Managing Your Energy During Changing Times

I remember sitting in my car in the parking lot. Used to be the first one in the building. The one who was ready, focused, driven. But mornings felt different. I felt stuck. Like I was bracing myself for what was waiting on the other side of those doors. The demands from the organization. The constant requests from my team.

Somewhere in all of it…I had lost myself.

My days were running me instead of me running them. Every day something new was added, shifted, reprioritized. I was busy all the time, but I didn’t feel any real sense of progress. It felt like I was just going through the motions. Like a zombie. The things that used to bring me energy didn’t anymore. The people I used to lean on...I started second-guessing. And my body? It was sending signals I tried to ignore…until I couldn’t. Fatigue, tension, that constant mental fog. Symptom by symptom, it was telling me something. I was depleted. At age 35, I was going to have a heart attack from burnout. I was 103 pounds from digestive failure, severe skin issues, hair falling out in clumps and brain fog so strong I could no longer drive. All from chronic stress?

The question that lingered in my burnout recovery…what do you do when you can’t just step away for months to reset? What do you do when you’re in the messy middle and you still have to lead?

Most leadership advice during change sounds good on paper. Create priorities. Communicate more. Strengthen accountability. 

Yes, I know those things matter.
But when you’re already running on empty, they don’t solve the real problem.
In fact, they can make it worse. 

They add MORE. More expectation, more pressure on top of an already maxed-out system. That’s where I had to rethink, unlearn some things about the ways of working. Take a different path on the way I was showing up to it. What I realized is what looked like a workload problem was an energy problem. I didn’t need another system to manage my time. I needed a different way to manage how I was showing up inside my day.

That’s where the concept of managing my energy came in. It wasn’t about doing less or checking out. It was about changing the map I was using altogether. Instead of trying to power through, I started paying attention to what was draining me and what was fueling me. Instead of reacting to everything, I started creating small moments of intention inside my day. 

If you’re leading a membership right now, you don’t need a perfect system. You need something practical that works in the middle of real, messy and somewhat unpredictable days. 

Here’s what that started to look like for me &
what I now guide others on:

1. Not everything that feels urgent deserves your energy.

During times of change, everything can feel important. Every email and request. Every “quick question.” But when everything gets your attention, nothing gets your best thinking. One of the simplest shifts I made was pausing before reacting. Not every time, but more often than before.

That pause created space to ask, “is this where my energy actually needs to go right now?”

That not only brought a moment of intention back to my days but helped to shift those tasks that are actual waste, and busy body items to disappear. Naturally shift more time into my day for value. 

2. Pay attention to the actions that drain you, not just the to-do list you’re chasing.

We’re trained to look at results (deadlines, metrics, deliverables). But energy drains don’t show up neatly on a report. They show up in:

•    The meeting that leaves everyone more confused than when they started 
•    The conflict conversation you keep avoiding 
•    The constant context-switching that never lets you fully focus (notifications ping! ping! ping!)

Once I started noticing those patterns, I realized how much invisible weight I was carrying every day. More importantly, I could start doing something about it. Do you feel the shift already? It’s a whole vibe!

3. You don’t need more time. You need more intention inside the time you already have.

I used to think I needed bigger blocks of uninterrupted time to feel in control again. But that was fighting a reality of high change around me. What was realistic? Creating small anchors in my day. 5-10 minutes to reset between meetings instead of meeting spillover. Closing out one priority before jumping to the next. Actually finishing a conversation instead of half-listening while thinking about the next thing. That’s called over-functioning and puts your nervous system on over-drive.

These small stop-points to reset versus waiting for a vacation in 6-months is energy management. They compound quickly to sustain energy versus deplete it.

4. Your team feels your energy before they hear your words.

This one was hard to admit, as a natural people-pleaser. I thought I was holding it together. Showing up how I needed to. But energy doesn’t hide. When I was overwhelmed, my team felt it. When I was scattered, it showed up in how we worked. When I didn’t trust others fully, it created hesitation across the team. You’ve probably felt this type of energy too. One meeting feels aligned, forward-moving. The next meeting you sign-on or step into the room and already feel the bad vibes oozing through everyone. Ew!

Workforce Energy Management isn’t about adding another layer to your already full plate. It’s about showing up differently for yourself. So you can show up differently for your team and your members. 

It becomes a compass.

A way to navigate change without constantly feeling like you’re fighting it. Our reality is that change isn’t slowing down. The pressure isn’t disappearing. The demands of leadership aren’t getting lighter anytime soon. But the way you experience it? That can change.

I still think about that moment in the car. Not because I’m still stuck there but because it reminds me how easy it is to slip into that place, that zombie mode, without realizing it. And how powerful it feels to have a different way forward. It’s not a perfect system but an adapting one. A new path. Exploring the adventure in that messy middle. 

Kelly Bubolz, KB Training Connections

Burnout survivor turned business strategist, Kelly Bubolz knows what it takes to go from running on fumes to being intentional with energy that people want to follow. With 20+ years in HR leadership, she’s transformed her own high stress physical collapse into a powerhouse mission. Guiding the recharge...cutting through chaos and into sustainable energy.

Explore Resources: https://www.kbtrainingconnections.com/