Coach Dan, my impossibly upbeat bootcamp instructor, watched me run during a warmup exercise recently and called me over to the side of the field.

“Do you have keys with you today?” he asked.

“My car keys? Yes.” I replied.

“Great, go get them.”

I was beyond confused. I jogged over to the belongings area and grabbed my keys. 

Coach Dan proceeded to tell me that I would be running with my keys in my hand the rest of the class. He had seen me run with “floppy” hands during the warmup –– my hands were open, loose, dangling while I ran. 

That, he said, was a waste of energy.

Holding keys with a light grip would train my hands to be in an optimal position for running. Floppy is sloppy, and tight is light when it comes to hand position in the running world, I learned. 

I had never once thought about my hands when running. I thought about my feet, my legs, my lungs, the ground, the time, the temperature. Never once had I thought about my hands. So to hear an expert runner tell me this detail of my running form was creating an energy leak, was fascinating.

As I ran, with keys in my hand, I wondered –– where else in my life was I not paying attention to small energy leaks?

Where was I too focused on the big things, while ignoring small things that were slowing me down? Turns out, the list of where I was being floppy in life came to me pretty quickly.

That call to the insurance company I’ve had on my to do list for a month and keep avoiding? Energy leak. The hall closet that would take 30 minutes to organize but I keep putting off? Drain, drain, drain. Staying up late to mindlessly scroll through Instagram when I have an early start the next day? Sloppy.

Since that workout, I’ve been shoring up the energy leaks in my life. Eliminating the things that no longer serve me, tackling the things I try to ignore, and letting go of the things that just don’t align with the goals I’ve set for the remainder of 2020. I feel lighter already.

And just like my running form, finding these blindspots is only doable with the help of a great teacher who will help illuminate them for you. If you’re stuck and not sure how to identify where your energy leaks are, let’s connect.