The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal

Those of us who are retired and not living with others are a perfect market for this book. Without jobs or family members making demands on us, with most of our time our own, we can fall into habits that work against us: watching TV at all hours of the day and night, sleeping erratically and at all hours, napping during the day even when we're not tired.This book provides us with both the rationale and the know-how for setting up routines that can transform our lives. After decades of productivity, I found myself rattling around the house wondering,"What am I DOING with my life?". With nothing pressing, my "well-earned rest" turned into an unfocused waste of time and an uncomfortable feeling that I was wasting my life. My mood started to sink, as did my energy. This book has galvanized me to action. I started with bedtime and arising routines, which quickly led to an exercise routine, then regularly scheduled meals. My energy has returned - I feel like the "old me"! - and my time is now filled with pleasurable and stimulating activities. This book has stopped me from growing old, and I am extremely grateful.

Loehr and Schwartz have individually worked most of their careers on researching how humans achieve peak performance, and have together written a summary of what they've discovered to date. What impressed me about this book is that it's 1) based on actual research rather than theory, and 2) written in a manner that is very easy to understand and implement. Loehr's work in the past centered around seeking the source of human capacity - what makes it possible for some people to perform at the highest levels even under extraordinary pressure. He's noteworthy for having started an institute that has worked over the years with many top athletes including Pete Sampras, Dan Jansen, Mark O'Meara, and Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini among others. Schwart's background has involved understanding the nature of wisdom - what constitutes a satisfying, productive and well-lived life. Together they've developed a model for peak living that combines the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.They state that which is obvious but not followed well by most of us Americans - that without physical energy and health it's impossible to follow the rest of our dreams and ambitions in life. In the physical realm their analysis specifically of top athletes shows that peak performance involves both a willingness to push the body to the limit, and also hugely importantly regular periods of rest and recovery. They apply this to the "corporate athlete" who is their target audience for the book with the following advice - seek out stressful situations that push your range of psychological muscles - AND find time regularly for recovery. They have specific recommendations for incorporating rest and recovery throughout every day. They say that in the work world we tend to live linearly - meaning working straight through long days - which results in low energy periods/burnout/unreleased stress/etc. I completely identified with this section of the book and am going to use many of their concepts successfully tested on successful athletes and include them in my business day planning.The book acknowledges that without a personal big "why" driving what you do in life having physical energy is pointless - with the opposite holding true as well. Plentiful physical energy without a reason for existence goes nowhere and a crystal clear purpose can't be lived out without ample physical energy to make it happen. As with all of the book the chapter on spiritual energy is filled with real life examples of people who have been through their institute and whom they've helped develop a game plan for overall life performance.The chapters on emotional and mental energy are really the glue that holds the physical and spiritual together - and are also interesting. The book finishes with a "resource" section that includes a summary of the main points they've made, worksheets on connecting with a big purpose and on connecting the small habits (little muscles) into bigger habits and successes (lar

As an author, my work requires focus and concentration, and in the especially intense period right before a deadline, I often found myself working 12 or more hours a day, hardly stopping to eat lunch and/or dinner. (Despite the fact that I write books about gastronomy, while on deadline meals too often meant grabbing whatever was fast and easy.) The ideas in THE POWER OF FULL ENGAGEMENT, to which I was previously exposed through attending programs led by author Tony Schwartz, changed my habits and productivity radically. Instead of the aforementioned "marathon" approach, I now break my workday into 90-minute "sprints," punctuated by 15-minute breaks which serve to re-energize and re-vitalize my efforts. Instead of feeling guilty for going for my daily run in Central Park, I now see it as "recovery" time that is not only a mini-vacation but vital to my overall productivity. Since researching and writing about food definitely stimulates the appetite, instead of skipping meals I now eat all day -- but just five small meals a day, which has actually helped me lose weight and keeps my energy up. And instead of working through the weekend, I now "force" myself to take at least one day off so that I can return to my work refreshed and renewed. The results, for me, have been astounding -- both in terms of what I have been able to accomplish, and how I feel. My co-author and I recently finished not one but two books, both of which will be coming out in October 2003. And learning to tap new sources of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy has been a great positive charge in my life.I can't recommend THE POWER OF FULL ENGAGEMENT more highly to anyone who wants to improve the quality of their professional and personal lives.--Andrew Dornenburg, James Beard Award-winning author...

This book isn't just for corporate types. I'm a college student and a humanities major and I found this book exceptionally helpful to me. Building rituals has proved to be a way for me to make changes that had eluded me for years. I've built rituals around eating better, exercising regularly, studying in 90 minute sprints and then taking recovery time. I've lost weight, I feel better and I've been working much more effectively. In addition, the book is incredibly readable -- quick, interesting, touching -- I'm very picky about the non-fiction I read and this one satisfied my demanding criteria.Do yourself a favor....

THE POWER OF FULL ENGAGEMENT has the potential to change your life with one single insight: that managing ENERGY, not time, is the key to high performance and personal renewal. While I have as many hours in a day as I had in my 20s, I have to admit that my energy and productivity levels had dropped over the years. This book explains how to increase your energy levels through tapping four primary sources of energy: physical (and includes strategies for "fueling the fire" through exercise, nutrition, and sleep), emotional ("transforming threat into challenge"), mental ("appropriate focus and realistic optimism"), and spiritual ("having a 'why' to live"). The training system this book espouses asks the reader to define their purpose, to face the truth about how they're managing their energy now, and to take action through positive rituals. Since learning and putting into practice some of the ideas in this book, I have managed to at least DOUBLE my energy level during the day as well as my effectiveness in accomplishing the things that are most important to me. You can't put a price tag on results like these -- but if you could, [the price] seems like a miraculous bargain to me.