In 2016-2017, I was the International Board Chair for YPO, the global leadership community of extraordinary chief executives with more than 34,000 members from over 140 countries, while also serving as the CEO of Hagerty (NYSE: HGTY).

Being YPO Chair was the most rewarding period of my career and an experience that gave me the chance to study and learn from some of the world’s best business and political leaders. One of the lessons that has stayed with me the longest is the paramount importance of maintaining my energy level while I traveled the world meeting business leaders and many heads of state. Without focused energy, we have little to give to our work or to anything else in our life. The trick is to be very intentional about the oscillations between effort and rest, to be reflective with a good system of meditation, journaling and note taking, and to make sure the little things back home were never forgotten!

These lessons are especially pertinent today. Many workers are feeling stressed and burned out. Blame the lingering effects of COVID. Blame sitting for too many Zoom calls. Whatever the case, there’s an energy crisis going on in business today, as noted by the American Psychological Association’s “Work in America Survey: Workplaces as Engines of Psychological Health & Wellbeing,” which was released at the end of last year.

The survey found the following: “Seventy seven percent of U.S. workers reported experiencing stress at work in the past month, and 57% experienced negative health effects as a result including burnout. Eighty-six percent of HWS respondents reported stressful work (often/very often), and 88 percent reported often/very often ‘feeling used up at the end of the day,’ an indicator of exhaustion and a key component of burnout.”

Beyond the need for companies to continually work to reduce workplace stress, the survey results are a reminder for all of us to take better care of ourselves – our minds, bodies and energy levels. One way I do that is by remembering a little formula I learned in my travels: “Energy + Intention = Vitality.”

Let’s break that down a bit, starting with what I mean by vitality. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as follows:

1) Vital force, power, or principle as present in all living things; the life principle or force. Also, the germinating power of a seed.

2) The ability to endure or to continue to function.

3) Mental or physical vigor; energy, animation, liveliness.

I would add a fourth definition: Vitality is not just performing some action with gusto. It’s an experience of potency or liveliness. When we have and live and build vitality into our daily lives, we feel vigor, we feel positive and in control.

Sounds good. We all want that feeling. But how do we get there?

We’ve all had those days when, after we’re done with work, all we want to do is sit on the couch and do nothing, right? You don’t want to cook dinner. You don’t want to walk the dog. You don’t want to play with the kids or talk to your spouse. You just want to flop on the couch and binge watch Netflix, and if someone asks, we’ll say “I just don’t have the energy.” We’ve all been there.

But it’s not really the whole picture. The amazing thing about the physical energy stored in our bodies is that we have more of it than we think. The truth is that at any given moment, most of us could get up from the couch and walk or run a marathon if we had to or chose to. Our bodies are wellsprings of endurance and physical capacity.

Have you noticed that the next day after you exercise, you often feel more energized? Of course, you have. A good fitness routine, coupled with the proper nutritional fuel for your body and the right amount of sleep, builds you up and adds even more energy to the reserves that you already have within you. So, what gets in the way of tapping this wellspring?

This is where intention comes in. Intention – essentially our ability to choose our approach to ourselves and the world – is that little kick that gets us up off the couch and back into the game of life. It’s a pretty remarkable skill to develop in your life. Yes, it does involve forming habits, having goals and objectives, and maybe a bigger vision for your life. But the reward for using it is vitality, that wonderful feeling of feeling useful, vital and alive.

You can build your “intentionality muscles” with practice and repetition. In this way, intention is just another word for choosing, and making repeated and deliberate choices.

Think of it this way: Every morning when you wake up, remind yourself that you have three choices: you can end the day stronger, weaker or about the same as the day before. When I am living intentionally, I choose to be stronger every single day.

And that has made all the difference.