This week marks the first anniversary of the publication of my lockdown passion project, Fuelled, Fit and Fired Up. A book that empowers the readers to create new long-lasting habits and make sustainable lifestyle choices by providing practical techniques to enhance mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing. When I started writing, my sole purpose was to share what I had learnt on my own wellbeing journey during 2020 in the hope it could help others.

This extract from the book sums up how I was feeling back in Dec 2019 and why I knew that whether it was changing sleeping patterns, focusing on breathing, or simply eating a little healthier if one person took one tip from the book, I knew it would make a difference to people’s lives.

“I was overweight, lacked energy, and was nowhere near my best, physically or mentally. I didn’t feel good, let alone great. I was tired of being tired. Things needed to change. I needed to change…...The goal was to eat healthier, get fitter, and focus on me.”

It can be challenging to focus on yourself first. After all, it’s human nature to support, nurture and develop others. You will have people who depend on you; children, elderly relatives, or work colleagues. It is an uncharacteristic approach to life, and as this picture from Liz Fosslien cleverly shows, caring for yourself is the only way you can care for others.

Over the twelve months that passed since launching my book into the world, I experienced numerous opportunities that I would never have expected to materialise. Whether it be podcast or radio appearances, a place on the board of a leading mental health charity, or developing my business consultancy, they have one thing in common. They provide energy, drive, and passion that only come from loving what you do.

Energy levels are like a bank account, where deposits happen through eating healthily, resting well, or completing a task you enjoy. Conversely, withdrawals occur through negative experiences, doom scrolling through social media, or poor health habits. These downers are sucking the life out of you like a modern-day Count Dracula. Energy Vampires exist and take many forms.

While you can protect yourself with a metaphorical umbrella, shielding yourself from the tsunami of emails, questions, and messages, a fascinating challenge remains, how do you choose what gets a yes?

A great way is to compare strength versus weakness, but not in the traditional sense. During a recent podcast, Marcus Buckingham, the author of Love + Work, spoke to this exact point.

• Strengths he cited were tasks we love to do, where time flies by, and we feel invigorated on completion as the emotional connection we have with the activity creates a sense of joy.

• Weaknesses are tasks that drain you, those jobs that you don’t want to complete, where competency is no replacement for excitement.

The final point is intriguing, contradictory to the accepted definition of strength and suggests accomplishment at an activity is no longer enough. To make deposits into your energy bank account tasks must align with your purpose.

These situations can manifest themselves during childhood education, with early exams determining strengths at school, which usually form subject choices for further and higher education. What happens if skills are displayed in these classes, and qualifications lead to an unfulfilling job? Building a career or life based on weaknesses will never allow people to reach their true potential.

Whether you believe the hype concerning the ‘great resignation’ or not, people are taking stock, making positive lifestyle decisions, and moving jobs to find greater satisfaction. One thing is for sure that is these changes will make multiple deposits into the energy bank account.

Have a brilliant week!

David Rogers

Founder & CEO, Fuelled Fit and Fired Up Ltd

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