One of the most challenging tasks that I deal with is staying energized. By nature, I am an outgoing person, but even with my unusually energetic personality, I often find myself slowing down and losing focus of my goals. This is difficult to deal with because if I had my way, I would be running none stop 24 hours a day.

Throughout the past year, I have learned the importance of not over exerting myself. It didn’t take long to catch on because I took on a ridiculous amount of free lance and started a new management position at my work.

I have been making the extra effort to work the typical 8 hour work day. The secret is making sure those 8 hours count. This helps me rationalize leaving on time.

It scares me to death to run out of inspiration so I thought I would share a few things that I do to push myself.

* The number one thing that helps me stay focused is reading. Nothing gives me more inspiration and ideas than a good read from a useful blog or book.
* A nice run outside with my dog helps me get my mind on track.
* I told myself that I am not going to do free lance any more. It is hard to turn down but in the bigger picture, I would much rather work on personal projects in my free time than having to manage some one else’s. Freelance can also take away from holiday and family time, which can be the biggest problem of all.
* Look for inspiration and ideas daily. Whether it is a quick search on Digg or Google, visual inspiration on the Internet can be a huge help.
* Podcasts are always useful and entertaining. There are a ton of excellent podcasts online that tackle industry specific issues.

This is pretty much all that I do to stay up. With the exception of taking some video game and movie breaks, I can’t think of much more.