Be like LeBron (and take a walk)

Five seconds left.

You’re dribbling up the court. Will you have enough energy?

Lebron does. But how? Well, he walks. Kind of a lot. From “Cavaliers are surviving in the playoffs despite the dilemma of LeBron James’ rest” (ESPN):

It manifests itself in many ways. For example, during free throws, James will often walk to the other end of the floor. It saves him having to run when possession changes. He also at times will take himself out of an offensive play and stand on the wing, knowing he needs a breather.

There’s a book about everything. There’s a great book about managing your energy, even if work means mostly sitting all day. From The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz:

In most jobs, the physical body has been completely cut off from the performance equation. In reality, physical energy is the fundamental source of fuel, even if our work is almost completely sedentary.

First step to improving your energy if you sit all day: don’t sit all day.

In Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans explain the importance of energy:

Nowadays, many of us are knowledge workers, and we use our brains to do the heavy lifting. The brain is a very energy-hungry organ. Of the roughly two thousand calories we consume a day, five hundred go to running our brains.

They also suggest tracking activities and ranking them by how positively (1) engaging and (2) energizing they are.

They have a great example of what to avoid: arguing deeply to prove a point might be very very engaging but it creates a lot of negative energy.

You design your life by designing your days, so plan for your peaks and valleys. Create deeper valleys by deliberately resting then you can experience bigger peaks when you need them.

And if you happen to be very good at basketball, you can rip the Raptors hearts out year after year after year.