There used to be a day when you’d buy something from the store… rip it open with that kid-on-Christmas-morning excitement… and then hit the wall. Batteries not included.
What a letdown. We’ve all been there.
I recently heard an author named Jim Kwik use the phrase “batteries included people”… and the second I heard it, I knew exactly who he was talking about.
Batteries included people supply their own energy. They’re self-assured. Grounded. You don’t have to manage their mood or walk on eggshells around them, wondering what version of them you’re going to get today. They just show up… the same way they showed up yesterday… self-sufficient, self-powered, ready to do whatever needs doing. Bright. Steady. Dependable.
I need people like that in my life. I want people like that in my life.
But then there’s the other kind… the “batteries not included” people. These folks run on your power. Your energy. Your attention. Your time. And most of us give it willingly… at first. We share what we’ve got because that’s what you do for people you care about. But it comes with a cost. Slowly, quietly, it wears you down.
A simple, ordinary day leaves you drained. You find yourself crawling into bed early, not because you’re tired from doing much, but because you’re tired from giving so much… hoping a full night’s sleep will recharge you before you have to get up and pour yourself out all over again.
Batteries not included people are energy vampires. They don’t mean to be… most of them are completely unaware, because they’ve never had to run on their own power long enough to notice. And a lot of them use whatever energy they do have on things that don’t move them forward… rehashing old wounds, replaying old injustices, nursing old pain. It’s easier to stay the victim than to become the answer. There’s always an excuse. Never any ownership.
Now look… I know I just painted two extremes on opposite ends of a continuum. Most of us live somewhere in the middle, and if I’m honest, I’ve probably been a batteries-not-included person to somebody on a rough day. We all have.
But here’s what I keep coming back to… life is short. And batteries included people know it. They don’t waste it. Not their time, not their energy, not anyone else’s.
So let me ask you this… if getting through today felt like a giant task, or if just making it to bedtime felt like a small victory… maybe it’s time to unplug for a bit. Recharge. Refill.
Because “sharing is caring” doesn’t apply to energy.
Some things you’re just not meant to give away for free.