Energy Is the Real KPI

For most of my life, I measured progress by output.

What got done.
What moved forward.
What was solved.

Those metrics are easy to track, especially when responsibility is real. But over time, I’ve learned that output is always downstream from something else.

Energy is the real KPI.

When energy is steady, clarity comes more easily. Decisions cost less. Conversations feel less brittle. Even difficult work becomes manageable.

When energy is depleted, everything feels heavier than it should — including things you’re good at.

This past year forced me to take energy seriously, not as a mood or a motivation problem, but as infrastructure. Health, sleep, movement, nutrition, boundaries — these aren’t side quests. They’re the foundation everything else rests on.

I’m less interested now in squeezing more productivity out of my days and more interested in protecting the conditions that make good days possible at all.

When energy improves, outcomes tend to follow without being chased.

That’s a lesson worth carrying forward.