Years ago I was a young medical supply salesman. I had many hours in the car driving to see my customers in rural hospitals. A mentor of mine suggested a series of lessons from Earl Nightingale called Lead the Field. There are 12 lessons that run 25 – 35 minutes each. I Iistened to them in the car as I made my rounds. I was so impressed with these life lessons that I gave copies to my sales team when I became a sales manager.
The first lesson was called “Attitude”. Mr. Nightingale makes the statement that “what we accomplish is due to our attitude”. He makes the point many of us have learned that a positive attitude leads to positive results. I’ll bet we can all think of examples where this was true.
Years later I learned another way of looking at this, called Energy Leadership. This concept, developed by Brice Schneider at the Institute for Professional Coaching, is based on there being two types of energy, positive (anabolic energy) and negative (catabolic energy). There are 7 levels of energy in this model – 2 catabolic and 7 anabolic. We all use all of these and at times each is appropriate.
What I learned when I studied this process relates back to the Attitude lesson from Earl Nightingale. When we are positive and look at things through a positive filter we tend to exude optimism and see the glass as half full. This leads to our being a positive force in our environment which often leads to positive results. We also find that we are happier in this mental framework. The more of this positive energy we use the better our lives are and the more contentment we find in life.
If this concept is of interest to you there is much more to learn about it. There is an assessment called the Energy Leadership Index that shows our energy levels and offers some interesting insights into how to manage them. I’d be happy to discuss this further with you if you are interested.
