Why energy is everything (even when you have none)

In his famous Proverbs of Hell, William Blake declares:

"Energy is eternal delight."

Apt, I thought, as I surveyed the Monday morning carnage.

The kids were practically asleep in their porridge bowls—about as lively as a phone on 1% battery.

On the bus stop walk, they were running solely on Yorkshire Tea fumes, cake, and a shot of spring sunshine. The porridge hadn't kicked in yet.

By Tuesday, they were bouncing off the walls again. What changed?

It wasn’t a 12-hour sleep.

Turns out, the answer was in Blake’s words.

Many of you will recognise Blake as the author of Tyger and London from GCSE English. Delving into his poetry or reading The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is like opening the snack cupboard and finding a secret doorway to Narnia—unexpected, overwhelming, and filled with either wonders or pitfalls, depending on whether you’re Lucy or Edmund (and whether there’s Turkish Delight involved).

I was Lucy. I’d just found the Faun.

And there it was—that line.

"Energy is eternal delight."

My brain defaulted to logic—science-backed, structured, predictable. I’m wired that way.

Energy = Power stations, oil rigs, and the frantic, neon-lit hum of a 24-hour data center keeping AI alive. The words made sense.

Energy runs the world—it fuels cities, powers economies, and keeps your WiFi functioning long enough for you to doomscroll at 2 a.m. Delightful.

But I was wrong.

Blake wasn’t talking about electrical or thermal energy.

He meant creative energy.

The kind that sparks ideas, fuels inventions, and drives breakthroughs.

Energy = The reason you keep going, even when you feel like a human pancake.

Turns out, some of the greatest ideas were born out of exhaustion:

• Einstein formulated relativity in a patent office—the 1900s version of inventing an app in a dull Zoom meeting.
• Wartime rationing led to some of the cleverest inventions (hello, powdered eggs and duct tape).
• Leonardo da Vinci wrote in mirror image to keep his brain active.

And the great polymaths—Da Vinci, Ada Lovelace, Beethoven—didn’t limit themselves to one field. They bounced between disciplines like caffeinated squirrels, channelling energy from one idea into another.

Creativity doesn’t wait for perfect conditions.

It thrives in chaos.

It flourishes in fatigue.

It turns “I can’t do this” into “Wait, what if I try it this way?”

We've all felt it, right? The term is dragging. Exams are lurking like horror-movie villains. Motivation is flickering like a dodgy lightbulb.

By Monday evening, we still resembled week-old balloons.

We needed a reset.

So, how do you generate energy?

We took a page from Blake. He saw energy as something wild, passionate, and unrestrained—what he called the forces of ‘Hell.’

Let's hit hell. Let’s embrace Blake's ‘Hellish Desires’. Let experience, action and breaking free from restrictive norms provide its own kind of fuel.

Usually, both kids would be off to swim training, burning through laps like turbocharged fish with a stopwatch obsession. But that evening, my daughter chose to perform her trumpet at a school recital. She settled the post-performance buzz over a cuppa, discussing the world until well past bedtime.

My son—who’s rarely still enough to see words in a book without motion blur—picked up a book, got hooked, and set a record for the most chapters read in one sitting.

By bedtime, something had shifted. Not because they 'rested' and zoned out in front of the TV, but because they broke the norm and plugged into something different.

By Tuesday? They weren’t just awake—they were energised.

Energy isn’t something you wait for.

It’s something you create.

A strong economy, a brilliant idea, a masterpiece—they all start with the same thing: momentum.

True creativity, progress, and delight come from embracing your instincts and desires.

So, here are five ‘Hellish Desires’ that might help fuel your energy:

Hellish desire # 1. Chase the sun. Even five minutes of daylight can convince your body it’s time to wake up and see the world in a different light. Get outside—even if everyone stares at you leaving your desk.

Hellish desire # 2. Feed your curiosity. A weird fact, a good book, a compelling documentary—anything to jolt your brain into action. (Check out my previous articles if you need inspiration.)

Hellish desire # 3. Create something—anything—even badly. Write nonsense. Doodle on receipts. Build a spaghetti tower. Momentum breeds motivation.

Hellish desire # 4. Move. Even if it’s just dancing like no one’s watching or pretending to be an Olympic sprinter on your way to the kitchen.

Hellish desire # 5. Share ideas. Energy is contagious. One good conversation can be the intellectual equivalent of an espresso shot.

The energy is already there—you just have to plug in.

And when you do, you'll discover the delight, the thrill of creation, the rush of motivation, and the joy of something new.

Nici

P.S.

Share this with a friend who could use a creative jolt (or just needs to wake up before their porridge solidifies).

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