What would happen if you stopped making the same energy mistakes and started working with your natural rhythm?
Picture that moment when you stop trying to outrun your exhaustion. Now imagine that moment is now.
Running exposed my biggest energy mistakes before I even knew I was making them. I used to think running was about pushing harder. Grit your teeth, ignore the discomfort, force yourself through another mile. Basically, treat your body like a machine that just needed more willpower to function properly.
Turns out, these same energy mistakes were draining me everywhere else. The patterns that left me struggling on my run were the ones leaving me exhausted at my desk, frustrated in the evening, and wondering why I couldn’t seem to get anywhere despite all the effort.
Then I stopped fighting myself and started paying attention. The change was remarkable.
1. My biggest energy mistake – sprinting through everything
I used to attack my to-do list like it was a 100-metre sprint. Full intensity from the moment I woke up until I collapsed into bed. Sound familiar?
My first few runs were disasters. I’d bolt out the door at full speed, feel amazing for about 30 seconds, then spend the next 20 minutes walking home, wheezing and questioning my life choices.
Running taught me that sustainable pace beats heroic effort every single time. Now I start my days the same way I start my runs – at a pace I can maintain. I don’t try to tackle everything at once. I don’t sprint through emails first thing in the morning, then wonder why I’m exhausted by lunch.
Some mornings I feel like I could conquer the world, so I pick up the pace slightly. Other days feel heavy, so I ease off. But I keep the same basic rhythm that means I’m still moving forward instead of burning out before noon.
The breakthrough was realising that consistent effort over time usually beats sporadic bursts of intensity.
2. Your internal compass is more reliable than any external metric
I used to run obsessing over pace and distance. This evolved into setting my watch to within an inch of its life and then following it religiously. If my watch said I was running too slowly, I’d force myself to speed up, even when my body was screaming no. If it said I hadn’t run far enough, I’d push for another loop, even when I felt done.
Sound familiar? It’s the same way we ignore our energy levels because the calendar says we should be productive, or push through tasks because we ‘should’ be able to handle them, not because we can.
Now I run more by feel. Some days my easy pace is faster, some days it’s slower. Some days I want to run longer, some days I’m done after 15 minutes. I’ve learnt to write my own plans that work with how I actually feel, not how a generic schedule says I should feel. The structure is still there, but I can adjust it without panicking that I’m doing it wrong.
The same applies to everything else. Your energy levels aren’t consistent day to day, and pretending they are is exhausting. When you start paying attention to your actual capacity instead of what you think it should be, you stop wasting energy fighting yourself.
Your internal signals are trying to help you – but only if you listen.
3. Bad weather days still count
I used to skip runs if it was raining, too cold, too hot, too windy. Basically, if conditions weren’t perfect, I’d convince myself it wasn’t worth it. Then I’d feel guilty about missing another day.
Eventually I realised that my best runs often happened on the days I almost didn’t go. Not because the weather improved, but because I lowered my expectations. I wasn’t trying to set a personal record in the rain – I was just moving.
Life isn’t perfect every day. Some days are just crap. The exhausting part is trying to convince yourself otherwise. But doing the scaled-back version when things aren’t ideal often feels better than waiting for perfect conditions to do it properly.
The breakthrough was understanding that ‘not perfect’ doesn’t mean ‘not worth doing’. Sometimes the win is in just putting your trainers on and stepping outside.
4. The energy mistakes hidden in poor planning
My worst runs used to happen when I’d head out the door with no plan. I’d run aimlessly, get lost, end up further from home than intended, then drag myself back feeling frustrated.
Now I know where I’m going before I leave. Nothing complicated – just a rough route that gets me back to where I started without having to think about it mid-run.
This energy mistake shows up in numerous places in your day. You walk through the door after work with vague good intentions, then find yourself three hours later wondering where the evening went. You had energy when you got home, but you didn’t have direction.
‘I don’t have time’ usually means ‘I don’t have a plan’. When you know what you’re doing next, you don’t waste energy on decision fatigue or wandering around trying to figure it out.
Route planning – whether for a run or your evening – is about removing the mental effort that makes you quit before you start.
5. Some habits matter more than optimisation
I used to feel guilty about rest days. Shouldn’t I be pushing myself every day? Wasn’t taking a day off just being lazy?
Then I started paying attention to what happened after rest days. I felt stronger, ran further, enjoyed it more. Rest wasn’t holding me back – it was what made progress possible.
That was before I got hooked on run streaking. Now I run every single day, even when I’m tired, even when I should probably rest. I know this isn’t optimal for my running – I’d get faster with proper recovery days, I’d lower my injury risk, and some days I would enjoy it more. But my streak matters to me more than running performance does.
This taught me something important about life too. Sometimes you make choices that aren’t technically ‘best practice’ because other things matter more. Like working two jobs whilst building a side business isn’t following optimal productivity advice, but you are doing what you need to do for your bigger picture.
It’s important to be honest about the trade-offs. I’ve chosen consistency over optimisation in running, and I accept the downsides. In other areas of my life, I choose rest and recovery because that serves my bigger goals better.
Know what you’re trading off and why. Don’t pretend suboptimal choices are actually optimal just because they’re yours.
6. The energy mistake everyone makes: Going all-out
I used to run once a week and try to make it count. Long distance, challenging route, push myself hard to make up for the six days I didn’t run. If I didn’t get injured, I’d be sore for days afterwards and dreading the next one.
Now I run most days, but shorter and easier. Currently a mile, previously a minimum of 5K. Nothing heroic. But I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been and I look forward to it and feel better when I’m done.
This was the game-changer for everything else too. Instead of trying to have one perfect productive day per week, I started doing small things consistently. Instead of waiting for a free weekend to tackle that project, I started spending ten minutes on it most evenings.
Tiny actions repeated consistently create more momentum than sporadic bursts of heroic effort.
7. Your pace, not their pace
The fastest way to hate running is to compare yourself to other runners. Social media makes this worse. Everyone posts their best times, their longest distances, their most scenic routes. It’s easy to feel like you’re not doing enough.
But running isn’t a competition unless you decide it is. The person lapping you at the track isn’t better than you. They’re just at a different stage of their journey. Your 5K isn’t less valid than someone else’s marathon.
The same pattern drains your energy elsewhere. You see colleagues who seem effortlessly productive whilst you’re struggling to get through your emails. Entrepreneurs appear to juggle multiple projects whilst you can barely manage your day job. Perfect morning routine posts taunt you while you’re hitting snooze for the third time, wondering how everyone else makes it look so easy.
All that mental energy spent measuring yourself against others is energy you could use to figure out what works for you. When you stop trying to match other people’s pace and start finding your own rhythm, everything stops being a constant battle.
Your version of progress doesn’t need to look like anyone else’s. That’s not just running advice. It’s the foundation of sustainable energy management.
Working with your energy, not against it
After making these energy mistakes, running taught me that my biggest energy mistake wasn’t doing too much. Most of my exhaustion wasn’t coming from doing too much. It was coming from fighting my natural tendencies and forcing approaches that didn’t fit. When I stopped trying to run like other people and started running like me, everything changed.
The same thing happened with other things in my life. When you work with your energy instead of against it, life stops feeling like such hard work.
Struggling to spot what’s draining your energy? Don’t have the mental space to figure out your natural rhythm? Download this worksheet to reveal your energy draining patterns. 10 minutes max and the perfect way to take a break if your day isn’t going how you’d like.
Want to know more about my approach to sustainable energy systems? Learn about my background here.
