Energy is Upstream of Everything

Read any productivity advice. Relationship advice. Career advice. Health advice. Notice what they all assume: that you have energy to execute. "Just wake up earlier." "Just have the hard conversation." "Just be consistent." Great. But what if you're running on empty? What if you're already tapped out by noon? None of the advice works. It's not that it's wrong. It's that it's downstream. Energy isn't the output of a good life. It's the input. It's the thing that makes everything else possible. And when it's gone, nothing else matters—not the perfect morning routine, not the optimized calendar, not the ambitious goals.

Most people treat energy as a thing to spend. The real game is treating it as a thing to protect. That means knowing where it leaks. That means noticing what drains you versus what fills you. That means building a life that generates more than it consumes. Start there. Everything else gets easier.