What’s one moment in the past year where you felt completely energised?
Not just mildly motivated. Not just productive. I mean truly alive - the kind of energy that makes time disappear, that sharpens your thinking, that leaves you buzzing long after the moment has passed.
I’ve been asking this question a lot lately. And the answers are fascinating.
Because here’s what I haven’t heard:
That time I cleared my inbox.
When I finally got through back-to-back Zoom calls.
That moment I ticked everything off my to-do list
Instead, I hear stories of connection, of creativity, of challenge. Moments where someone felt deeply engaged, whether that was leading a team through a breakthrough, sharing a powerful conversation, or stepping outside their comfort zone to do something bold.
Feeling Alive is The Ultimate Currency
In business, we spend a lot of time managing time. Meetings, schedules, deadlines. But what if we are asking the wrong question?
Because time without energy is worthless.
A high-energy hour is more valuable than a drained eight-hour day. A fully engaged team can achieve more in a week than a disengaged team can in a month. At a personal level, the difference between thriving and surviving isn’t how many hours you work, it is how much energy you bring to those hours.
So the real question is: Where does your energy come from? And where is it being drained?
Work at it’s finest
Look at the best teams, the best leaders, the best cultures > they all have something in common: energy. Not the forced, let’s be positive kind, but the genuine energy that comes from people doing work that matters, in a way that lights them up.
The highest-performing leaders I work with don’t t just ask, Are we on track? They ask:
What is giving you energy right now?
Where are you feeling drained?
What do you need right now?
Because when you track energy, you track engagement. And when you track engagement, you track performance.
A Simple Experiment
Take a moment today to ask yourself: What was my most energising moment in the past year?
Then ask your team. Your colleagues. Your family.
Look for the patterns.
Because buried in that question is the key to working better, leading better, and living better.
And if your answer is hard to find? That’s a sign. A signal to start making shifts, not just in how you work, but in how you design your life
Because life, at its best, isn’t about productivity. It is about feeling alive.