On Monday of this week, I gave my final keynote of 2024. It was appropriately titled “Reviews: Turning Losses Into Lessons.”
The science of reflection is fascinating. A study by Di Stefano et al. (2016) in the Harvard Business Review found that employees who spent 15 minutes at the end of each day reflecting on lessons learned performed 23% better after 10 days than those who did not reflect on anything*.
You almost don’t even need to know what you’re reflecting on — your brain will put the pieces together for you if you slow down long enough to think about it.
“Experience turns experience into insight.” -John Maxwell
Since 2024 is officially over, here are some insights from my journal that will help you dream bigger, think faster, and perform more consistently over the next 12 months. The most important asset at my disposal is my energy (upon reflection, you will find the same is true for you).
Without energy you have no ability to generate wealth.
You cannot lead people. You cannot build anything.
In a world obsessed with “time management,” I’ve found the main culprit behind poor performance to be poor energy management. What worth does time have if you have no energy to savor it?
The reason some people can create tens of billions of dollars in value with 24 hours a day across 3-5 years, and others merely limp by with the same 24 hours — is not a discrepancy of intelligence (although intelligence is important). It is the quality, and dependability, of their energy…
It is the focus and sustainability of their energy.
Therefore, the best-kept secret to high performance is not “creating more time” but, rather, creating more energy to invest into the time we already have.
In fact, this is why planning your weeks and months is effective in the first place. A study by Sweller et al. (1988) on cognitive load theory found that individuals who feel well prepared are able to guard their energy expenditure and focus on critical decisions rather than being bombarded with basic problem-solving decisions a thousand times a day.
For example, a chess player who is well experienced & prepared on openings can concentrate on middle-game strategies (even from the beginning of a match) and avoid the decision fatigue that amateur players experience in the middle of the game.
When you sit down to plan a month, a quarter, or a year — you are making a strategic investment into your energy reserves by eliminating the “death by a thousand cuts” phenomenon that attacks you in the middle of the project.
“Fortune favors the prepared mind.” -Louis Pasteur
Here are four ways to create more energy in 2025 and maximize the time allotment of the next 12 months.
Alignment & intrinsic fulfillment
When your activities match what you feel like you should be doing, you unlock strategic energy reserves*. This alignment bolsters you and creates an internal “match” that makes us happy. This harkens back to Edward L. Deci’s “Self-Determination Theory.”
When our actions align with our internal ‘grid’ (how we feel like we should be behaving) we experience greater well-being and vitality.
Welcome contrast
It is only natural to attempt to feel good 100% of the time. There are two problems with this.
- No human has figured out how to do this as of yet (meaning it is quite impossible)
- It is not good for you to feel one way all the time
Bad feelings are not enemies, they are teachers. If we go around and eliminate all our teachers, we will slowly decline in our ability to produce and invent. When we resist feelings that we do not want, we create bunkers around them.
The best way to enjoy the passage of time is to develop awareness rather than resistance. Emotional maturity is the ability to sit with a feeling and deploy curiosity about it. I’m feeling this way, what is this trying to teach me? Rather than, Why am I feeling this way and how do I make it stop?
There will be days in the next 12 months when you do not feel okay and that is proof that you are, in fact, quite okay.
Mastery
Each of us has a set of skills that make us uniquely competent. You cannot master everything, but you can master a few things that most others cannot master. Mastery unlocks a tier in our psychology that makes us feel in control. Flow theory supports the concept that when we engage in things that we are great at, we enter a protected state that feels good and feels powerful.
What skills do you have the ability to be the best at? What skills do you have the potential to be the best in history at?
Carve out time for these things and you will multiply your energy production.
Time affluence
“Time is a friend to those who know how to prioritize. It is an enemy to those who try to do everything.” -Richard Koch
When you believe that you have enough time to do what is important to you, “time affluence” is unlocked. When you feel like you do not have enough time, it weakens your resolve and your energy is randomly dispensed to a load of things that do not matter to you.
This is the main problem with “hustle culture.”
It is a good thing to find work you are so passionate about you want to engage in it all the time. I am obsessed with solving problems in my businesses. I love the work. But my priorities are clearly articulated to myself, my team, my family, and my relationships.
For instance, if I find myself solving business problems at the expense of spending critical time with my family — I will lose time affluence and this will push me out of alignment.
My brain will still work, but my emotions will not be on the right side of the equation. This will cause me to lose energy and slow down. What would normally take me 1 hour will now take me 2 or 3 hours because I’m worried about things in the background.
My cognitive load becomes “leaky” and I cannot focus.
Time affluence is the belief that you can do what you want to and need to do at the same time. It is only unlocked when you know how to prioritize and then follow your priorities.
ENDING
I feel very good about 2025. In fact, I haven’t felt this way about a year in quite some time.
Cheers to making the most of the time we have together!
-Taylor
[1] Di Stefano, G., Gino, F., Pisano, G. P., & Staats, B. R. (2016). Making experience count: The role of reflection in individual learning. Harvard Business School NOM Unit Working Paper, (14-093), 14-093.
[2] Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68-78