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

Below are key excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:1- "We live in a world that celebrates work and activity, ignores renewal and recovery, and fails to recognize that both are necessary for sustained high performance."2- "-Our most fundamental need as human beings is to spend and recover energy. We call this oscillation. -The opposite of oscillation is linearity: too much energy expenditure without recovery or too much recovery without sufficient energy expenditure. - Balancing stress and recovery is critical to high performance both individually and organizationally. -We must sustain healthy oscillatory rhythms at all four levels of what we term the "performance pyramid": physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. -We build emotional, mental and spiritual capacity in precisely the same way that we build physical capacity. We must systematically expose ourselves to stress beyond our normal limits, followed by adequate recovery. -Expanding capacity requires a willingness to endure short-term discomfort in the service of long-term reward."3- "-Physical energy is the fundamental source of fuel in life. -Physical energy is derived from the interaction between oxygen and glucose. -The two most important regulators of physical energy are breathing and eating. -Eating five to six low-calorie, highly nutritious meals a day ensures a steady resupply of glucose and essential nutrients. -Drinking sixty-four ounces of water daily is a key factor in the effective management of physical energy. -Most human beings require seven to eight hours of sleep per night to function optimally. -Going to bed early and waking up early help to optimize performance. -Interval training is more effective than steady-state exercise in building physical capacity and in teaching people how to recover more efficiently. -To sustain full engagement, we must take a recovery break every every 90 to 120 minutes. "4- "-In order to perform at our best, we must access pleasant and positive emotions: the experience of enjoyment, challenge, adventure and opportunity. -The key muscles fueling positive emotional energy are selfconfidence, self-control, interpersonal effectiveness and empathy. -Negative emotions serve survival but they are very costly and energy inefficient in the context of performance. -The ability to summon positive emotions during periods of intense stress lies at the heart of effective leadership. -Access to the emotional muscles that serve performance depends on creating a balance between exercising them regularly and intermittently seeking recovery. -Any activity that is enjoyable, fulfilling and affirming serves as a source of emotional renewal and recovery. -Emotional muscles such as patience, empathy and confidence can be strengthened in the same way that we strengthen a bicep or a tricep: pushing past our current limits followed by recovery."5- "-Mental capacity is what we use to organize our lives and focus our attention. -The mental energy that best serves full engagement is realistic optimism—seeing the world as it is, but always working positively towards a desired outcome or solution. -The key supportive mental muscles include mental preparation, visualization, positive self-talk, effective time management and creativity. -Changing channels mentally permits different parts of the brain to be activated and facilitates creativity. -Physical exercise stimulates cognitive capacity. -Maximum mental capacity is derived from a balance between expending and recovering mental energy. -when we lack the mental muscles we need to perform at our best, we must systematically build capacity by pushing past our comfort zone and then recovering. -Continuing to challenge the brain serves as a protection against age-related mental decline."6- "The more preoccupied we are with our own fears and concerns, the less energy we have available to take positive action."7- "-spiritual energy provides the force for action in all dimensions of our lives. It fuels passion, perseverance and commitment. -spiritual energy is derived from a connection to deeply held values and a purpose beyond our self-interest. -Character-the courage and conviction to live by our deepest values—is the key muscle that serves spiritual energy. -The key supportive spiritual muscles are passion, commitment. integrity and honesty. -spiritual energy expenditure and energy renewal are deeply interconnected. -Spiritual energy is sustained by balancing a commitment to a purpose beyond ourselves with adequate self-care. -Spiritual work can be demanding and renewing at the same time. -Expanding spiritual capacity involves pushing past our comfort zone in precisely the same way that expanding physical capacity does. -The energy of the human spirit can override even severe limitations of physical energy."8- "The search for meaning is among the most powerful and enduring themes in every culture since the origin of recorded history. -The "hero's journey" is grounded in mobilizing, nurturing and regularly renewing our most precious resource—energy—in the service of what matters most. -when we lack a strong sense of purpose we are easily buffeted by life's inevitable storms. -Purpose becomes a more powerful and enduring source of energy when its source moves from negative to positive, external to internal and self to others. - A negative source of purpose is defensive and deficit-based. -Intrinsic motivation grows out of the desire to engage in an activity because we value it for the inherent satisfaction it provides. -Values fuel the energy on which purpose is built. They hold us to a different standard for managing our energy. -A virtue is a value in action. -A vision statement, grounded in values that are meaningful and compelling, creates a blueprint for how to invest our energy."9-"-Facing the truth frees up energy and is the second stage, after defining purpose, in becoming more fully engaged. -Avoiding the truth consumes great effort and energy. -At the most basic level, we deceive ourselves in order to protect our self-esteem. -Some truths are too unbearable to be absorbed all at once. Emotions such as grief are best metabolized in waves. -Truth without compassion is cruelty—to others and to our selves. -What we fail to acknowledge about ourselves we often continue to act out unconsciously. -A common form of self-deception is assuming that our view represents the truth, when it is really just a lens through which we choose to view the world. -Facing the truth requires that we retain an ongoing openness to the possibility that we may not be seeing ourselves—or others— accurately. -» It is both a danger and a delusion when we become too identified with any singular view of ourselves. We are all a blend of light and shadow, virtues and vices. -Accepting our limitations reduces our defensiveness and increases the amount of positive energy available to us."10- "Our dual challenge is to hold fast to our rituals when the pressures in our lives threaten to throw us off track, and to periodically revisit and change them so that they remain fresh."11- "-Rituals serve as tools through which we effectively manage energy in the service of whatever mission we are on. -Rituals create a means by which to translate our values and priorities into action in all dimensions of our life. -All great performers rely on positive rituals to manage their energy and regulate their behavior. -The limitations of conscious will and discipline are rooted in t^he fact that every demand on our self-control draws on the same limited resource. -We can offset our limited will and discipline by building rituals that become automatic as quickly as possible, fueled by our deepest values. -The most important role of rituals is to insure effective balance between energy expenditure and energy renewal in the service of full engagement. -The more exacting the challenge and the greater the pressure. the more rigorous our rituals need to be. -Precision and specificity are critical dimensions of building rituals during the thirty- to sixty-day acquisition period. -Trying not to do something rapidly depletes our limited stores of will and discipline. -» To make lasting change, we must build serial rituals, focusing on one significant change at a time."

I recently re-read this book and was curious to know to what extent (if any) it has lost any of its relevance during the years since it was first published, in 2003. My conclusion? If anything, it is even more relevant now than it was before. However, that said, I still presume to suggest to those who are thinking about reading that they ignore the title and focus on the methodology that Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz introduce and then explain. Of course, full engagement has power. However, I cannot think of even one company among those annually ranked by Fortune to be the most highly admired, the best to work for, etc. that has full engagement. In fact, the results of recent research by the Gallup Organization and Towers Perrin clearly indicate that, on average, about 25-30% of employees are actively and productively engaged, about 35-40% are passively engaged (doing as little as necessary to stay employed), and about the same percentage are actively disengaged, with many of them hostile and having a toxic effect within their workplace.Obviously, the challenge for business leaders in all organizations (whatever their size and nature my be) is to increase the percentage of those workers who are actively and productively engaged. What do Loehr and Schwartz suggest? All of their insights and recommendations are based on a vast amount of real-world experience with all manner of organizations. What they offer in this volume is the Full Engagement Training System®, a comprehensive and cohesive program that enables us to manage energy efficiently. The methodology is based on four separate but interdependent principles:1. Full engagement requires drawing on separate but related sources of energy: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. "All four dynamics are critical, none is sufficient by itself and each profoundly influences the others [for better or worse]. To perform at our best, we must skillfully manage each of these interconnected dimensions of energy."2. Because energy capacity diminishes both with overuse and with underuse, we must balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal. "We rarely consider how much energy we are spending because we take it for granted that the energy available to us is limitless. In fact, increased demand progressively depletes our energy reserves - especially in the absence of any effort to reverse the progressive loss of capacity that occurs with age."3. To build capacity, we must push beyond our normal limits, training in the same systematic way that elite athletes do. "Stress is not the enemy in our lives. Paradoxically, it is the key to growth. In order to build strength in a muscle we must systematically stress it, expending energy beyond normal levels. Doing so literally causes microscopic tears in the muscle fibers. At the end of a training session, functional capacity is diminished. But give the muscle twenty-four to forty-eight hours to recover and it grows stronger and better able to handle the next stimulus."4. Positive energy rituals - highly specific routines for managing energy - are the key to full engagement and sustained high performance. "Change is difficult. We are creatures of habit. Most of what we do is automatic and nonconscious. What we did yesterday is what we are likely to do today...A positive ritual is a behavior that becomes automatic over time - fueled by some deeply held value."As indicated earlier, Loehr and Schwartz have devised what they call the Full Engagement Training System® and one of several key points they make is that both supervisors and those for whom they are directly responsible are active in this program, one that involves a shared journey of observation, revelation, and increased understanding. Another is that there are continuous role reversals for both "students" and "teachers" during frequent knowledge exchanges. Still another key point is that one of the most important drivers is the human need to find meaning, "among the most powerful and enduring themes in every culture since the origin of recorded history." And still another is that those who are purpose-driven must also constantly nurture and regularly renew their "most precious resource," energy, and expend it only in the service of what matters most.Forget about having a workforce with full engagement and concentrate on increasing the number of workers who are fully engaged. Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz can provide invaluable assistance to those who are now planning or who are only recently embarked on efforts to achieve that worthy objective.

This is a superb book, probably the best and most effective self help/ change your life book that I have ever read and I have read a lot of them. I will tell you why but before I go into detail, this might be useful: "On Form" is the UK version (what a dull title) and is virtually identical apart from the cover. If you go to Amazon US you will find over 100 reviews on the American version of this book - The power of full engagement.What is it about?Manage energy not time. Time is strictly limited to 24 hours per day for everyone. Energy however can be managed so that you have a huge reserve of it. If you have this reserve you are far more likely to be both happy and effective in all the endeavours of you life. If you have no personal energy, you will not succeed no matter how much time you have.How to build a reserve of energy?You have 4 sources of energy available to you: Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Each of these can be attended to specifically to build your own personal reservoir so that you have plenty to draw on when the going gets tough.People are not linear:What most people and work situations fail to recognise is that people are not linear. Machines are linear. You can ask them to perform a task at the same rate all day long with no break, possibly even for months at a time with no break. People however, definitely need recovery and renewal. The authors of this book worked with athletes and discovered that only those athlete who took recovery seriously and mastered it excelled. Those others who trained hard but did not understand or master recovery were the also rans, no matter how talented and dedicated they were.This book describes exactly how you can build renewal and recovery into your achievements and life (they call it making waves). They describe successful and inspiring ways to do this and give many examples of people they have trained who used these techniques successfully and inspiringly.The power of rituals: This is where this book differs from any other that I have ever read and where it is probably the most powerful book for change available. Most people simply do not change, even when they realise the wisdom of change and after having been inspired by a great book for instance. Change is very hard for people. People instinctively do what they did yesterday. It is easy and less stressful to do what you know how to do, even if you know it does not work for you and will have long term consequences. It is also easy to kid yourself that lack of exercise or drinking too much for instance, are just short term in your life and you will change when you get more time or a new job or what ever. This book shows you how to be real about what is in you life but far more importantly, it shows you how to make real change happen.Making change happen:First identify something that is very important to you that you want to change. Then create a very specific ritual around getting that thing into your life. At first the ritual is hard work because it is new and you need to give it special attention to get it going. After 30 to 60 days, this ritual will "install" in your life and habits and will become as familiar and as important as brushing your teeth. Instead of struggling, you would miss it if it were not there. This is an amazing concept and highly successful. Once a ritual is successfully installed, you can trust it and rely on it and it wont take energy from you day. You can then go on to add more rituals if you wish to.New year's resolutions: Many people attempt to change habits in the New Year but they often attempt them in a way that does not work well with their psychology. There are certain requirements to make a ritual powerful and easy to install. (Read the book!)I work as a life coach and I spend my life asking the question: "What does it take for people to really change or transform their lives". So much attempted change is unsuccessful which is deeply sad. I believe this book will make all the difference to a great number of people.This book also addresses the issue of how to manage your whole life with integrity despite being part of an increasingly busy world. How to make time for your family and for the most important areas of your life, whatever they may be.Do read this book and then work with it - it is one of the very best.I have also found Tony Schwartz's book "What really matters" a wonderful read. Tony experiences great financial success after writing the best seller about Donald Trump. Despite this great achievement, he is still not satisfied, so he then engages in 4 year mission to meet with teachers, educators and great thinkers all over America, seeking to find the answer to what creates a really great life.Jim Loehr has written quite a number of books on the subject of great effectiveness. His work and ideas are really good but his writing style is (in my opinion) dreadful. Hard to read and often negatively expressed. Tony however writes like a dream or even a great journalist (not surprising since that was his trade) in a beautiful, flowing and inspiring way.Enjoy the book.Thank you for reading this.

One of the best books I have ever read. Well structured, well written, extremely valuable content with a lot of practical examples on how to manage your energy. A must read to help us balance our hectic lives.

This book is absolutely fantastic. It makes so much sense and opens your eyes to the real issue that is energy and not time.Anyone who employs other people or managers other people should absolutely read this. It's a MUST.

Helps you understand where your time is going, and how to use it more usefully. I buy alot of self help books and this is one of those books that should be on your shelf :)

simply excellent - I found it full of amazing and practical advice and it is helping me a lot in improving my overall level of energy