My Secrets to Living a Full Plate Life

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"In order to create the life of our dreams, we need a strong foundation on which to build who we are and what we stand for."-Debbie Ford

Recently people in my life have been saying "If only I had as much energy as Kat" or "Kat is so energetic that's why she gets so much done."  It is not that I have more energy than others (in fact I have much less energy than most), it is that I have clearly defined my purpose  in life and my purpose for why I do the things I do.  I also know myself and I use my strengths and sometimes weaknesses to my advantage.  This allows me to say no to things that don't fit.  I say NO more than others and I also do not utilize excuses.

When I think about my life and all the "stuff" I have to do, I look at my purpose first and remove and eliminate any "thing" (tasks, events, responsibility, titles, labels, etc.) that doesn't fit perfectly into my purpose.  This usually removes a good 60% of the items handed to me in a given week and gives me more time and energy to put towards those things that matter.

I know that I have systems and structures in place to support everything and anything I want to do and complete in a given moment, so I can also say YES to more things as well.  If you don’t have the systems and structures in place to accomplish more, people will start to see that you are not a person to give tasks to.  I rarely say NO to opportunities or tasks that I want more of because I want to attract more of the things I enjoy.  If I say NO enough times to invitations to events, at some point the invitations will stop.  This works for things you want and don’t want the difference is the invitations will stop for the things I don’t want, which is fantastic.  And the things I do want will stop with enough refusals, so I say YES to more of the wanted and enjoyable things which in turn attract more of the same.  I help a lot of my clients create their own systems and create their own structures that fully support them.

I also use my energy cycles to my advantage.  I know my energy almost always dips down to near zero at 3pm so I never try to complete mentally heavy tasks at 3pm.  I would say that knowing yourself is the first step to accomplishing more, if that is the goal.  If I know that I have a jolt of energy at 9am I try to use that energy to the max.  I don’t drive myself crazy my doing the dullest or boring task at my most energetic time of the day.  I schedule and plan my days and weeks to support these energy cycles, to maximize my efforts.  This helps me get more done in the time that I have.  I create a schedule or a routine that fully supports my strengths and weaknesses, not someone else’s (I don’t agree with cookie cutter systems). My routines also fully support my purpose in life because I am saying no to the things that don’t fit, naturally giving me more energy and time for the things that matter the most.

I also don’t make excuses for anything.  If I take on something I commit to it 100% and I take 100% responsibility for its completion.  If I’m late in completing it, I own it.  If I no longer want to do the “thing”, I don’t back out of it with an excuse. I use it as a reminder of when to say no at the beginning the next time because that item is taking focus, energy and time away from some other more fulfilling task.  If I back out with enough excuses I am no longer being authentic and honest to myself.  Excuses drive me crazy because they mean that I, or the person making the excuse were not checked into themselves or before they committed to the task or “thing.”  Don’t just say yes to everything and anything blindly.  Make a conscious effort to look at your schedule, to-do list, your energy, your purpose and your desires before you say yes to anything and everything.  All those criteria are a lot of tests to help eliminate the “things” that don’t fit for you and that may need to be removed or never accepted.

I may have a very full plate but it is filled with things I love and that I am passionate about -- and nothing less.