Limitless Monday – High Energy vs Low Energy

Limitless Monday – High energy v low energy

I am currently watching the first season of the Apprentice. It’s been 21 years since the show first aired attracting 20 million viewers.

In one of the episodes a candidate asks The Donald what he is looking for in an apprentice. Trump answers emphatically, “Energy”.

The best results are achieved when energy is exuded. This doesn’t mean you have to walk around bristling with energy every minute of the day; that’s exhausting. It does mean that you are able to turn it on at will.

My best results were achieved when I felt energized. Dates, job interviews, deals, partnerships, new friendships. If I didn’t feel and show energy I rarely got the girl or the deal.

To generate energy, it does help if there is a connection with the other person or that the atmosphere is electric. I was performing at a standup comedy show in New York City a few years ago. It was a hot July afternoon; only a dozen people sat in the audience. One person was laid out horizontal on a wooden bench, I assumed he was sleeping. This lackluster atmosphere wasn’t what I was expecting. I tanked and my jokes bombed.

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A few weeks later I performed at the famous Gotham Comedy club. There was an audience of a hundred or so having fun. I was on fire that night, or at least it felt that way. Sometimes you must turn on the energy when it doesn’t come naturally, even when you are in a shitty mood or the audience sucks.

I was on a date once. The girl hardly said a word for the first few minutes despite me probing her for information. She was a little overweight, could be fairly described as plain, and I quickly discovered she had the personality of a slug. I gave up trying after 30 minutes, and sat there in silence for the next hour. I remember that date more than the encounters that progressed to a second date or marriage. It was a lesson to me to cut dates and meetings short if there is nothing in it for me. Life is too short. It was also a lesson that I must better control my energy levels if I want to achieve the goal I am chasing at that particular time. Whenever I need to muster energy, I think of that date.

Energy encourages energy. If you sit there with a frown looking around the room wishing you were somewhere else, it is too much to expect the other person to engage with you. It does happen occasionally. Those kinds of people are both rare and worth holding onto.

You should enter all encounters bursting with energy and enthusiasm. My first comedy club experience was practice for a bigger event. An interview is an example where energy is essential even if the interviewer is as dull as a wet weekend in Scotland. Handling customers requires energy. If you have been dumped by your boyfriend, discover you are pregnant from the loser you only dated once, or your mother died in a freak accident, remember, the customer doesn’t give a sh*t.

A low energy person isn’t someone you want to rush to have a drink with. The fact is we all have the ability to energize ourselves. Even the girl on that date with me. She just needed to make an effort!

If your default setting is low energy, think of the last time you were excited by something. A football game, a concert, winning the lottery. There is no excuse for not mustering energy when the circumstances dictate.

Now saying all this, there are plenty of low energy people who are very successful. They have a desire and fire in them that they keep hidden. They are, however, a rarity. Most low energy people are not as happy or as successful as their high energy brethren. I don’t tend to get on with people with low energy. They irritate me.

High energy attracts success, wealth, and happiness. Choose the path of high energy.

Happy Monday!

Banner Image: Energy. Image Credit – Riccardo Annandale