The true path to success isn’t found in filling the pages of the latest planner you bought or in listening to 10 different inspirational podcasts that tell you to feel good about you. As powerful as those strategies appear, the first step to success in anything is to identify and conquer your energy zappers. If you don’t do this first step, you will continue to live the distracted, cluttered, disorganized, unfocused life. 

Energy Zappers are the things that drain you of valuable, creative energy every time you see them or think about them. You usually walk right by them, and don’t even realize they are zapping your energy. Hint: If you keep procrastinating and saying “I really need to clean that out, store it, donate it, fix it, read it, etc.”, then it is an Energy Zapper. The Energy Zappers are what are keeping you stuck, uninspired and, at times, overwhelmed. When you do the work to identify and conquer your Energy Zappers, you will reach your mountaintop moments. You will be able to live your true best life. 

And then there’s this…

The most important reason we all need to conquer our Energy Zappers is not about self. It’s about all of us. We are all connected. When you conquer your Energy Zappers and change your life for the better, you will change the lives of others. Your “better” impacts your family, your workplace, your neighborhood, your community, …well, our world.  Who wouldn’t want that? We don’t have time to waste. Our world needs the best we can give it. To get started with changing our world for the better, you have to get rid of your energy zappers. That’s the simple truth.

Energy Zappers Are All of the Clutter and Chaos

This phrase the clutter and chaos has a meta-message. It has a larger intended meaning than just the obvious one of the tangible clutter and chaos that you may see in your environment. When I use the words clutter and chaos, I am referring to anything in your life that has negativity, confusion, and discontentment with it, tangible or not. 

The clutter could absolutely be those physical things in your environment that make you cringe every time you see them: an overflowing closet, a cabinet of plastic containers that fall out onto the counter, your desk at work, or a refrigerator that needed cleaning three months ago. The clutter could also be those intangibles that are taking mental space and energy that could be used for goodness and creativity: your procrastination in making a much-needed doctor’s appointment; 3,570 emails in your inbox at work, involvement in a negative relationship with a friend, co-worker, or significant other, or the current balances on your credit cards. All of your clutter and chaos, whether visible or not, zaps your energy on a daily basis. Yes, they take your energy every day of your life.

The Energy Zappers may seem like little things, but the power they have over you is huge. The Energy Zappers affect you in 3 different ways: 

1. Energy Zappers are evidence of procrastination. They are the things we don’t take care of, the things we don’t want to do. Mistakenly, people think procrastinating, not handling things, makes life easier. Wrong! Procrastinating is hard work. Procrastinating wears on your soul. Putting off anything takes an inordinate amount of mental energy that drains you like a leaky faucet that never stops dripping. If you are one of those who proclaims to work better when you procrastinate, I will challenge you on that to the end. Procrastination is a negative action that is good at perpetuating itself. It is with you every day chipping away at your creative energy…until you decide to stop it.
2. Energy Zappers make life foggy. They keep you from seeing the future clearly because they are always in the way. They are foothills of clutter that block you from seeing the possibility of reaching your mountaintop moments. The Energy Zappers will always be hanging around until you decide to clear them out. Order and organization bring clarity. Don’t fool yourself into thinking otherwise. Now let’s be sure, your order and organization doesn’t have to look like everyone else’s, but if you don’t have order and organization, your life will be foggy.  You will not find your mountaintop.
3. Energy Zappers create within you a debilitating narrative of shame.  Energy Zappers are always accompanied by a soft, quiet discussion in the back of your mind, something like: “I’m such a loser for not taking care of that. I hope no one knows how disorganized I really am. I just can’t get anything right.” This insidious self-talk defeats you, and the truth is that you are actively participating in it when you don’t conquer your Energy Zappers!  How many days have you walked through your laundry room or pulled into your messy garage and muttered the same negative self-talk you muttered yesterday? 

The good news is that you can change this! I have a system for you, and it works. You just have to make the decision to use it.

It’s time to get started!

Here’s your action plan:

• On my Home page or Resources page, you can request a free copy of The Jumpstart Package. It’s a resource I created to give you a quick start on identifying and conquering your Energy Zappers. I have The Jumpstart Package for Couples, also, if you are ready to get to work as a team. 
• Purchase my book The Notebook Meeting: How To finally Organize our Life and Reach Your Mountaintop Moments. This is the blueprint for using my process called The Notebook Meeting that will help you live the life of your dreams. 
• Take action. Good will come.