What fills your tank?

You have an emotional tank. It has a funnel that fills it and it has a drain that drains it. When your emotional tank is filled you are at your best. It is easy to be more grateful!

What fills your tank and what drains your tank?

Take a minute and get a piece of paper and a pen. Draw a square that represents your “well being” tank. Now draw a funnel that feeds into it from above and a tube out of the bottom that drains it. Things we experience daily either fill or drain our emotional tank. Psychologists have shown that when your emotional tank is filled to 100% you are at your best and being grateful is easy. When your tank drops to 75% full, you tend to experience anxiety and overwhelm and being grateful is much more difficult; at 50%, you have an emotional breakdown and at 25% a nervous breakdown and being grateful for most is virtually impossible. If this is even remotely true, the key then is to keep your tank full as close to 100% as possible.

So the question is: what fills your tank and what drains your tank?

For me, it is pretty easy to answer what fills and drains my tank. How about for you? Can you list 5 things that you know fills your tank…5 things you are grateful for? Can you list 5 things that you know drain your tank?

Does your daily rhythm (your normal routine) typically fill or drain you? Do you even have a daily rhythm that you can readily identify? If not, what would be necessary for you to get into a rhythm that is filling your tank? Yes I know you don’t have time, but what if you made the time? What if you decided you couldn’t afford (especially for those around you) for your tank to get any lower than it already is.

Here’s the secret to a more grateful fuller tank.

Have you heard of Dr. Stephen Covey’s famous term of “Sharpening the axe?” This term came from a little story about two woodcutters who challenged and bet each other to see who can cut down more trees in one day. At daybreak, the first one began furiously chopping down trees. He worked up a sweat and by noon had cut down sixteen trees. The other woodcutter only cut down four, because he took the first two hours to sharpen his axe. As he sharpened it, his challenger laughed at him knowing he was doomed to lose the bet with all that wasted and unproductive time.

That’s when things got interesting. By early afternoon, the first woodcutter’s strength (his tank) was starting to wane. It took him almost an hour to cut down one tree, all the while his challenger was picking up speed. How could this be? Certainly he was as strong as strong as the challenger. Unfortunately, strength wasn’t the most important thing anymore. It was all about whose axe was sharper. (i.e. tank was fuller) The sharper the axe – the quicker the trees came down. (i.e. the ability to stay grateful) By late afternoon, the second woodcutter who sharpened his axe had passed up his challenger by several trees and won easily. It seemed like such a waste of time to sharpen the axe earlier that day, but eventually, it had proved not only to save him time, it had brought him winning results.

In Ecclesiastes 10:10 it says: “If the axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must exert more strength. Wisdom has the advantage of giving success.”

Your challenge is:

  1. STEP 1 – Write out 5 things that you are grateful for and that YOU KNOW fill your tank…these “sharpen your axe.”
  2. STEP 2 – Write out 5 things that YOU KNOW drain your tank.
  3. Recognize if you are in a “season” of over abundance or a season of drainage (being miserable) or neither.
  4. If you are in a relationship, share this list with your spouse or significant other and discuss how you can spend more time helping fill the other person’s tank…especially if either or both of you are in a “season” of drainage.
  5. STEP 3 – Find away to change your daily rhythm this week by doing some of the 5 things to fill your tank and fewer of 5 things that drain your tank.
  6. Reflect each night before going to bed on how you did in “sharpening your axe” by filling your tank. Also, reflect on if you provided an environment to help fill your spouse’s or significant other’s tank.