The Power of Full Engagement
By: Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
If you are a committed workaholic or were raised by one, this book might bend your mind a little bit. Its subtitle is: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. The authors show you how to maximize your four key areas of energy to get the most out of your life. The four key areas of energy are: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. They have worked with many top level athletes and executives over the years and their methods have seen results time after time.
The key to living a life that successful manages your energy is to make sure you are living a life that is in line with your core values. The authors provide some worksheets at the end of the book to help you figure out what those values are. And the foundation to any energy management program is physical: people need exercise, healthy food, and regular and consistent rest. Through the myriad case studies that the authors provide in the book, you get a pretty good idea of what those kinds of changes look like. No change is very drastic, rather the focus is on changes that can be sustained over time so that participants don’t “fall off the wagon.”
One of the concepts that might be the hardest for some to swallow is the practice of taking timed breaks. The authors have found that our natural circadian rhythms occur in 90-120 minute cycles, which means that even the busiest executive should try to find fifteen minutes to recharge every two hours or so. This might mean having a snack, doing a round of yoga, or just having some quiet time in your office, but the authors have found it indispensable to maintaining healthy cycles of energy and not crashing and burning later on in the day.
If you have felt frazzled by your own schedule and trying to fit everything into your life, this book is definitely worth the read. It will help you to stop worrying so much about your time or lack thereof and to start focusing on ways to corral your energy better so that time is better spent and more fulfilling to your higher goals in the end.
The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal
By: Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
Pages: 245
Published: 2003 by Free Press
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