We always talk about glasses being half full or half empty and how that’s a reflection of positivity vs negativity. What if you changed the contents of the glass from being something positive like optimism or attitude, to tiredness or pain? What if rather than focusing on filling the glass you focused on how to empty it?
I sometimes feel that especially as a generally positive person I feel compelled to focus on filling up positive parts of my life but it can also feel extremely exhausting and like in order to do that I need to pause and take a break. By switching my focus to emptying a glass with something in I don’t want like tiredness it keeps me still in action but without feeling like I am lacking or playing catch-up.
For me right now I feel like my glass is 7/10 full of tiredness. A lot has been happening and I feel drained but rather than bleakly looking at my energy glass and feeling very lacking I’m choosing to look at my tiredness glass which is very full instead. I actually want my tiredness glass to be empty and emptying it is far more exciting than trying to find ‘energizing’ things to fill the energy cup.
Psychologically emptying the tiredness cup should mean my energy goes up but it feels a whole lot less pressured just to focus on things that help reduce my tiredness instead.
This simple switch in mindset last night when talking to my coach meant I went to bed an hour earlier just because I could and I felt excited to do something to help empty the tiredness cup. I didn’t feel pressured that I had to have a perfect sleep in order to feel energized, I just wanted some extra sleep to hopefully feel a little less tired tomorrow.
Today I feel 5/10 tired. My energy is still low but I feel less exhausted. If I had put my focus on my energy needing to improve I would have been disappointed that it hadn’t but by focusing on reducing my tiredness I am happy because that has gone down. Try it for yourself, try shifting your focus to reduce what you want less of without focusing on the opposite needing to be fuller at the same time. Let me know how it goes.
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