We all have a sine-shaped wave that represents our energy. It rises and falls at fairly regular times. You could think of this as your waking hours. The first one or two are slow, and drowsy, then you feel good, then your energy falls again. Up and down throughout the day. Or you could think about it as a project progression where it starts out exciting, then after a few months it gets challenging then finishes exciting again.
However you conceptualize it, we observe these peaks and troughs. The name of the game is to increase the time spent in peaks and decrease the amount of time spent in troughs.
The fastest way to do this is to find ways to turn troughs into peaks. In many startup-y cultures this is where “celebrating failure” can be so helpful.
Failure is a trough, but learning from that failure can quickly become a peak experience.
In the same way mindfulness is all about noticing thoughts rather than not thinking, you have to notice troughs, not avoid them. Work has ups and downs. You have to work through the troughs and sometimes appreciating that accomplishment is the best peak of all.