Over the past few months, multiple people (like…A LOT of people) have asked me the same question: “Where do you get all your energy?” Which I totally get because I have a whole lotta energy! I travel constantly. I get on stage and basically ricochet around for an hour, while also talking at 1.25X speed. I run. I write. I work. I garden. I bake. I have two dogs, one of whom seems personally committed to making sure no one in our house sleeps past 5:20 a.m. What makes my energy confusing to people is that I DO NOT consume caffeine. None. No coffee. No Diet Coke. No Celsius. No Monster Energy Drink. No afternoon espresso. Nothing. When I tell people this, they look at me, shake their heads and say, “I could never—I NEED caffeine.” And I’ve started wondering if that might actually be the reason I have so much energy. Because caffeine doesn’t actually create energy. It doesn’t pour more fuel into your energy tank. One of the main things it does is block the effects of adenosine, a chemical involved in building sleep pressure, so for a while you don’t feel as tired as you otherwise might. But when I’m tired, I sleep. I mean this quite literally. I can sleep anywhere. Anytime. Plane taking off? Goodnight. Passenger seat on a road trip? See you in 45. Random Saturday afternoon and my eyelids suddenly feel a little heavy? Hold my margarita. I’m gonna take a quick nap. There is very little negotiation between my body and me on this subject. Body: We are tired. Me: Copy that. I literally don’t have anything to mask that sleep signal. When I’m tired, I know I’m tired. And whenever humanly possible, I do something about it. Now before anyone comes for me clutching a venti iced coffee or Mountain Dew and demanding I pry it from their cold, dead hands, this is NOT an anti-caffeine newsletter. Drink your caffeine. But think about how much of our lives we spend overriding our own signals. We’re tired, so we stimulate ourselves. We’re bored, so we grab our phones. We’re stressed, so we keep working. We’re mentally fried, so we scroll. We have become unbelievably good at finding ways to drown out what our bodies and brains are trying to tell us. And maybe that’s the thing I’ve accidentally gotten right. My operating system is embarrassingly simple: Tired → sleep. Awake → GO. And when I GO, I really f&cking go. Maybe that’s why people keep commenting on my energy. Maybe energy isn’t always something we need to manufacture, hack, supplement, optimize or squeeze out of ourselves. Maybe sometimes the most productive thing we can do is stop overriding the signals telling us we’re running low. Rest when you’re tired. Be still when you need stillness. Go outside when your brain needs air. Put the fucking phone down when your brain has consumed enough information for one day. And then, when the energy comes back, use the hell out of it. Anyway, I’m exhausted from writing this. Hold my margarita, I’m gonna take a quick nap.
Cheers,
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