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 witnessed so many people struggling with the multiple demands of home and work, of Plan A not quite eventuating as it should, of the emotional ride of incredible highs and insane lows. The 21st century sure is unrelenting!

Right now, you may be agreeing and grumbling, ‘It's not my fault; I can't control the demands on my diary; there's just so much to do!'

But the truth is, being ‘too busy' is just an excuse. Yep, you heard me right and I'm going to say it again: being busy is an excuse.

It's an excuse for being out of control, for giving in to others' demands on our time, for not taking ownership and for lacking personal discipline. Being busy simply means saying ‘yes' and committing to too many things.

Every time we make the ‘busy' excuse, we deflect the responsibility for our own actions. We give our control over to others. This is not harnessing your energy — this is depleting you of every little last ounce of reserve that you have to be your brilliant self.

We have to adopt an excuse-free attitude and invite the opportunity to be time rich and thriving.

I can say this with authority because I have absolutely been there too.

My first serious trip to the world of Crazy Town was after I had my first child, Flynn. I went back to work as a full-time marketing manager when he was just five months old. My husband Jason took paternity leave and we juggled like mad. At the time I didn't feel like I had any choice: recently arrived in Australia, rebuilding my career, starting out on a reduced salary and not getting paid for maternity leave. We didn't have any family support around us as they were overseas or interstate. Add to this that Flynn was our first child, so we had absolutely no clue what we should be doing and all the while my energy levels were being gradually depleted as I attempted to do everything and be the perfect parent, manager, partner and friend.

In hindsight, this was the first time I experienced burnout and operating from a place of survival. I had no energy, a feeling of helplessness, of not having any choice — and yet I robotically got myself out of bed every morning to keep going, to respond to the commitments I had put on myself.

Until I got to the point where one day I'd had enough and said to my boss, ‘I can't do this anymore. I either leave or I reduce my hours'. Strangely enough, the answer was an unexpected, ‘What can we do to help?'

Being exhausted isn't leadership.

Being exhausted isn't inspiring to others.

To become your brilliant self you need to realise you are human, and you need to make some tough choices and decisions that often mean saying ‘no'.

This is the focus of Law 2, Be Ready: Harness your energy, becoming masterful at taking back control, thriving energetically, kicking excuses to the kerb, ensuring that you're doing all you can to be the best version of yourself mentally, physically and spiritually every day. This is the only way to create influence and impact.

So, how are you doin'?

The only way to move forward is to understand where you're at now. To think about what's really going on and to identify change. To be completely honest with yourself.

Take a look at this diagram. Where do you feel you are right now in your professional life?

• Surviving or thriving? Thinking about how you're feeling right now, where would you place yourself along the axis of surviving to thriving?
  • Do you feel energised every day, ready to take on whatever comes your way, irrespective of whether it's been planned or not?
  • Or are you in survival mode doing just enough to keep life going, staying afloat, struggling to keep your head above water, or even floating behind on what you want to accomplish each day?
• Time poor or time rich? Now, where would you place yourself on the axis of time poor or time rich?
  • Do you find yourself with very little time to do anything? Are you well and truly a resident of Crazy Town, running around out of control and tackling whatever the most important thing seems to be at that time?
  • Or are you in control of your diary with enough time in there to do nothing with, to maybe think and percolate ideas?

Now grab a pen and draw an ‘X' on the spot that you feel best represents where you're at.

What do you notice?

You may feel like you're thriving every day, doing what you truly love but the demands on your time are insane. You'd love to have some time to read and relax, time to take a leisurely walk or maybe just do nothing. Yet, the reality is your diary is so jammed with every single minute and second accounted for and if anything runs over time the chaos well and truly sets in. You're doing a lot of stuff but rarely feel like you're getting on top of things and so you find yourself placing an ‘X' in the top left-hand side.

Alternatively, you may be feeling like you have all the time in the world and you're just going through the motions of life. Work or life may have hit a rut. You're a human doing but not necessarily a human being. If this is the case, you may find you place an ‘X' in the bottom right-hand quadrant.

Our ultimate aim is to place ourselves in the top right-hand quadrant. A place where we're thriving as individuals, loving the things we're doing and feeling like we're doing things that matter. We want to feel like we have time to explore, to think, to be spontaneous, to take advantage of opportunities as they arise — or just to sit and breathe!

This is a place where you're truly able to harness your energy and make the difference you want to make.

The 3 facets of Law 2

In an episode of the Lead to Win podcast, ‘Self-care as a leadership discipline', leadership expert Michael Hyatt describes self-care as ‘the activities that make for a meaningful life outside of work, while contributing to better performance at work'.

Jim Loehr, co-author of The Power of Full Engagement, says, ‘Productivity is less about managing your time and more about managing your energy'.

It doesn't matter how much you master any of the Laws in this book; without having the energy to bring the best of yourself to everything you do, you'll never achieve the brilliance that you're capable of for yourself, or be in the best position to unleash it in others. This is the essence of Law 2.

Law 2 means you must address three facets:

• Mindset
• Stamina
• Behaviour.

So that's exactly what we'll do next.