What Makes YOU Buzz?

Today I feel powerful. I had a brilliant’s night sleep, just about a perfect coffee to start the day (all by MYSELF – go away world!) and I SMASHED an awesome workout. I’ve spent a solid hour writing some important content for this blog and I just feel goooood. Don’t you just love it when you have one of those sort of days? You feel incredible, right?

INVINCIBLE even.

But isn’t it just so strange how easily we can go from feeling on top of the world like this, to feeling like complete and utter rubbish? Sometimes even to such extremes that we hate ourselves, the world, and even random people on the street – for no particular reason at all.

just part of being a woman?

What’s even more odd is that this struggle to feel happy or in control can happen even when many variables (sleep, exercise, food, stress etc) seem properly aligned. A lot of people seem to think this is just part of being a woman, particularly a driven woman. What goes up must come down, so to speak. I’m not sure about this theory. Is it really necessary for us to experience absolute emotional lows simply to better enjoy the highs when they come back around?

On the surface, it would seem so.

I mean, yesterday, even though not many things about my day were actually that different to today, I felt like crap. Plain and simple. How can two such similar days generate such varied feelings of love and loathing? How is it that we can we be so hard on ourselves one day, and so unmotivated, only to feel like taking on the world the next day?

I know I’m not the only one; I know this IS a common theme with driven women, and yet still I don’t quite feel ready to accept it as ‘just how it is’.

Do you?

harnessing passion: what make YOU buzz?

For me it’s all about feeling alive.

I feel most alive and most myself when I’m writing, speaking, planning exciting stuff (often to do with writing and speaking!), and also when I’m learning or teaching something that I’m passionate about. I also feel very vibrant and powerful when I know that things are clicking for me with my health and my body. Even here though, in my head at least, I can swing wildly back and forth from one day to the next. Monday I can be thinking I am the bomb and feeling physically brilliant, and by Wednesday I feel bloated, heavy, slow and tired. Now I know I’m not the only one who goes through these sorts of body ups and downs

So ‘fess up then – what is it that truly inspires you? What makes you feel on top of the world?

If – like most women out there – you lead a life that’s just so chock-full-insanely-busy that sometimes you find yourself holding on to pee for an hour or more just to save time, then maybe you’re not exactly sure about this. I mean you probably have at least a vague kind of idea, but perhaps you’ve not truly taken the time to think about it. And if you think about that, it’s a little sad. Isn’t it?

After all, surely it just makes sense to determine what it is in life that excites us the most – and then work on getting more of it. Doesn’t it?

how to get your buzz on

Here is a great little thinking exercise that you can use to get your buzz on. I actually come back to it time and again, as no matter how good my intentions I often find myself wandering away from passion and back into the dreaded land of ‘should’ and ‘have to’. Matter of fact, I’m pretty sure I was stuck there yesterday – hence my general grumpiness and discontent.

This is really easy. Simply take a few moments to think about the past week. If you like, you can map out an overview of it on paper. Think about the stuff that you spent significant time doing. Meetings, projects, social stuff, exercise, home stuff, relationship stuff, errands, hobbies, personal/life projects, dreaming or planning, emails – everything that you spent time on.

Now consider about the following questions –

• Out of everything you spent time on, what inspires you?
  
• What make you feel most alive?
• Most yourself?
• When do you feel most like the ‘you’ you want to be; most free or most creative?
• And – be honest – when do you feel most drained or least alive and free?
• How much of your precious time are you spending on stuff that either drains you or just flat out doesn’t do it for you?
• And how much time are you dedicating to the stuff that gets you going?

Huh, right?

Might I suggest that it could be time to actively start seeking out your buzz? And to do so whenever and however you need to? The alternative, I suppose, is just to simply accept that this is how woman are.

Me, I don’t think I’d like to accept that idea. Your thoughts?

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