What Gives You Energy and What Quietly Drains It, the 7 Day Energy Audit

Learn how to notice what genuinely gives you energy, recognize the quiet drains you may have stopped seeing, and use a simple 7-Day Energy Audit to make more intentional choices about where your energy goes.

 

TOP 3 TAKEAWAYS

• 1. Your Energy Leaves Clues
• 2. Go Underneath the Activity to Discover What Really Energizes You
• 3. Not All Tired Is the Same—and Not Every Drain Means “Stop”

 

KEY QUOTES

• “Our energy leaves clues for us.”
• “Sometimes our feelings are giving us an answer before we've actually figured out how to explain it.”
• “The clock doesn't necessarily tell us the energy cost of the things we're doing.”
• “Being tired is not automatically the same thing as being drained.”
• “Do you use yourself very well?”
• “Energy leaves clues.”
• “Assessments give us a place to look. They're not here to tell you who you are. You bring meaning to the assessment.”
• “Something doesn't have to be bad for it to stop being right for you.”
• “The thing that energizes you can eventually drain you if you don't pay attention to how you're using it.”
• “Energy isn't an excuse to avoid discomfort. It's information.”
• “What kind of tired am I? Am I stretched but fulfilled, or am I repeatedly depleted?”
• “The goal isn't simply to have more energy. It's to use your energy on what matters.”

 

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

• TRY THE 7 DAY ENERGY AUDIT

At the end of each day, start with two simple questions:

What gave me energy today?

What quietly drained me?

That's the heart of the exercise.

You can also notice what is happening in four areas:

Body What happened to my physical energy?

Mind Was I clear and engaged—or scattered and overloaded?

Emotions Did I feel interested, fulfilled, frustrated, resistant, bored, or flat?

Spirit / Purpose / Meaning Did what I was doing feel connected to something that matters to me?

At the end of seven days, look back.

Don't judge the individual moments.

Look for patterns.

Ask yourself:

• What keeps showing up?

• What consistently brings me alive?

• What repeatedly leaves me flat?

• What do I keep wanting to do more of?

• What am I very good at but no longer want to spend as much time doing?

• Is there a gap between what I say matters to me and where my time and energy are actually going?

You do not need to act on every observation. You're gathering information.

As Suzie says:

“Don't try to fix your whole life on Tuesday. Just notice.”

Download the free companion worksheet:

pricelessprofessional.com/energyaudit

 

• A WHOLE-PERSON VIEW OF ENERGY

Suzie shares an energy-management exercise she previously used in a leadership program with executive chefs from Relais & Châteaux.

These leaders work in high-pressure luxury hospitality environments where timing, staffing, food quality, presentation, customer expectations, and team leadership often converge at once.

Rather than treating energy as simply physical, the exercise looked at four areas:

Body

Mind

Emotions

Spirit / Purpose / Meaning     

One of the most important questions from that work is:

Is there a gap between what I say matters to me and where my time and energy are actually going?

When that gap becomes large—and stays large—we often begin to feel it.

 

• TRIMETRIX, MOTIVATORS & ACUMEN

TriMetrix offers another way to become more curious about where energy comes from and where it may be going.

Motivators — What Puts Gas in Your Tank?

Motivators help us understand:

• what interests us

• what naturally pulls us forward

• what feels worth the effort

• what kinds of problems we naturally want to solve

• what activities and environments tend to engage us

One way to think about it is:

Interest = Energy

The assessment may tell you that a particular motivator is a strong driver.

But the deeper learning happens when you begin noticing that motivator in your own life.

When do you become absorbed?

What do you keep coming back to?

What do you naturally want to learn, create, accomplish, lead, organize, or contribute?

The assessment provides the clue. Your life provides the evidence.

Acumen — Looking Under the Hood

Acumen offers another perspective.

It looks at both:

Worldview — how we are seeing what is happening around us and

Self-View — how we are seeing ourselves

Areas such as

Practical Thinking, Role Awareness, and Self-Direction can sometimes provide useful places to explore questions about clarity, demands, purpose, roles, and the path ahead.

A lower score does not automatically mean you are doing the wrong work.

It gives you another place to look.

The question remains:

What's going on here? Where is my energy going?

 

• KNOW YOURSELF

Suzie also shares one of the ideas that has stayed with her from the work of Robert S. Hartman:

Know yourself.

Choose yourself.

Grow yourself.

Give yourself to something greater than yourself.

The order matters.

First, notice.

Know yourself.

Pay attention.

Then choose intentionally.

And keep growing.

One of the best ways to begin is simply to notice:

What brings me energy? and

What is quietly draining it?                                       

 

• WHEN YOUR STRENGTH BECOMES A DRAIN

Sometimes the things that energize us can become draining when we overuse them.
Suzie shares her own tendency to overgive.
She genuinely enjoys helping people and adding value.
But a strength can become an overextension.
The same can happen with any strong motivator.
If you love results, you may overdo results.
If you love learning, you may keep researching long after enough is enough.
If you love leading, you may take responsibility for too much.
If you love rules and process, you may create more structure than the situation needs.
If you love helping and serving, you may give beyond what is useful or sustainable.
The goal is not to suppress your strengths.
It's to use them intentionally.

 

ABOUT SUZIE PRICE

Suzie Price is the founder of Priceless Professional Development and producer and host of the Wake Up Eager Podcast.

Through leadership development, TriMetrix assessments, coaching, and practical tools, she helps leaders build high-commitment, low-drama workplaces—and helps individuals better understand themselves so they can create lives they cannot wait to wake up to.

 

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