S2E10 · Energy Generation

If you can have that next level understanding that, well, if I do the work now, then it's gonna repay me later. The Jersey Gregorette quote, "Hard decisions, easy life, easy decisions, hard life." That's energy generation in a nutshell. You make the decisions that are best for long-term version of you now, then short-term version of you is going to feel better about that. And it's going to benefit from that. And you're gonna have more energy to do the shit you wanna do. - And in this moment, I swear, we are infinite. - Let's do this, come on!

- Mounting. (upbeat music) - It's too damn hot for a penguin to be just walking around. - Three, two, one, eagle. - Are these two doctors? - I'm afraid so. - And where are we going? - Episode three, episode three. - You play well, you wanna start that again? - I'm definitely starting that again. Episode five, episode five of the Virtus podcast. Lachlan Wallace. - You're rattled. - I'm shook, shooketh to my core. - How are you? - I'm good, thank you. How are you feeling? I love the, love the moe. - Thanks, mate. Got rid of the beard for the first time in a while and just thought, you know what?

We'll leave a little bit of a, little bit of fluff on top. And it looks delicious. It's, I'm just upset I can't see anyone to get the mountain of compliments that no doubt would be coming my way. - The validation that you need. - For those watching at home, please send me messages and validate the shit facial hair. And for those listening at home, just assume that it looks rubbish, because it does. - I'm can either confirm nor deny, speaking as someone who cannot grow a mustache. I have no comments, but. - Carry on. - Yeah, let's get stuck into it.

Today we're talking about energy generation. It's a bit of a conversation. - And we're gonna start with a definition because we're obnoxious and we like that shit. - Sure. - Yeah. - What is that? - That's the definition. - What's energy? - Energy in physics is the capacity for doing work. It may exist in potential energy, kinetic energy, thermal energy, electrical energy, chemical energy, nuclear energy, or other forms. Energy is always, or usually in the process of transfer from one body to another. We can't necessarily create energy. We must draw it from somewhere else. So

I guess the basis of this conversation, knowing what we spoke about last week with the big rocks is our four foundations for energy generation are sleep, hydration, nutrition, and movement. Knowing that, today's conversations can be framed around what are the other things we can do? What are the other ways we can act to be able to draw energy either out of ourselves or out of our environment to live the life we wanna live, to be able to do the shit we wanna do and know that we can do it with a heart and a mind full of energy.

- Oh, you like that? - I do like it, I loved it. - Yeah. - Yeah, I think the conversations around how do we show up in the things that we wanna do, whether it's in work, in our relationships, in training, our ability to cultivate energy and generate energy then flows into how we expend it. - Definitely, definitely. If we're running on low, use the car analogy, if our car is running on a low fuel and the fill up lights flashing and we're not gonna be able to express ourselves in the way we want. So

knowing that we should hopefully be able to cultivate a life where we can live with a full fuel tank for the majority of the day and for the majority of our week and for the majority of our life, which allows us to do the shit we wanna do. There's nothing worse and I've kind of felt a little bit this week, had a couple of flat days and I haven't necessarily lent into the things that I know help me draw energy. So flat morning turns into a flat afternoon in terms of a flat night. So I guess the conversation today isn't from the finish line like we're full of beans all the time.

It's certainly not but we wanna talk about the strategies that we use and that when we do have days like that, allow us to get back up and going. - Yeah, I think it's a good time to be having this conversation. I mean, we're framing this whole season of the Virtus podcast around the time that we're in now and how we can sort of use different strategies to live the life that we wanna live. But I think this conversation in particular is very relevant. And like you said, the days where we're feeling flat and other days when we need to put a focus on how to generate energy.

And it's not always, we're not gonna feel like doing these things. When we feel it flat, sometimes all we wanna do is just curl up and watch a movie. But we know that going outside, getting sunlight, connecting meaningfully with people is gonna make us feel better. And ultimately influences, it flows into how we show up in other areas of our life. - Yeah, I think the quote, the way you do one thing is the way you do everything is really a task or energy generation. If you look at, fall back on that car analogy, if you look at it as okay, what can I do to fill my fuel tank?

Then that fuel tank, that fuel in your fuel tank is gonna take you further. It's gonna allow you to go faster. It's gonna allow you to do the things you wanna do, which ultimately, and I wrote about in my email this morning, ultimately, that's why we're here. We're here because we want to, people who are listening are here because they wanna live the life that they love to live. They wanna live a life of meaning. They wanna live a life of design. They wanna live a life worth living. And that's why, that's what gets me out of bed in the morning is one, to do it for myself.

And then secondary is to help others do it. - Yeah, I don't think many people would get out of bed and not be excited about the prospect of an exciting, meaningful life. - Definitely. I got out of bed this morning, really excited to be at home for the millionth day in a row. So, I had to shift the mindset a little bit. - The horizon's in sight, but yeah. So I mean, the big rocks are the foundation. - The horizon's always in sight, that's the problem. - Yeah, they're not normal. - Lucy's making a podcast today, but she's coming to say hello.

- Hey, Luce. - Hey, Luce. - If you're watching on YouTube, then... Lucy and KP just... - Say hello. - Yeah, peeked into say hello. But the big rocks are the foundation for this conversation. And we sort of talk about, there are inputs with energy and there are outputs. The inputs are the things that we use to generate energy to fill our cup. And we'll speak a little bit about, later in the episode around what these things are. But they're the things that allow us to show up where we want to. And then the outputs are the things that we spend our energy on.

Things like training, things like connecting with people, work. These are the things that we, not empty our cup, but let our cup spill over into. - Yeah, they're the things that we need to do. There's an action driven there. - We need momentum to be able to deliver on these things, the way we want to. And work's a perfect example. We've all had days where we rock up to work and we just wear maybe tired teeth. We don't have that level of desire to lean into it. But when we get there, whether it's people or

whether it's the project you're working on or whatever it is that you can glean your energy from, these are the things that allow us to deliver and to utilize the energy we have to create the action that we're trying to create. And I think that's the important thing. Like both inputs and outputs, you look at it and go, oh, well, let's just load it up on inputs and then we'll have more energy for outputs. But I think the important part of energy generation is the balance and the flow between the two. Training is the perfect example.

Is if I go out for a run, I'm using energy. I'm burning calories. I'm utilizing the energy stores my body has. But when I get back from that run, once I cough up a lung and allow myself, my heart rate to go down and get back into a homeostasis, then I'm gonna have more energy than I had before I left. I'm gonna feel more vibrant. I'm gonna have more capacity to do more things throughout the day. I know that. I'm sure most of us are the same. Yeah, occasionally we're gonna go for a run and it's gonna be when our cup's getting lower and lower, then we need to lean into inputs.

But I think the important part is knowing that if there is an output that builds energy and then helps you suck energy, whether it just be from the endorphin rush we get from running or whether it be from connecting with someone on the run or whatever it may be, or listening to a podcast, we need to be self-aware enough to know that if I do this, then the second-order consequence is usually this. Like I know, and I slept in this morning and not happy about it, but I know that if I get up early, and

this is something we've spoken about over the last month of podcasts, but if I know if I get up early and I go for a run, I force myself to go for a run, the first 15 minutes sucks. To use another physics term, inertia is a thing and it works on the human body as well. A body that wants to stay at rest, that is at rest wants to stay at rest, right? A body that is moving wants to continue to move. So if I'm in bed tired, then I'm not gonna really have the desire

to do it, but I've got to know that the second-order consequence for me getting up, or third-order consequence is me getting home an hour later and being ready to go for all the stuff I want to get done that day, all the things I want to experience and all the places I want to go, kitchen, bedroom, study at the moment, kind of the main three. But external to our current situation, not being able to leave the house as much, we need to be able to lean into our energy generation and our energy stores to be able to do the shit we want to do and to be able to show up.

- Yeah, and that awareness piece is really important and that kind of leads into intention, I think, like showing up with intention and doing things with a sense of like deliberateness, deliberancy, I'm not sure that's a word, but being deliberate with where you put your energy. - That's better. - Yes, thank you. Yeah, it's easy to spend energy on things that aren't important to us. So knowing where we want to spend our energy. - Like this bad boy, scroll this bad boy. - All the social medias. - Dude, that sucks energy. - It is. - No way, social medias are plural.

- Except for LinkedIn, of course. - Fucking hate LinkedIn. - That's a conversation for another time. (laughing) - I was about to jump off a ledge there, so good. Keep going. Yeah, intention's a big part of it and that's almost like the starting point, the starting blocks of my intention, like the night before, used to use my example, I used to just stand there going for a run in the morning. And I failed this test this morning, okay, so piece of shit right here. But I know that next time I'm gonna hopefully be better, as in tomorrow.

That intention, you know, the night before, of I'm gonna go for a run because of this, this and this, like we gotta, I said it a couple of times, we've gotta understand the second and third and fourth order consequences for these decisions. If I choose to sleep in, these are the things that happen. These are the cascading effects, these are the dominoes that fall. But if I choose to get up, same deal. So, you know, the self-awareness around intention, the intention builds self-awareness and that self-awareness allows us to go, okay, what do I need? What does the person that I wanna become need?

What does the lizard brain version of me want? And how do I stay away from that? How do I stay away from those instinctive, I just wanna sleep and laze around and not do anything? - Yeah, yep. How do you think personality plays into this, particularly around the self-awareness conversation? - Well, I think we all, obviously most of us understand the difference between extroversion and introversion. You know, we know that they're kind of two, and it's definitely a spectrum. There's not, you're not A or B, you're a bunch of each. But I think understanding, you

know, where you sit on that spectrum, are you more of an introvert that gets energy or feels like you draw energy from being by yourself and from space and from, you know, silence and things like that? Or are you on the other end where you're, you know, you need to be around people and you draw your energy from others and you love being in a group environment where, you know, there's energy flowing and people are bouncing off each other. And I think, you know, yes, we're somewhere on that spectrum but we're also, we also bounce up and down it a little bit.

I think to use the current climate, I'm someone that when I'm at work, you know, between work and footy and social stuff, I love being around people. But when things are, and I would definitely class myself as more of an extrovert. When things are hectic like that, I love my space. Like I love coming home and just being quiet time and allowing myself the space to, you know, reflect and to refuel and things like that. You know, whether it's watching a movie, listening to music, you know, switching off. You know, as a coach, our job

is very much around people and we're in the relationship business, which I love, but there's a gap at the end of the day there where I'm like, I'm so tired of talking to people where, you know, I remember coming home some days and KP was like, how was your day? I'm like, I don't want to talk about it. Like, it's not that I didn't want to share. It was just, I didn't have the capacity to, you know, to unpack the hundreds of conversations I'd had throughout the day. But now being at home and, you know, being that people person, I just miss everyone.

Like, I feel like I'm struggling for energy some days because I love my girls so much, but seeing KP and Luz day after day after day after day after day for, you know, almost six months now, and the other day I had a day without them, I was like, I just miss my people. Like I miss that interaction that I know I get so much energy from. And, you know, we've gone for a few walks and there've been brilliant ways to start my day. Like I've been running with Tyler and doing different things like that.

But, you know, seeing one person at a time is different to having a group of people around you where you're all, you know, sharing and cultivating energy together. So right now, what I need, and this is the awareness piece where it becomes important, right now, what I need is people. But I'm, you know, a week into when the gym's back open and we're at capacity for, you know, the rest of our lives. You know, a week in, I'm going to be like, oh, I need space. It's that understanding what I have now is, what I have now isn't necessarily what I'm going to need forever.

And that's the awareness piece. It's what am I, what do I need right now to help me get where I want to get to? - Yeah, I think that the personality thing is people confuse introversion and extroversion as quiet people and loud people when it's not. I think it is more of an energy thing where you get your energy from and where you spend it. And definitely at the moment, I think the introversion versus extroversion thing is coming to our awareness because we are isolated a lot more. And the way that we spend our time now, as you said, is going to be very different.

And I think for me, going back into the gym and being around people is going to be a tough transition because I'm so used to having so much downtime. And going, let's say we're going back into the gym, having boundaries in place in order to protect our energy is going to be really important. - Definitely, definitely. Yeah, that's a brilliant segue because the boundaries allows us to, when we have the ability to choose, which we don't at the moment, so let's maybe talk about, like we have the ability to choose a bunch of stuff, but there's obviously certain restrictions.

There's boundaries that have almost been created for us at the minute. When we do have the ability to choose, what are the tools that you use to help you create those boundaries that allow you to lean in when you want to lean in and lean back when you want to lean back? - It's a great question. And I think, again, having an understanding and awareness of what we need is important. And there are certain strategies or systems that we can use. And if you want a refresher on the Systems for Success podcast we did, episode

three, go back and have a listen to that because we outlined the different systems that you can build into your life that can help with this energy generation. - And yeah, having routines and having daily practices that you can fall back to and building boundaries around those is gonna be really important. And even at the moment when we're at home, we need to have these daily routines almost to keep the momentum going. Like I've spoken to a few people lately who have said that they just, they feel flat and they don't feel motivated or, yeah, they don't feel motivated to be productive and do work.

And it's because there's no structure around their daily lives. Like they get up, it's Groundhog Day and we're just going through the motions. - Yeah. - Having structure and having consistency with the things that give us energy, the inputs, allow us then to build momentum and keep that momentum going that flows into the outputs. - Definitely. That routine conversation is so important because I know that if I follow my morning routine, if I do my daily practices, and it doesn't matter what your daily practices are, everyone's gonna have different ones. My daily practices are centered around writing and meditation and my steps and my walking.

And yeah, we've been jumping on calls like this to give us blocks of work to do. And I know that when we execute on them and do them and show up, that framework creates energy for the rest of the day. And I think we've all got to understand that no now is not like life normally is. But if we worry too much about, if we worry too much about what, if we get too hung up on the views of how things should be, we kind of miss the forest for the trees and we don't actually create, cultivate the routines and the frameworks that we want to now to figure out what things really are.

There's a really, we can miss out on so much and it's kind of still that wanting to know when this will end, wanting to know when COVID will end, wanting to know when we'll be back in the thing, everyone's like, oh, we just need to know when it'll end. Well, bad luck. You're not gonna be able to talk to the manager on this one. We're not gonna be able to figure out when it's gonna end. So it's about cultivating a practice, a daily practice that, and we did the thought experiment the other day. It's like,

okay, well, if this goes on forever, if this goes on for the rest of the year, whatever the timeline is, how will you spend your day? How will you execute on the things that you wanna do to create the consistency and to create the daily, to allow you to self. The hibernation mode can be a really useful tool for a week or so. And then the importance of going, okay, well, I can't stay in hibernation forever. How am I going to show up and cultivate these habits to allow me to do the things I wanna do with the boundaries that the current situation has set.

And then the conversation becomes around what can I do rather than, oh, this is what I can't do at the moment. And I think there's a big element for energy generation in just that mindset alone. - Yes, yep. We've spoken in the past about contraction versus expansion. - Good. - And sometimes we do need to contract and we need to hibernate and we need to protect our inputs a little bit more. And then there are other times when we can afford to expand, we can go out into the world and we have more energy for outputs.

And for a lot of people at the moment, it's a time for contraction. We're seeing that with how people are showing up and that for them, if they are approaching that with intention and they're being deliberate with how they're, with the boundaries that they have and with the inputs and with the outputs, then that's a good thing. - And I think we're perfect case studies for that because there'll be some mornings where I'm up early, I tick all the boxes, I do all the things I want to do and I message you at like eight and then I'll get back from your like 10 is like, oh, I slept in, I'm a bit slow this morning.

And then the next day or a couple of days later, it'll be like, roles will be flipped. - Yep. - Like today you got up, went for a walk, did your things. Proofread my email, good from you and did a few of those things where I was like, I stayed in bed and I didn't do the things that I said I would do. And I guess that's the crux of it is you're gonna have, on the energy generation front, you're gonna have days when you feel full of beans, you're gonna have days when you don't.

The goal of this conversation should be, okay, well those days when I don't, how do I bring it closer to the days where I do so that the, to use a football example, right? You wanna have a really small gap between your best games and your worst games. It could be when we show up for anything, work, whatever. We wanna have a really small gap between when we're at our best and when we're at our worst. We don't want us at our best to be feeling like we're on top of the world, able to do anything.

And for our worst to be stay in bed, not get anything done, waste the day, let the people around us down. We want that worst of it to be, okay, well, even if I have a light start, I chase tail for an hour or two, and then I'm kind of backing into that same rhythm and same head space and same mindset. And if we're able to cultivate the energy that we need and that we want in our practices and in the way we set up the framework of our life, then that gap gets closer and closer.

And I think a really important part of that is people and place. Obviously at the moment, we can't go see the people and go to the places that maybe we would want to, but think about the three or four environments you spend most of your time at the moment. Like this box of a room is one of mine. I know if I let my desk get messy and things like that, then I'm gonna be like, oh, this can't be bothered, right? But if I walk in here in the morning and it's crystal clean because I

did the work the night before, then I'm gonna have that little bit of extra energy on top of what I thought I would have in the morning. If I can look at the desk and go, how good is it to have a nice clean desk? And it's a little messy at the moment. There's a few books over here. Then I'm gonna have more energy. And the same goes for your car if you drive a lot, the same goes for your office at work, the same goes for your work environment, the same goes for your kitchen. That's energy generation in a nutshell.

You make the decisions that are best for long-term version of you now, then short-term version of you is going to feel better about that and it's going to benefit from that. And you're gonna have more energy to do the shit you wanna do. - I think the people in place thing is really important. And even though there are constraints with what we can do at the moment, there's still work arounds. We can still connect with people with a phone call or over Zoom. And I know a lot of us have Zoom fatigue and we're sick

of seeing each other in the screens, but we, for example, we did a new round of mindfulness and connection session last night for the Vez family. And we were able to connect meaningfully still over a Zoom screen. - Yeah, would love to be in the room and get cuddles, but couldn't happen. - Of course. So there's still ways that we can connect with people and create space for ourselves at home that enable us to generate energy, that make a positive environment for us. - Definitely. And a big part of that is just look at the

places where you spend most of your time and go, okay, well, how can I better create this space or better update this space for me to have more energy when I come into it? - Yeah, the office for me is a perfect example. The example I used before. - The other thing that came up for me there was our, well, my mentor coach who you've done a little bit of work with before as well, John Marsh, he talks about energy generation a lot. And this is kind of where the concept for us came from, but he speaks about impeccability in showing up.

And we need to practice impeccability in how we generate our own energy. And the desk, having a clean desk is a great example of impeccability. You being deliberate with where you spend your space, with how you cultivate or curate an environment that is essential to how you operate. - I think that just comes back to the being deliberate in your actions and arriving with intent. - Yes, yeah. And the intent needs to be driven by something. You need to have a reason, an underlying reason or desire. And I think that's where we can get into the conversation around your why, what is your purpose?

What is the reason why you do the things you do? For us, it's fairly similar, what we do at Virtus, we obviously resonate with that kind of mission of making the world a better place. My reason is based around, I want people to live the life they love, live a life by design and live a life worth meaning. Because I've been lucky enough to cultivate chunks of that in my own life, and I see how beneficial it can be. So when I'm maybe struggling for energy and I lean back on that why, and I lean

back on my purpose and my meaning, and I can think about my dreams and ambitions and passions, and I go, okay, well, one of these things that I want, that I feel the energy, even now talking about it, I feel the energy bubbling up, like I want to do things. I want to create more outputs. I want to funnel this energy that I genuinely feel right here and funnel it into these outputs so that I can make the world a better place. And that world can start with my desk and it can start with making the bed and it can start with cleaning the kitchen or whatever.

That allows me to grow it to that next level and that next level and that next level. I'm sure we all know those people that seemingly are full of energy all day, every day. And it's because they're living their purpose. And that's not an infinite supply. You still need to show up. You still need to do the work. You still need to have the discipline to do the things you don't want to do. It's almost more so. But if you get the discipline right, if you get the why right, then you're well on your way to being able to show up the way you want to every day.

- Yeah, and for people who are lacking some motivational drive at the moment, reconnecting with purpose will help. And kind of circling back to that analogy around training, how it can both be an input and an output, for us to connect with purpose and connect to our why, that almost highlights or shines a light on the things that can be inputs and outputs. Like doing meaningful work. It's an output because I'm spending energy on it, but it also gives me energy as well. And I think that's maybe almost a sweet spot. You want more of those things.

We are being productive. You are making progress toward the thing that you're working on, but that still gives you energy. It still fires you up. - Definitely. Yeah, we were talking about it before we jumped on and started recording, but we both had a week where we've kind of been staring at these screens for the bulk of the week. And for most of the week, I was feeling pretty good about it. Yesterday I had an afternoon where I was replying to emails. I was writing a couple of emails I didn't want to write. And I

remember spending most of yesterday afternoon doing stuff I didn't want to do, stuff that didn't light me up, stuff that didn't connect at all to my why and my purpose. And I got so late last night, I was cooked. Like we ran the, I ran that event last night and that was brilliant. That was an hour of, that gave me energy. There almost was like too little too late because I was so tired from staring at my screens all day yesterday. But I know that we're gonna jump off from this podcast and both have like another level of energy because we're talking about shit that we'd love to talk about.

We know that if... Guys listening to this will hopefully get the benefits that we know they can get, which lends itself directly to our individual and collective mission of making the world a better place. And if we can do that, then we're winning. Just jump off here and go have lunch with Lucy and KP in the sun. Go bring in some of that beautiful vitamin D goodness and yeah, everything's gonna be all right with the world. But that's an input as well, just being in the sun. I know that like whenever the sun is out, it just makes me feel happier and it gives me more energy.

And I don't know if that... I don't think that's a just a unique thing to me. I think as humans, we wanna be surrounded by nature and we wanna be out in the sun and... - Yeah, human solar panels. - We are like plants. We need sunlight to generate energy. - More like the solar panel probably. - Look, both analogies are pretty good. - Yeah, and I think that's the important thing is gonna... Okay, when do I feel my best? This is almost the question that you guys can ask yourself to then sun's cause. That's pretty funny, what a face.

I lost you for a second. Sort out your internet mail, Eliza. - In the end. - What was I gonna say? So ask yourself, when do I feel my best? And you almost reverse engineer from there. What am I doing? What am I thinking? What am I feeling? Who am I with? Where am I at? And if you can go, okay, well, here are the answers. They're not necessarily gonna be the answers forever, but if they're the answers a minute. I know I feel my best when I've trained for an hour in the morning and coached a great group of people and then connected over a coffee and then done my journaling and my meditation.

If I know that that three hour block in the morning makes me feel at my best, then I'm going to be able to draw on that when I need to. And I'm gonna be able to draw on that when I wanna be able to do the things I wanna do. And I think energy generation in a nutshell is okay, what makes me feel my best? How can I get there? How can I get this close to that as often as I can? Then you're winning. - Yeah, yeah. Like the conversations that we've had and other

in previous episodes, if we kind of just still it all back, all down to the same thing, then it's just cultivating a life worth living and doing the things that make us happy and that make a difference to the people that we love. And these are just different perspectives, different focuses that you can direct energy toward to get close to that thing. I think that's a perfect way to finish. Don't do shit that makes you miserable, do shit that makes you happy. That's it, welcome to the meaning of life with Lachlan and Simon. (laughing) - Yeah.

We should do a podcast. - I know. - Awesome, any more? - There's every late 20s white male in the world. - Yeah, gotcha. - Good, nah, that's it, that's it from me. Keep doing good things. Lean on each other, look after each other. Keep filling yourselves full to the brim with energy. - Appreciate you all. We'll see you on the next episode. - Oh, what are we talking about? - Episode number six, which is going to be-- - For sure. - I'm fairly sure it's meant, it is definitely episode six and it's something that is pretty close to both of our hearts, which is mental health.

So really looking forward to that one. Hopefully we can add a little bit of value and give you a little bit of an insight into mental health. - Perfect, see you legends. - Thank you all, ciao. (upbeat music) - There is one more thing. It's been emotional. (upbeat music)