Money is energy

Time is not money...
Money is like a battery. This is your thought of the day. You don't necessarily need to agree or disagree with me, just consider it. When you break it down, money is really just energy. When we go to work, we are giving our energy to some cause or project. At the end of the week, we expect some form of payment...giving us energy back would be hard to buy things with, so we get money.

The money that we receive is just a temporary form of energy. In and of itself, money is of very little value. It doesn't taste very good, and it burns very quickly if you light a match to it. In fact, a $100 bill and a $1 bill burn at exactly the same rate...that is amazing. So, the money itself isn't valuable or energy, but it represents those two things. Consider that you can store up the energy that you have spent at work and other places in a place called a bank, where you put your money (battery). When you are ready to spend some money (energy) you plug in your battery and expend some of that hard earned energy for some other goods or services that someone else has created with their energy...thus, we have just traded some of our stored energy for someone else's stored energy. Very interesting.

Now consider that some people seem to accomplish so many things in their life and you are left to wonder how someone else can accomplish so much in the same amount of time that you have...how is that? I propose that it has to do with the focus of energy in their lives. There are many different types of energy that we have access to on any given day. Most people equate money to being the one thing they need to get things accomplished (yes, I am making a broad statement, based on vague assumptions...deal with it for the moment) Money is certainly a good thing to have if you want to make a difference, but it is only one of many different forms of energy that we have at our disposal. Furthermore, it is the most limiting of all our energy sources.

Here are a couple of sources of energy that we have access to on a regular basis that you may or may not have considered.

-Thoughts-It has been proven and widely accepted that our thoughts are tiny electric impulses in our brain. Electricity is a form of energy in case you live under a rock and didn't know that. So, something as simple as our thoughts can be converted into energy. The key here is to direct your thoughts towards one thing as often as possible. You may be focused on solving a problem, or completing a task or any one of a million different things. The point is that YOU can control your thoughts. The power of that idea is lost on most people.

-Feelings-What we feel is a type of energy as well. I know there are those that would disagree that feelings are a type of energy but if you don't believe me consider the following; haven't you known people in your life who are always feeling down, or depressed. Think about how you feel when you are around that person. Have you ever heard anyone say that someone "drains" them. Of course, we all have. Consider for a moment, that these people drain us of our energy! Isn't that amazing? And haven't we all been around someone who gets us fired up? They give us energy! So, as humans, our feelings and emotions are a type of energy that we can use to create or distroy.

If we think about our solution and have positive emotions, we will make more progress than if we didn't think about the solution at all or with negative emotions. So far, we are in control of our energy. Let's keep exploring...

-Food-The choices that we make when we nourish our bodies makes a profound difference in the way that we are able to move about and accomplish physical tasks throughout the day. But it also has a profound impact on our thoughts and our feelings about ourselves and the world around us. We can certainly affect our health by choosing our food wisely, but it is also true (I posit) that a healthy body has a healthier thought process and a healthier potential to think clearly and creatively.

-The words we speak are another form of energy that we have ultimate control over. In my opinion, this is one of the most over looked areas of available energy. We should speak wisely. Our words do have an impact on our surroundings especially when they are infused with emotion. If you don't believe me, go yell at your dog and see what the impact is. Even if you yell in a language that your dog doesn't understand, it will still cower and react negatively. Words can build and words can destroy and more often than not it is the INTENT that does the building or destroying. We should speak with clarity and understand the intent when we speak or even write, because writing can have the same if not even greater impact than speaking.

Our vocation is also a great source of energy. I have had the great opportunity to be a part of our military and it was unfathomable to me that people would start counting down from 10 years out about how many days they had left in the Navy. If you don't like it, get the hell out! Don't count down, get out at your next opportunity. If you are drained at the end of the day, it is because you are not "charged" by your work. Or it may be that you are totally into your work and you are just drained...My point is that your work, your vocation either gives you energy or takes energy from you. Only you can tell if your work is good or bad for you, but when you find someone who has found their calling, don't they seem to have boundless energy? aren't they able to accomplish more because to them it isn't just a job?

Our paychecks-This is also a form of money that is unique because we can place our intent into our money. If we choose not to take an active role in the direction of our money, then others will decide for us through marketing. Consider that if you are a vegetarian or vegan, you can choose to support your beliefs by NOT going to McDonalds or eating meat. therefore, when you support vendors and products that are in alignment with your beliefs, you are spending your energy in a very efficient way.

Free time-what we do in our free time equates to a lot of energy as well. If we spend our free time doing something that is contrary to our beliefs then we are playing tug of war with our own energy. There are those among us that volunteer a tremendous amount of their time working for a cause. Those folks are spending their time in a meaningful, efficient way. Smart.

Ok, so there are other forms of energy, but let's just consider the few that we have talked about. Let's just say that I want to accomplish something specific. If I spend the majority of my time, thinking, feeling, speaking, working, eating and volunteering in ways that would align myself with my goal then wouldn't I be able to accomplish more that someone who is ignorant of all the different sources of energy.

You see, when we align all of our available energy into a sharply focused beam, we can accomplish more that some people can accomplish in several lifetimes, especially when you can learn to teach others the value of focused energy and they line up to work towards a goal you have set. That is how you leverage energy to accomplish big things in a short life.

Now...Suck it up, Buttercup!

Rob