It happens to all of us at some point.

We could be traveling, commuting to work, at a meeting, or headed out to dinner when we realize that we forgot to charge our phones, our tablets, or our laptops.

Then we have that moment of panic as we feel disconnected from the world.

For whatever reason, it just didn’t get done, we forgot our charger, we left without the international adapter, we forgot to plug them in and recharge, we left our alternate source of power somewhere else, or we thought we had charged our devices sufficiently, but we just used whatever energy and power we had stored up.

And now we find ourselves stranded without any connection.

Has it ever happened to you personally, energy level is low and getting lower, power supply drained, and nowhere to plug in?

And when we are in low-energy mode or our source of power feels like it is used up, doesn’t it feel like we are disconnected from the world too?

It happens to me for sure, sometimes I just run down my own battery so low, I need to plug in and power up.

So, what does drain our batteries and our energy? When is it that we find ourselves tapping out and tired? And then how do we recharge and re-energize ourselves?

Well, I believe the first question is the most important, what is sucking the life from our personal power source? What we need to do is identify what gives us energy and what drains us of our energy.

For me, tedious projects, negative people, drama and administrative tasks all sap my energy.

I am just not a detail-oriented guy; pessimism and negativity have no place in my life; people who bring drama and problems that they really don’t want solved take way too much time and energy; and paperwork like reports, expenses and filling out forms are energy-killers for sure.

Now let’s talk about what gets me fired up and recharged. Hope, creativity, positive people, teamwork, family time, reading, church, speaking, training, coaching and watching other people grow.

Being a difference maker in someone’s life is one of the things that really gets me re-energized and ready to go and ready to grow myself.

So, when I am feeling low energy levels or need a recharge, I reach out to positive people in my life, I send a text or make a call to my family,

I tap into creativity to write a column, short story, or poem, I remember why I am so hopeful and that hope is such a great activator of power, or I go deeper into my Bible study and prayer group.

It’s like looking down at my phone and I see that I only have 7 percent battery life left, and then all I need to do is plug into one of the things that motivates me and re-energizes me, and the next thing I know I am back up at 100 percent.

It seems to me that many of the people I speak with lately spend too much time or put too much focus on the things and people who drain them of their energy.

What we need to do is to come up with a strategy to help identify those things that drain us of our power and energy, and then recognize what gives us a spark, new life, inspiration, hope, and a new source of power, and then focus on those things while doing our very best to avoid the things that are weighing us down, sapping our strength and energy.

So how about you? Where are you spending most of your time? Are you filling your days with people, places, and things that energize you, or are you caught up in all those things that cut off your own power supply? As always, I would love to hear all about it and your story at gotonorton@gmail.com. And when we know where and how to recharge and re-energize our own batteries, it really will be a better than good week.

Michael Norton is a resident of Castle Rock, the president of the Zig Ziglar Corporate Training Solutions Team, a strategic consultant and a business and personal coach.