What Are You Spending That You Can’t Get Back?
An Energy + Attention Check-In
Your time, energy, attention, and capacity are finite resources. Yet it is easy to move through life spending them without stopping to ask whether they are actually going where you want them to go.
This quick check-in is an invitation to pause, notice what is taking your energy, and consider what may deserve more, less, or different from you.
There are no right or wrong answers. The goal isn't to calculate a score or tell you what to change. It is simply to create enough space to notice.
Start Where You Are
Before thinking about what needs to change, simply notice how you feel right now.
On a scale of 1–5, how would you rate yourself today?
Energized: 1 2 3 4 5
Clear: 1 2 3 4 5
Present: 1 2 3 4 5
Connected: 1 2 3 4 5
Inspired: 1 2 3 4 5
At capacity: 1 2 3 4 5
What word best describes how you feel right now?
Take a moment to write down the first word that comes to mind.
Where Is Your Energy Going?
Think about your life as it exists today—not the life you think you should be living.
How much of your time, energy, and attention are you currently investing in each area?
Rate each from 1–5, with 1 being very little and 5 being a significant amount.
Work / Career: 1 2 3 4 5
Relationships: 1 2 3 4 5
Family / Home: 1 2 3 4 5
Health / Well-being: 1 2 3 4 5
Friends / Community: 1 2 3 4 5
Personal Growth: 1 2 3 4 5
Rest / Recovery: 1 2 3 4 5
Digital / Social Media: 1 2 3 4 5
Now pause.
Does the way you are spending your resources reflect what matters most to you?
Yes · Somewhat · Not really · I'm not sure
There is no judgment in your answer. Awareness is the point.
What’s Giving? What’s Taking?
Not everything that takes your time takes your energy. And not everything that takes energy is something you need to eliminate.
The goal is simply to notice.
What is currently giving you energy?
Think about the people, places, activities, experiences, responsibilities, or practices that leave you feeling more like yourself.
Take a few moments to write them down.
What is currently consuming your energy?
What leaves you feeling depleted, distracted, resentful, overwhelmed, or disconnected?
Write those down, too.
What do you notice?
Look at what you wrote above.
Is there a pattern?
Is something taking significantly more from you than you realized? Is something that consistently gives you energy getting pushed to the margins?
Sometimes the most useful insight isn't what needs to change. It is simply seeing what is already true.
What Are You Carrying?
Sometimes what drains us isn't simply what we're doing. It's what we're carrying.
We can carry other people's expectations, discomfort, choices, accountability, and consequences. We can carry responsibilities simply because we've always carried them.
Are you currently carrying any of these?
Someone else's discomfort
Someone else's expectations
Someone else's choices
Someone else's accountability
A responsibility that may no longer be yours
The pressure to keep doing more
The need to fix everything
Something you've simply carried for a long time
What are you carrying that may not actually be yours?
Sit with this one for a moment.
You may discover that something you've been treating as a responsibility is actually a choice. Or that something you've been trying to solve isn't yours to solve.
You can care deeply without carrying everything.
Choose Accordingly
Awareness is useful. But awareness creates the opportunity to choose.
You don't need to overhaul your life. You may simply need to make one intentional shift.
PROTECT
What deserves more of your energy?
Think about the people, practices, experiences, or parts of your life that you want to make more room for.
RELEASE
What are you ready to stop carrying?
What can you put down, delegate, decline, or simply stop taking responsibility for?
REDIRECT
Where would you like to spend more of yourself?
What matters to you that may not be receiving the time, attention, or energy it deserves?
RESTORE
What would help you replenish your capacity?
What helps you feel grounded, present, and more like yourself?
One Intentional Shift
You don't need to change everything.
What is one thing you can protect, release, redirect, or restore this week?
Choose one.
Make it small enough that you will actually do it.
Then ask yourself:
What would change if you stopped waiting for life to force you to slow down?
You don't have to find the perfect answer.
Just notice what comes up.
There may be something asking for your attention. There may be something asking to be released. There may be something—or someone—you realize you want to spend more of yourself on.
Choose accordingly.
A Final Thought
You don't have to spend yourself everywhere.
You can care deeply without carrying everything.
You can remain ambitious without consuming yourself.
You can be present for the people you love without making their choices yours to solve.
And you can choose where your energy goes.
Awareness is the first step.
Discernment is the practice.
Alignment is the result.
Choose accordingly.
Want to Explore This Further?
Sometimes we know something feels misaligned before we know exactly what needs to change.
Coaching creates space to slow down, get curious, understand what you need, and make intentional choices about where you go from here.
If this check-in brought something to the surface, you don't have to figure it out alone.
