Every now and then I write a blog post that triggers an avalanche of emails. Last week’s list of 39 energy drains filled my inbox with: “OMG, I have everything/half of it/at least ten/at least five of the points on this list. Help!”

First things first: everyone (you, me and the woman you secretly envy) has some point or another on this list that could do with improvement. Come on, we are all humans and the goal is to live a beautiful life, not to be glossy-magazine-picture-perfect!

But yes, these energy drains are all but elegant. Here are the three ways to master them in the most simple and efficient way:

The 3D for your Energy Drains

1.) Ditch it.

That’s the simplest and most elegant way to upgrade your life (simple, not necessary easy, especially in the beginning!). You all know in our heart of hearts when that sexy overpriced little number in size 4 (bought 5 years ago when you were a size 8 in order to ‘motivate’ you. Today you’re still motivated and still a size 8), the obnoxious boyfriend, girlfriend or ex-lover and the tedious volunteering for the fund raising of endangered hamsters have no more place in your life.

“But it/he/she might still be useful/change one day” you hear yourself squealing. Trust me: whenever you say or think that phrase, you can be pretty sure that the thing or person in question is way past its prime!

2.) Delegate it.

Much as we would love to, some tasks cannot be eliminated from our lives and some of them become the bane of our existence. Cleaning. Cooking. Bookkeeping. Chauffeuring. Organising and managing a project. Admin work. And it has to be done and no one else can or will do it and there’s no way out… I hear you. Believe, I know how it feels to be trapped in the hamster’s wheel of ‘too much to do and not enough time or money’. I know how many women carry an insane amount of work and stress!

However.

I’ve yet to meet a woman who, with some probing from my side and some ingenuity from hers, was not able to delegate at least half a dozen of the “oh-so-important-things-that-only-I-can-do”.
I’m ready to take a bet! Delegation is an art that requires you to be crystal-clear about yourself and your priorities while thinking outside of the box.

One of my favourite stories comes from a client, let’s call her Stéphanie, who procrastinated big time on cleaning her house. You can easily imagine the consequences. Stéphanie would have loved nothing better than to hire a cleaner, but she didn’t have the necessary funds. A blocked situation? Not for her! Stéphanie realised that she didn’t dislike cleaning per se, just in her own house. The elegant solution: she took on a job as a cleaner for a couple of hours and with the money earned, she paid her own cleaner! Voilà!

3.) Do it.

In his butt-kicking little book “Eat that frog”, Brian Tracy starts with a graphic image: if you start every day by eating a frog alive, you’ll can then get on with your day with the satisfaction that the worst is already behind you. Bon appétit!(Just for the record: despite the fact that I’m living in France where, as legend would have it, we nourish ourselves exclusively of croissants, red wine, amour, snails and frog legs, I wish to state that I’m not so much a fan of the last two. 🙂

The frog here stands of course for the things we all tend to procrastinate upon until they drain out our energy, our self esteem and our joie de vivre.

Tracy starts  with the 2 rules of frog eating:

The first rule of frog eating is this:

if you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.

The second rule of frog eating is this:

if you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long. 

So, here’s what I invite you to do: have a look at the“frogs” on last week’s list and swing into action: ditch, delegate or do!