3 Questions to Ask Yourself If You Feel Drained

Do you feel constantly drained? Lately, I've been asking myself a question that sounds simple but is actually incredible. I ask myself what actually deserves my energy right now? Not what wants it, not what's loud, not what I've always said yes to out of habit, but what deserves it. Because the truth is our energy resources are finite. We don't have all the energy in the world to do everything that we want to all of the time. So if you feel constantly burned out or like you're running low on energy, or you're spreading yourself too thin, it might not be a problem with time management, it could be a problem with energy management.

So you might be able to technically fit everything that you want to do in, whether it's into an hour or into a day or into a week, but you can't do it and feel okay. At some point. If everything is a priority, then nothing is sustainable. So if you feel constantly burned out or like you're running low on energy, or you're spreading yourself too thin, it might not be a problem with time management, it could be a problem with energy management. So if you're feeling that way and you're not really sure what it is, here are three questions that I like to ask myself to figure out if I'm having a problem with energy management and how to appropriately send my energy resources where they need to go.

So I asked myself these three questions when it comes to deciding if I'm going to put my energy and time into something. So the first question I ask myself is, does this support the life I'm in right now, or a version of me that I've outgrown? So there are oftentimes commitments that we've made in the past when we had a different capacity, whether it's because we had a different schedule or we had different priorities or different values. We might have had more time on our plates or we had more support at the time.

But if that's not the case right now, then maybe it's not a place that the energy needs to go. The second question I ask is what drains me versus what stretches me. So if something is draining me, it will leave you feeling smaller. If it's stretching you, it might be hard, but you still get something back from it. So not everything that's uncomfortable is wrong. But chronic exhaustion is a data point and you should listen to it. The third question I ask is, if I say yes to this, what am I saying no to?

So if I say yes to this, what does that mean? I'm giving up Right. And this is a way for us to ask ourselves, am I giving up something that I'm okay with? Or if I say yes to this, does that mean that I no longer have the energy for something that actually matters more to me? And sometimes this is okay to do here and there. Like, let's say someone we love is having a birthday dinner, and by saying yes to that, we're saying no to something that we would normally do to fill our cup. It's okay, because maybe we really value our relationships.

And so by saying yes to this and having to say no to this, we're still honoring something that's important to us. But if we're saying yes to something that is less important than something that we're then going to have to say no to on a regular basis, then we're going to be constantly draining our energy and our resources for things that really, really matter. Choosing where your energy goes isn't selfish. It's how you stay available for what actually matters. And you don't need to justify your limits or earn rest by burning yourself out.

So sometimes that looks like saying, this is something that mattered before, but it doesn't get my energy now. And that's not quitting or giving up. It's just choosing something differently. So if you're feeling stretched thin, this is your permission slip to pause and decide on purpose where your energy goes. This season.