 As I'm working on being more effective, being able to get things done, my thought for today is about different energy levels, different gears, different speeds at which we can work. It seems like the way I've usually been thinking is, you know, trying to get into a good mindset, trying to get into the right state. And maybe what something I've been missing is that there really isn't just one good state. There are many. And depending on the moment, we can help to shift ourselves into the best mindset to meet that moment. And this seems to open up a whole rainbow of possibilities so that we can appreciate different moments and interact with different moments and different parts of life in the universe in different ways. And it seems to make room for a lot of flexibility. So when I think about, well, what kind of different mental states? Well, that's so broad that I'm going to have to start with simply this idea of speeds or the metaphor of gears as in having different gears for an engine to run at different speeds and being able to shift into these different speeds of operation. Now, of course, we could have any number of different speeds, but as I'm just getting started, I think a good way to look at it would be three gears. So we have the standard regular operating mode. And then there's a high gear or a fast gear where I'm able to, where I go into greater intensity. So the high gear would be for states of greater focus, intensity, greater effort, greater energy. That's the high gear full on. And the idea with this gear is that I am giving it my all. I am completely diving into life. And whether it's work or play for work, it is the most intense concentration and concerted effort. And for play it is diving into life and enjoying it to the full. So that's like dialing it up, kick it up a notch. The expression goes dial it up to a higher gear, take it to a higher speed. And then the opposite side of that, I can take things down to a slow gear to a low level. And this would be, I mainly think of relaxing in the evening. This would be as I'm getting ready for sleep. I do not want to be in the high intense gear. I want to be pulling everything down to a very mellow, chill, relaxed, slow, unhurried, unworried level. And this is all about rest, recovery, shutting things down. And also about a sense of leaving space. A sense of having space be open so that rather than with the high intensity, it's like I'm fully plugged into life. I'm being very active. At the low level, it's more passive, receptive and appreciating life in a very inactive kind of way. So when I think about these three possible speeds, the fast, medium, slow, it seems like thinking about things this way can fix a few problems that seem to be pretty common. Because a lot of discomfort and dissatisfied and just unfulfilling and just sort of off, those kind of off moments. Some of those seem to be due to being in the wrong gear for the time. And if you just think of any mismatch, any of the possible mismatches of the gears, then you can picture how being in the wrong gear can kind of throw things off. So if we divide everything to being this sort of fast, medium, slow, you have three possible states things can be in and three possible states that you can be in. And so there are nine possible combinations of your mindset with the mindset that is being called for. And so three of those would be the idea as in the situation calls for intensity, you're bringing intensity. It calls for relaxation, you're bringing relaxation. And the other six would be states where there's a mismatch. Now the most obvious, of course, is the mismatch of the high and low. So that's the easiest one to see. Imagine a situation where it is late in the evening and you have to be up early. And so you also want to get a good night's sleep so it should be time to go to sleep. Well, if you're in the high intensity mode, it's very difficult to sleep. And this is a problem that's all too familiar to me where that feeling of when you're working a job that you was not satisfying and you only have those few hours at home in the evening to do anything you actually care about. That's a sad, sad way to spend life, but you spend the whole day at the job. Then you have you have dinner and you have like, oh, a short time where you could. Okay, now I can really live and now I can do everything that I care about. And then, oh, now look, it's almost midnight. I have to be up early tomorrow to do this again. And now I have to bring things down again. So there's clearly a mismatch and this is something I'm still working on now because, you know, my favorite way to work is to really get on a roll and I really get into it and enjoy it. But then if it's already the end of the day by then and then either I will have to, you know, sleep in if I can, but then I guess late start tomorrow or I lose some sleep. And the best thing to do is to be able to pull myself down, pull my energy level down to a state where I'm relaxed and restful, ready to sleep and then go to sleep and then pick things up again in the morning. So clearly that's when if I'm in the high energy state and time calls for low energy. Now the opposite is perhaps even worse. Well, certainly I would have to say it's worse because we all need to have that time of intensity. If we never have that high gear intensity in our lives, it seems like we're missing, we're really missing out on an important part of life. We're just, we never get into that high energy state or at least maybe that's just me, but I like getting into that intense high energy state. And if it's time for me to do important work or it's time for me to enjoy life in an intense way, if the moment is calling for this intensity and I'm in a mellow low energy state, then I'm missing out. I won't be able to bring what I need. So this would be a case anytime when there's intensity call for, maybe you have, you know, it's game time, it's showtime, it's you have to write an exam, you have to do an important business meeting or event when you're being called for or you're going to like a special party of some kind. So you're or you're meeting a loved one. These, when you're, you're called to intensity, but then you're in the low energy mindset. This is even more of a sad state to be in. So once again, I find myself saying things that seem to be very obvious, but I hope that this will be of some help because I think for me it's helping me to just think about the idea of these states. Think about two things. What state am I in and what state is the moment calling for? And then if I find that I'm not in that right state, then I can take some steps to do anything to shift my mental gear, either through pumping myself up to get reminding myself of the importance of the moment, reminding myself of aliveness, you know, feeling that feeling of aliveness to like pump myself up to the intense high gear or letting everything go, putting all that down saying I'll pick it up tomorrow and maybe listening to quiet music, maybe reading a book, and something to like really take me down to the low gear when it's needed. So the details of exactly how to change gears, that is a whole topic in itself, but it seems like the first step is simply to notice how we are and how we need to be.