I slept terribly one night a week and a half ago. And, as I lay wide awake at midnight, I knew exactly why. 

I usually work out every day, sometimes taking a Sunday off. Activity-wise, I supplement my workouts with a couple of mile-long walks in the morning and evening. 

This particular Sunday, though, I had the bright idea of “maximizing” my work time by not working out and getting straight to work — no walk, no nothing — just seated-at-my-laptop work. 

Time is money, and _________________ (insert your favorite productivity/hard work quote here), right? 

I executed my plan to a T: worked all Sunday and finally laid down in bed that evening. 

But my body was still wide awake. 

It wasn’t hard to decipher why: while my mind had been working plenty, my body hadn’t done a damn thing all day. 

I’m an athlete; my body is conditioned to walk 10,000+ steps and lift and run and enjoy the feeling of fatigue every day. My body was still on the program — with all this energy to burn but all of a sudden no way to use it — while I’d gone off-script and stayed sedentary all day. 

Energy is just like time in one specific way: it can’t be “banked.” 

Whatever you don’t use just evaporates into nothingness, forever unused. 

Our bodies and minds have natural cycles of diminish-then-replenish that, if disturbed, will disturb us in ways that we don’t anticipate. 

The thing about energy is, “saving” it often doesn’t do what we think it does anyway. 

In general, if you want to feel energetic, DO something. 

If you want to feel listless and tired, lay down on the couch and do nothing. 

The Law Of Inertia states that an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object that’s still will remain as such — until or unless some outside force stops the moving thing or moves the stationary thing. 

The easiest way to feel like it is to do it. 

The easiest way to feel like it is to do it.  Click To Tweet

Having the personal initiative to take action is a foundation of what Work On Your Game is all about — that’s why I made the 100 Mental Game Best Practices, which is about moving yourself to action consistently — and actually enjoying doing it. 

You can get 100 Mental Game Best Practices here: http://WorkOnMyGame.com/100