Editor’s Note: As Finals Week approaches, the Eccles School is doing a five-part series featured in the Newsroom on how to keep up your energy levels. Here is the final installment.
A healthy level of energy is vital to performing at your full potential as a student. When we are low on energy, it becomes more difficult to focus, to stay committed to tasks, and to keep our overall cognitive function at its full potential. Without adequate levels of energy, we are unlikely to reach our full potential in the classroom and during our study time.
It is natural to have some variation in the way you feel from day to day, but there are some things you can do to increase your overall levels of energy and mental focus.
Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm can be the most important factor in your level of energy in any given moment. We all know about the power of the mind and how the mind can influence how we feel. But enthusiasm is more than just having an optimistic mindset; it is also about manifesting the emotions of excitement and passion.
If you want to have higher levels of energy, start to have more enthusiasm when you engage in physical activity; focus on increasing your enthusiasm during social interactions; focus on increasing your enthusiasm when you engage in any kind of work—it may just make the work more enjoyable for you.
In his book, How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling, Frank Bettger (former Major League Baseball player who later became a successful insurance salesman) describes how enthusiasm has been the single most important element in his success. The book also describes how lack of enthusiasm was the single most determinant factor in his failures. The underlying message of the first chapter of Bettger’s book is that with enthusiasm, the ordinary can become outstanding.
As Donald Trump has stated, “If you don’t have passion, everything you do will fizzle out or be mediocre at best. Enthusiasm on a big scale equals passion.”