In chemistry, Activation Energy is the energy required to make a chemical reaction occur. Applying to our personal and professional lives, we often have to face challenges before seeing our desired results. In this Eye2Eye episode, Harbir Sian talks about building our Activation Energy. He shares what he sees as a way to get over a hump and why taking time to do the little things sometimes takes us faster. Listen in to learn more about how to embrace our activation period.
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Eye2Eye: Activation Energy
Thanks for joining me. I always appreciate you reading in and all the support. If you find some value in this episode or any other episode, please do share it. Take a screenshot, throw it up on Instagram, LinkedIn, wherever you are and tag me. Let me know what you think and what you took away from it. Please be sure to hit like and subscribe, leave a review and a comment, all the good stuff. I appreciate all the support. The show has been growing, and it's been incredible. I'm truly grateful for everybody's support. It’s has been amazing to see.
It gives me energy, as we're going to talk about here, to continue to do more, bring on better guests and better content. There's a lot of stuff that I'm doing. I’m lining up some amazing guests. Honestly, I'm pretty pumped to talk to these people to share their insights with you. If you've been reading for a while, now and then, we'll do an episode where it's just me. I call it Eye2Eye.
It’s me to share some insights, experience, knowledge, lessons learned or whatever it might be that I feel might be helpful for somebody who's reading. There are short episodes like this one, will be probably 7 or 8 minutes long, a quick little, bite-size show for you to digest real quick. As I touched on the word energy earlier, because I'm a bit nerdy and science-y, I want to call this one Activation Energy. This term comes from Chemistry or Physics. I was bad at Chemistry, but this is one term that always stuck with me.
Activation energy is the minimum amount of energy that must be provided for a chemical reaction to happen, for something to happen, a change of state to happen. If you have seen this in Chemistry or Physics before, there's a very simple chart that goes like this, then goes up a little bit, and then there is a big downward slope that shows. First, there needs to be energy to get over the hill to a certain hump, and then the reaction can happen afterward. I feel like that is how a lot of things happen in our lives when we're trying to be productive and get things done. Often there is activation energy required for us to get to the top of the hill to get over that little hump. There's a big downhill where the reaction and the productivity happen.
I did an episode that I called The Ebb and Flow of Productivity. This is a similar concept. I feel like this is an addendum or addition to that topic. I talked about how we go through slow and fast times. Personally, I feel like it's beneficial to me to lean into those ebbs, those slow times. For years, I would fight it, get anxious and be like, “I’ve got to keep doing tons of stuff to try to get myself back in the groove.” It took the exact same amount of time, whether I took a step back, leaned into it, slowed down, tried to absorb what was happening in those slow times to get back into the groove compared to if I was just grinding and trying to keep doing things to build up and get back into a productive state.
You have to have the confidence in yourself to keep going.
It was more beneficial to me to lean back, take it slow and understand what I was going through. Mentally, physically, emotionally, it was better because I would still hit that stride and be productive, eventually. In fact, I would be even more productive because I learned lessons in that slower period. You can go back to that episode and read that.
This episode is related to that. In a chemical reaction, often you need a catalyst or some big spark of whatever energy to get you up to that hump to then for the reaction to happen. You add an enzyme or a catalyst to a reaction. You hit the activation energy, and that reaction happens. Sometimes in life, you need that. Sometimes you have some big moment of inspiration, a person comes into your life, an event happens in your life, you read a book or you read something, and you get that catalyst, that instant moment of inspiration that now you're gone. That happens, but a lot of times, that's not how it works.
In my experience, it's a slow climb. In that ebb and flow equation, that's the ebb. That's that slow climb up, like maybe things haven't been as productive or you feel like you're going through a slower period. You need to get to that activation energy or that top of that hump so you can be productive again. I feel like when you're in those slower times, if you keep doing those little things to continue to grow, you'll get to that hump faster or even that hump becomes smaller. Whatever it is, you get there just by gradually doing the right things.
When you hit that hump and can ride that wave, you can be super productive because you've put all of those foundational things in place. That could mean doing your daily exercise, fisting in good physical shape, eating well and reading. For me, constantly reading and absorbing information is huge. I share stuff on social media. There were some quotes from Marcus or other people about, “Reading just for the sake of reading is useless.” If you're doing it to simply consume information on a surface level, that's not the type of reading I'm talking about.
I'm talking about the type of reading where you are absorbing information. Often reading multiple books at the same time that are along the same line or in the same vein, so you're absorbing that information at a much deeper level, then you are able to use that information when you hit that activation energy. Reading is key for me, whether it's meditating. It can be extremely valuable or even spending time with your family to understand your family environment and dynamics better. When you do hit those productive busy times, you're able to maintain that as well, but doing all of those things to build up that activation energy and eventually, there's this confluence of all those things that come together, and you get that spark.
Activation Energy: When you're in those slower times, if you keep doing those little things to continue to grow, you'll find that you get to that hump faster.
Now you realize you have hit that hump and you are hitting your stride. I'm reminded of this parable of the bamboo tree, which I'm sure many of you have read. A friend reminded me of that. I wanted to make sure I brought that back into the show at some point. The story of the bamboo tree is if you plant a bamboo tree for years, it feels like there's nothing. You're watering and nurturing it. Almost nothing is happening for years. There's almost no growth. All of a sudden, in the fifth year, within a matter of 4 to 6 weeks, it shoots up 50 or 60 feet up from the ground like a massive growth. That parable has so much value for many of us who are grinding, working and feeling like there's nothing happening.
We haven't hit the activation energy yet. We haven't got up to the top of that hump yet where things are going to happen. I've experienced this and many other successful people I've talked to have told me this over again. They experience this, stick with it and then all of a sudden, there is this not necessarily success, but things are finally happening the way that you thought they would happen.
I did a show with someone from Alberta. He talked about a lag period. To me, that's the activation energy period. There's a lag period where you think you're doing things for your growth. You're doing them. You keep sticking with it, and all of a sudden, there's this big wave of things are finally flowing. He was the most recent person that said this to me when we were doing the show. It also reminded me of that lag period, that delay between you are putting in the work and things happening.
To me, that's the activation energy period where you're putting in the work and you're going up. Eventually, you hit that hill and slide down that big wave of the actual reaction happening. That goes in your professional career, professional life and physical like, let’s say, you haven't been to the gym for a long time. You're working out for weeks. It's not a whole lot happening, but you stick with it. That work has been building up, but it hasn't shown yet. If you've done it before, you know it shows up. There's that lag. There's an activation period before you start to see the results.
I'm going to keep repeating the same thing about the importance of the activation period and slow period where you're going to continue to grow. There's something I've learned about leaning into that ebb period, that slow period, and keep doing the things that you need to do to get to that hump and to overcome that hump. That is that you have to have confidence in yourself to get there. A lot of times, personally, in the past and people I've spoken to have experienced this, you feel like you've put in the effort. If you should have seen results by now, what happens? You quit or you say, “It's not worth it. It's not working for me for some reason.”
Keep doing those things at your own pace.
If you have the confidence in yourself after you've done this a bunch of times throughout your life, and you realized, “When I stuck with it, eventually it did work. It took longer than I thought. Perhaps that hump is bigger than I thought to get the activation energy,” but eventually you'll get there. The important thing for me that I want to share with you after rambling about all of that activation energy is that you have to have the confidence in yourself to keep going.
After you've done it a bunch of times and you realized, “Maybe sometimes I have to stick with it longer, but every time I did this, where stayed with it step-by-step, I leaned into what I understood, it's going to take a while, and I understood that maybe I got to take a step back. I don't have to grind. I don't have to feel anxious. I'm going to keep doing all the little things that I need to do every day to keep going.” You have the confidence to know that you will get over that hump.
What I wanted to share with you is that when you have that self-confidence and self-esteem in yourself to keep doing those things at your own pace, your activation energy may be a little higher than other people's for whatever reason, you have more confidence in yourself that you can do these things. You can overcome those humps even if it's going to take you a little bit of time and effort.
These Eye2Eye episodes are me riffing on these ideas that roll around in my head all the time. They are coming from a place of personal growth from my perspective. I'm not sharing to say, “I have achieved everything. I've overcome every mountain, hill and activation energy hump in my life. This is what I do.” I'm sharing this as I'm doing it. I hope that it has value for you and comes across as genuine and as organic as possible because I'm in the process of learning these things myself. I'm sharing the things that have worked more consistently for me over the years.
I hope this activation energy thought connects with some of you, especially to the more scientific nerdy Chemistry-minded people who might appreciate it. If you do, please do share it. More importantly, give me your feedback on these ones. I'm interested to hear what you think. Shoot me a DM, @HarbirSian.od, or you can email me at DrSian@HighstreetEyeCare.ca. I'm always excited to know everyone's feedback and learn from all of you as well. There are lots more exciting episodes that are coming up. I'll see you in the next episode.
Important Links
The Ebb and Flow of Productivity – Past Episode
@HarbirSian.od - Instagram