How often do you spend your time and your life on things that are fruitless?
Note that I said 'things that are fruitless', not ‘things that end up becoming fruitless.’ Yes, they are two different things.
It is one thing to work at something with a goal in mind but you end up failing at that goal. It is an entirely different thing to spend your energy on something that you know deeply, somewhere in your heart — and somehow, our hearts always know, that it will end nowhere, you have no goal or reason for doing it. It just gives you a high in the moment and makes you seem busy, feeds your ego and makes you feel less purposeless.
With this in mind, think about the question before you continue reading. How much of your time do you spend on fruitless things?
You'd be surprised that you spend more time on fruitless activities than you actually think. Whatever fraction of time you think you spend, triple it. That's the amount of time you spend on fruitless adventures, which is strange..., because we are all meant to be purposeful, or at least try to chase something tangible and meaningful with our lives until we discover that ONE thing our lives are meant for.
We deliberately spend our energy wrongly by performing tasks that have no remote bearing on a goal that we have set.
We waste our energy when we spend productive hours worrying about what we should be working on. We hurt our energy by saying ‘Yes’ to everything that makes us feel. We become wasteful of our energy when we spend time on phone with people that do not add any value in any way to the work we are doing, the growth that we are striving for, and the people that we are.
Stand in front of the mirror and look around you, starting with the mirror, and you will find people who do almost nothing to protect their energy for the more productive things.
They think they've got all the time and energy in the world, and so they don't set meaningful goals, they spend energy chasing tasks that add zero value to their lives, forgetting what Brian Tracy said in his book, The Laws of Luck that "Everything counts. Everything that you do and don't do counts."
Whatever isn't adding to your energy is taking away from it. There are no in-betweens. Whatever isn't adding value to you is sapping value off you. And this is why we need to be careful. This is why we need to be extremely protective of our energy.
Whatever isn't adding to your energy is taking away from it. There are no in-betweens.
People who do not protect their energy deliberately are people without any vision, any mission for life, and any goal set towards it. If they have goals, everything they do, or at the very least, a chunk of what they do will have a bearing on those goals, and that will be energy well utilised.
The reason I am emphasizing on energy today is that, the very essence of our life is time and energy. Whatever you choose spend your energy on is what will impress your soul, sending signals into the universe to shape your future. What you spend your energy on is a reflection of what you truly desire to make of your life.
What you spend your energy on is a reflection of what you truly desire to make of your life.
If you spend time performing tasks that do not speak in the slightest to your life's mission, your life will become anything else BUT the mission it is meant to be for.
If you spend your energy on people for a cause that you know deep down would be fruitless, or rather, for no cause at all, it will be like giving grace to the graceless, casting pearls before swines, proving that you do not deserve those pearls in the first place.
If you spend your time and energy doing nothing…, well, our future becomes a reflection of what we spend our energy on.
Energy is life. You need to guard yours jealously. You can do this by asking simple questions as you go about your day, every day:
1. This thing I am currently exerting my energy on, does it have an end goal? If it doesn't have an end goal, you know you're better off spending that energy on something more fruitful.
2. If it does, what is the end goal? Put it on a mental piece of paper and ask the next question.
3. Does this end goal speak to my life's mission in any way? Does it add value to me or take value away from me?
4. What would I be better off doing right now?
These questions will be a guiding compass that will help us protect our precious energy and ultimately, our lives. As we guard our hearts with all diligence, we must protect our energy with all jealousy, for out of it flows our lives and what becomes of it.
Guard, not just your heart, but your energy with all diligence and jealousy.
To Your Growth,
Your Coach,
Abiola Okunsanya,
Handzinspired. ✨
Highly insightful, thank you for sharing!
Everytime I make a decision, I consider the long term impact. More like, my long term plans birth most of my decisions.
In a generation of mostly busy people, who seldom think long term, this post is a gem.
Thank you for sharing this!!!!!