Thoughts on Energy

Recharging the Batteries

When things feel overwhelming and I sense I have taken on too much, I find myself wishing for a weekend where I get to do nothing. A weekend where I can watch a few too many Brooklyn 99 episodes, throw on a movie or two, flip through my Substack archive, and get around to reading those 17 newsletters collecting dust in my inbox. In times of feeling depleted, I crave a weekend where I can sit at home, be on my own, and have a complete lack of scheduled plans.

Yes, if only I could stitch together a whole weekend of that, I’d emerge fully refreshed and ready for the whatever the upcoming week holds.

Reality rarely looks like that. I find my weekends filled with activities and tasks that elude me during the week: that coffee with a friend I’ve been putting off, that new workout or running route I’ve wanted to try out, that Sunday Roast I’ve declined one too many times (one of the best things about living in the UK, by the way), and that FaceTime call with someone back home. More often than not, the weekend that I feel I need and the weekend I have in front of me seem altogether at odds. Between all these (admittedly lovely and wholesome) plans, I find myself wondering: when I will ever get to rest?

Yet, whenever I have the rare opportunity to experience that weekend filled with nothing, I find I come out of the other side less energetic and more anxious. I feel worse. I suspect this has something do with how we understand energy, and what do to when we feel we have little of it.

In a car, the battery only recharges when the engine is running, and I think the same applies for us.

I don’t particularly feel like I have a ton of energy after a day of back-to-back Netflix episodes, but I tend to feel rejuvenated after a coffee with a friend where we share what’s been going on in our lives.

I don’t feel motivated and ready to implement every action/habit/hack I read about in those various newsletters, but I feel energetic, satisfied, and a sense of mental clarity after a Saturday morning workout.

I think that, for the most part, energy doesn’t come from doing long stretches of doing nothing. Energy is generated from engaging with life. I’m not discounting the benefits of a good, quiet night in, but when our Friday night movie turns into a whole weekend of passively consuming TV, I think we’ve mixed up when resting and recharging really means. Spending time with the right people, or doing interesting things that vary from a normal routine, provides far more energy than almost anything else.

We recharge by doing worthwhile things, with real people, in the real world. Energy doesn’t come from turning the engine off and hoping the battery charges. It comes from turning the key, pulling out of the driveway, and hitting the road. We don’t need to rev the engine to 7000 RPMs, but we also need to avoid not turning on the car in the first place.