11 Things To Quit If You Want To Get Off The Energy Rollercoaster

More than anything else, your energy is contagious.

Enthusiasm and passion are great — I’ve seen leaders carry themselves on it for incredible lengths of time.

But wired energy, nervous energy, hyper-vigilant energy, afternoon slumps and evening crashes take their toll — on your health, your focus, your relationships — and they set the tone for the whole business.

The best part? These changes don’t require massive new commitments of time or energy. They just require a shift in habit. The reward: more energy, more focus, more clarity, more calm, and more presence.

Where that takes you and your business is limited only by your imagination.

1. Quit under-eating

We eat to meet a nutrient requirement — fuel for repair, growth, rest, and energy production. Under-eating isn’t always about quantity, but about nutrients. It’s one of the biggest contributors to slumps, anxiety, poor sleep, cravings, wired energy and much more.

2. Quit mouth breathing

Your brain needs three things: stimulus, glucose, and oxygen. Mouth breathing (outside of intense exercise) disrupts the oxygen/CO2 balance. Signs: snoring, gasping, breath-holding, yawning, headaches, muscle pain, low energy.

3. Quit being on call

Being “on call” is not the same as resting. Your nervous system stays in alert mode, like a phone with all the apps open. Decide on absolute no-availability times. Even short windows make a big difference.

4. Quit inconsistent bedtimes

10:30 one night, midnight the next. Constantly shifting sleep times is jet lag by another name. It disrupts hormones, drives slumps and cravings, and drains energy.

5. Quit caffeine after lunch

Caffeine has a half-life of six hours. A mid-afternoon coffee is like an espresso right before bed. Even if you think your sleep is good, it’s likely not as restorative as it could be.

6. Quit eating at your desk

Digestion is parasympathetic — it needs relaxation, enjoyment, anticipation. You aren’t what you eat, you are what you absorb. If you can’t slow down and enjoy food, you’ll harm your energy more than you help it.

7. Quit relying on willpower

Good leaders often default to willpower and efficiency. But forcing yourself down the most direct (and draining) route is costly. Plan for the energising path instead. If you reduce your reliance on willpower, you’ll have more energy and enjoy the process more.

8. Quit starting your day reactively

Wake up, check email/Slack/WhatsApp, dopamine spike, dopamine crash. Repeat until burnout. When you start reactively, you spend your whole day chasing. Create structure. Swap efficiency for effectiveness.

9. Quit avoiding exercise

Skipping exercise to “save time” backfires. Movement is fundamental — for waste removal, bone and muscle health, organ function, brain function, and energy balance. Without it, you can’t expect consistent energy.

10. Quit eating and drinking things that crash you

If certain foods or drinks leave you bloated, anxious, or run down, your body diverts resources to survival instead of clarity, energy, and decision-making. Pay attention to how things make you feel.

11. Quit suppressing emotions

Negative emotions signal that you’re in fight/flight/freeze. Suppressing them drains more energy than almost anything else. At minimum, find a safe way to express them — on paper, with a coach, with someone you trust.

Suppression is really the common thread. On some level, you already know much of this. But you’ve suppressed the signals — because of short-term business needs, or because “later” felt easier.

If you want off the rollercoaster, at some point you have to say enough. Build a strategy for life instead of waiting for “when things calm down.”

If not now, when?