Law 2: Be Ready Harness your energy

The figure shows a four-layered rhombus on the x-y axis. North axis is with the title “me,” south axis with the title “we,” “east axis with the title “inner confidence,” and west axis with the title “outer confidence.” The inner most rhombus is labeled as “unleash brilliance,” the second rhombus shows the following labels: “law 1,” “law2,” “law3,” and “law 4.” The third rhombus also shows the following labels: “Be ready,” “be together,” “be heard,” and “be you.” The fourth rhombus shows the following labels: “Mindset,” “stamina,” “behavior,” “collaborate,” “network,” “engage,” “accelerate,” “magnify,” “lead,” “character,” “focus,” “expertise.”

Take back control.

Stop the busy — it's an excuse.

Fuel your energy and bring your best.

If I were to ask ‘How are you?', what are the chances your first response would be ‘busy'?

Every person I speak to, everywhere I go, is running around like a maniac, meeting to meeting, email to email, with a diary packed to the hilt. We have so many to-do lists it is impossible to think about what's for lunch, let alone about what's next. Once we throw in some time for looking after ourselves, keeping fit, eating well, getting enough sleep and squeezing in hugs for the important people in our world, it's no wonder we feel like we're living — no, just existing — in Crazy Town.

Many of my clients are well and truly ‘[skidding] in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out', as Hunter S Thompson wrote. Although they're not shouting ‘Wow! What a ride!' but rather riding through a shit storm, stuck on a rollercoaster, not knowing which way is up, down, left, right or any direction at all.

Yet while we're regularly told that we have to ‘dig deep', to ‘find the grit and resilience' to keep going and that ‘once we get to the other side we will become stronger and have so many learnings,' the reality is that life can feel downright crappy, horrible, rough (permission to insert as many swear words as you see fit).

Over the years, I've ...

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