Last week, I stayed up way too late working on tax stuff and found myself basically useless the next day.
The good news is I have subjected myself to this pattern enough times that I am now beginning to be able to spot it when it is happening.
Well, when I’m wading through the aftermath, anyway.
I think of the energy we rely on to get through each day as being a lot like water: There is a certain amount readily available, and then there are deeper stores we can tap into if the easily accessible supply runs out.
Sometimes, the surface water available isn’t enough to meet our needs, and we must tap into the deep reserves to meet our needs.
We must understand that this comes at a cost.
Even seemingly boundless rivers will run dry if too much is regularly asked of them.
While surface sources like ponds and streams are regularly replenished by rain and snow, aquifers, those deep reservoirs, are both harder to access and take much, much longer to replenish.
What can be depleted in hours may take weeks, months, or even years to restore. And if we keep depleting them over years or decades, we may not live long enough to see them restored.
Digging ever deeper and expecting these aquifers to go on forever is not a sustainable strategy, literally or metaphorically.
As it goes with water, so it goes with the ebbs and flows of our energy.
Instead of assuming critical resources are boundless, we must look realistically at what we have available, and scale our use to match that as best we possibly can.
Depending on our resources, and the weather, this may mean giving up things we want or think we “should” have.
But having myself grown up in a green desert, I can tell you from experience that even limited resources can be enough, so long as you are willing to accept reality and adapt to it.
Accept the reality of the resources you consistently have available and build your plans around that reality.
You might be surprised at the bounty, and the beauty, that springs forth.