Are You Using All Your Resources

Are You Using All Your Resources Are You Using All Your Resources Push, pull and receive business opportunities using your “three energies.”Rachelle is a CEO of a startup Internet company. In 2009, her company did well.So what’s the problem?Like any entrepreneur, Rachelle was pleased with her company’s success â€" but she was not so sure how she’d gotten there.“I just do it intuitively,” she explained. “I’m not aware of my process. I’d like to bring it more to consciousness so that I can use it intentionally.”Rachelle wants to make sure she’s growing her company wisely, so at the beginning of the year, she looked at what she’d done in 2009 and decided that one of her goals in 2010 was to better understand how she’d achieved those successful results.On the job-seeker front is Fred, formerly an SVP in an oil company. He’s frustrated that his job search is taking so long.“I want to make sure that I am doing all that I can,” he said.Like Rachelle and Fred, business professionals and job seekers alike share a common goa l: gaining awareness about how they are operating so they can use all their inner resources.The Three EnergiesAll human beings have three ways of using their energy. Since most of us are unaware of this, we tend to default to one or two modes, and therefore miss the opportunity to maximize our success. When we become aware of the options, though, we can deploy the energies we need at the right time.DynamicThe first way to use our energy is dynamically. This is the energy of action â€" make a plan, send an e-mail, have a conversation, build a model. Dynamic energy is the one most of us are familiar with, the one that Western culture accentuates. It’s exemplified best by the Nike slogan â€" “Just do it.” Think of it as “pushing” energy. When Fred and Rachelle looked at their style, they each agreed that they spend a lot of their energy this way.MagneticThe second way to exercise energy is magnetically. It’s the energy of wanting and believing you can get what you want, or the energy of attraction: You focus on a goal and draw it to you as if you were a magnet. You see, feel and hear what you want to happen in front of you and then pretend you’re a fishing rod, cast your energy out to what you want and reel it in. Think of it as “pull” energy.Though the movie and book, “The Secret,” popularized “pull” energy, many business people are new to the concept. Regardless, we all know what it’s like. It’s what we experience when we say someone is “charismatic.” You meet someone and are drawn to him. Whether he knows it or not, he is using his energy magnetically to bring you close. You can also see it in people who seem to be “lucky.” They do very little, but opportunities keep dropping in their laps.When Rachelle thought about this, she realized she used her energy magnetically all the time to attract business deals and contacts. Fred, however, couldn’t recall sensing magnetic energy.“It sounds kooky,” he said. “But I guess I’m desperate enough to try anything.”ReceptiveThe third way to employ your energy is receptively. This energy leaves you open to receive whatever hunches, intuitive feelings or direction from others may come in. It neither pushes nor pulls. Instead, you stop doing and absorb the world through all your senses. In this way, you allow yourself to be influenced. Receptive energy creates insight, which is why great discoveries often happen when we “give up” and do something mindless: Newton lying under the tree and having an apple fall on his head, Archimedes in the bathtub.When we’re receptive, we not only open up to our own inner knowing but allow ourselves to be influenced by others. Because we’ve slowed down, we’re more able to see, hear and feel the signs indicating the path of least resistance to where we want to go. Instead of dynamically pushing our agenda â€" “I know it has to happen this way” â€" we become aware of options we’d not noticed when we were busy pushing.Using her energy receptively is not something Rachelle typically does. Nor does Fred. Now that they understand these options, they are both willing to learn. Rachelle is now having regular massages as a way of increasing her receptivity. She reports she’s having greater insights when she stops and does “nothing.” Fred is meditating daily and just realized that, rather than trying to push himself back into the Fortune 100 world, he could leverage his experience to entice a solar-energy company into hiring him.The Energy Three-StepWhat about you? Which of these three energies do you routinely use? Once you become aware, you can start to use each on purpose rather than out of unconscious habit. Here’s how they’re meant to be used:1. Dynamic: Get into action to achieve your result.2. Magnetic: Vividly imagine what you want and feel yourself drawing it forth.3. Receptive: Open up to receive inner wisdom and outer signals that you’re on the right path (or not).Because it’s nonhabitual, it may feel weird to use your energy in all three ways. You may be worried that you’re not doing it “right,” but give it a try. Push for what you want, pull opportunities toward you, and open yourself to new endeavors.