drink alcohol and still live into their nineties. Often, journalists interview such people with the hope of uncovering some wonder food that they may be taken – is it wine? Is it dark chocolate? Is it Gogi berries? Is it Pomegranate juice?

What they fail to realise and what many of us often forget is that there are nutrients for the heart and mind that are much more powerful than the nutrients of the body. Many experts now believe that the true source of energy and wellness comes from our thoughts and feelings – not our bodies. Physically, we are energy! So when we are feeling lethargic and down it does not always mean that our bodies lack certain nutrients. It often means that our energy is trapped inside of us, stagnant and unreleased. Why? Because we are not feeding our heart and mind these three key super nutrients.

These nutrients give us an energy explosion. They make us bounce out of bed in the morning and give us a purpose and passion for life.

You are probably wondering what they are. They are love, friendship & work.

When it comes to LOVE: Research has shown that people who are in a loving long-term relationship are much happier and healthier than their single counterparts.

When it comes to FRIENDSHIP: Research shows that people who have a wide circle of friends and who socialise often are much healthier than people who are isolated and lonely.

When it comes to WORK: There is overwhelming research showing that people who love what they do and who work from the heart rarely ever get sick.

Now I’m not suggesting that you are not familiar with the importance of love, friendship and work. And I am not suggesting that food is not important. What I am suggesting is that we haven’t been as deliberate and scientific about these three areas of life as we have with food, water and air. We have not treated these three super nutrients of the heart and mind with the same level of respect.

There are people who measure the amount of carbohydrates, protein and fat they consume. They filter their water and their air. Yet they do not measure how they are travelling when it comes to LOVE – FREINDSHIP – WORK. Why? Because unlike food, air and water, these three intangible nutrients are difficult to measure. So it is difficult for us to reward ourselves when we meet certain targets.

So my challenge to you is this: are you as serious about love, friendship and work as you are about the water you drink, the food you eat and the air you breathe. I hope you are because you will find that these three super nutrients of the heart and mind will give you much more energy and vitality than food ever will alone.