Life at full power energy management. Full Life - Jim Lauer, Tony Schwartz

Today I offer another review of the book I read. Written by Jim Lauer, Tony Schwartz Life at its Fullest. Energy management is the key to high efficiency health and happiness."

My book review of Life at its Fullest. Energy Management is the Key to High Efficiency, Health and Happiness"

But I will start with my feelings from reading it, and I will also give recommendations for those who really should read it.

Has it ever happened to you that day by day you feel that you have less and less strength to move forward, to strive for something, to achieve your goals?

The days are getting shorter, they start to fly without looking back. Sometimes you just start to lose heart from the fact that you cannot have time to do even the most necessary things, what can we say about far-reaching plans for the future.

At work every day, the load only increases, there is less and less time for family and rest. It feels like you have fallen into some kind of trap, and there is no turning back.

I wrote earlier that the most valuable thing in my life is my time.

How to increase it and in question in this book.

In general, the book will certainly be useful to any audience. On my own behalf, I can call it an ambulance for those who feel tired every day, do not have time for a lot and forgot when they are in recent times fully rested and enjoyed life.

I also want to focus on people with sedentary work, and especially on pensioners.

Dear grandparents! Your brain sometimes does not think well, not because you are old and have fallen out of reality, but because it needs to be constantly trained. Retirement does not change this rule.

Download the book for free

Jim Lauer, Tony Schwartz Life at full capacity. Energy Management is the Key to High Efficiency, Health and Happiness" free download (DOC), read online (PDF).

Also can be purchased full version books on Ozone, both in the electronic version and in the form of an audiobook.

I hope that many will consider this work worthy to get acquainted with it. On my own behalf, I want to add that I have already read it twice and plan to repeat it in a year or two to refresh the information.

I also remind you that in order to access library on my site (there is a complete list of books available on the site) you need to click on the Books button in the top rubricator.

I read this book a year and a half ago. Recommended to read to a bunch of people, and they recommended further.
The moment came and I had the need to read it again. Recall the main theses, correct the course that I took after the first reading, but which began to go astray.

This book should be read by those who have repeatedly wanted to quit everything, or think about it all the time. Who always does not have time to do everything, even despite attempts at time management. For those who experience a sense of disappointment from what he is doing now.

So, below I wrote out the main theses that hooked me in the book “Life at full power! Energy management is the key to high performance, health and happiness." Jim Loer and Tony Schwartz.

People have different resources. For example, one of them, non-renewable, is time. The management of this resource is described in a bunch of other time management books. The authors say that you can fit everything perfectly into the schedule, but if you have a problem with another resource, namely energy, then all these closed lists, pomodoros, etc. are of no use.

At one time, the authors were engaged in optimizing the resources of professional athletes and noticed that the requirements that apply to ordinary people exceed the requirements for any athlete. Those 90% of their time they train for the 10% they give to competition. And they know something about energy management procedures: time, sleep, proper food, rest, etc. Ordinary people work hard 8/10/12 hours every day. And they don't have an "off-season" other than a couple of weeks off.

The authors distinguish 4 key types of energy: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Each of the energies is the fuel for the next one. And you can not focus only on one energy and ignore others.

We can distinguish the following energy quadrants and the states by which they are characterized:

Low Negative: Depression, fatigue, burnout, hopelessness, defeat.
High negative: anger, fear, anxiety, defensiveness, resentment.
Low positive: relaxation, lack of concentration, peacefulness, calmness, serenity.
High positive: cheerfulness, confidence, challenge, joy, participation.

The following analogy can be traced several times in the book: marathon runners look tired, and sprinters look full of energy. This is all because the latter see the finish already from the start. And so you need to give all your best on the track, and forget about it outside the stadium.

Energy opportunities are reduced by both excessive and insufficient use of energy. There needs to be a balance between spending and saving. The situation is similar to the state of the muscles: with regular training, strength increases, with overstrain, a long recovery is needed, and if you do not train the muscles, they lose their “capacity”.
To increase the capacity, you need to train, and go beyond the usual limits of energy consumption. Surprisingly, stress is good and healthy. But there is an important "but". When we load the muscles, they are then ready for the load. Therefore, you can create reserves not only physical. strength. But you need to train at least to the point of fatigue, to the limit (go beyond the comfort zone, but not break it). The most important thing after stress is recovery.

If lead clear example, then there may be exhaustion, or there may be an excess of energy without insufficient use: so when a hand is broken, a cast is applied to it, and the muscles weaken, atrophy. Therefore, years of training are easily crossed out with just one week of break.

To get out of our comfort zone, we need a positive ritual that, unlike willpower and discipline, doesn't push ourselves into the behavior, but pulls, like brushing your teeth on autopilot. If you are doing well in some business, then there is a practiced ritual.

define a goal
face the truth
act.

The problem on the first point is that at the current exorbitant speeds of life, we even have no time to meaningfully determine the true values. We spend time and energy on responding quickly to sudden crises and meeting the expectations of others, rather than choosing what really matters in our lives.

The second step is to determine how energy is currently being spent. Understand what the problems are now. Look at yourself from the side.

The third is to create a personal development plan based on creating positive energy rituals. Doing the unimportant instead of the important, flooding the mind with alcohol for a temporary solution, such as relieving stress from work, is not a solution.

Even the ancient Greek athletes were trained and forced to rest, that is, to alternate activity and rest. Following a period of activity, our body must replenish the basic biochemical sources of energy. This is called "compensation".
Therefore, if a company implements a culture of continuous work and expects employees to "volunteer" to work evenings and weekends, then it will only get exhausted people with low productivity. And the same companies and managers who push for the alternation of work and rest get both loyal and productive employees.

Both sleep and wakefulness have cycles. Therefore, after activity, hunger, sleep attacks, and it becomes difficult for us to concentrate. In response, you can mobilize through the production of stress hormones, but this is a short-term solution that is more suitable for situations of danger. The constant production of such hormones will lead to hyperactivity, aggressiveness, impatience, irritability, anger, self-centeredness and insensitivity to others. If you do not recover for a long time, a migraine, back pain, and gastrointestinal upset will appear. And in worst case, you can grab a heart attack.
And when we can't keep ourselves in good shape, we use coffee and nicotine. And when we can not relax - alcohol and sleeping pills. If you try to artificially invigorate during the day and relax in the evening, then you are masking the linearity. Everything in life is cyclical. After the activity phase, there should be a rest phase.

In Japan, there is a term "karoshi" - death from excess work. About 10,000 people die from it every year. Think about these numbers.

Physical energy, which, as I mentioned above, is the fuel for igniting emotional talents and skills, depends on breathing and nutrition. Therefore, we need to consume slow carbohydrates, do not skip breakfast (yes, the authors in the book even touch on the issue of diet and healthy sleep!) We need to eat more often, but little by little. Drink 1.5-2 liters of water per day. Sleep 7-8 hours (at the same time, a lot of sleep, like a little, is bad).
According to some experiments, just 40 minutes of midday sleep increases productivity by 34%, and vigilance by 2 times. I want to try this approach personally (-: Anyway, the lunch break is not spent directly on lunch, and sleeping (at least sitting without thinking about anything) is better than sitting on all kinds of Internet resources.

The authors argue that any activity that captivates or gives self-confidence gives joy. It can be reading books, singing, gardening, dancing, photography, sports, museums, even being alone after a hard day at work.
And they call to give this occupation the status of "holy of holies", the highest priority. The pleasure of this activity is not only a reward, but important part maintaining long-term effectiveness. Television is intellectual fast food. Gives rest, but does not nourish, and even leads to irritation and depression.

One should experience joy, challenge, adventure and opportunity. This is helped by self-confidence, self-control.

Michael Gelb, author of How to Think Like Leonaro da Vinci, asked the question: “Where were you when your best ideas? The most common answers are: in the bathroom, in bed, while walking in nature, while listening to music. Almost no one answered: "In the workplace."
Thanks to exercise the brain will be better supplied with oxygen. Why not take a walk during your lunch break to recharge your brain with oxygen for the afternoon? Well, or part of the way home to go on foot.

In addition to physical, emotional and mental energy, there is spiritual energy. She is responsible for motivation. It is the fuel for enthusiasm, perseverance, commitment.

In order to introduce changes into your life, fill it with energy, you need to move from the top of the pyramid of energies, with spiritual level. It is he who is responsible for the goal. The desire to achieve a goal can force you to focus attention, efforts and actions. After all, if there are no strong roots - strong convictions and deep values - we are easily subject to all sorts of fluctuations. Not having strong feeling targets, we cannot hold our position and react defensively.
That is why the goal should be positive, internal and aimed at others, not yourself.
Negative energy is defensive and based on a lack of something. It arises as a reaction to a threat (survival and safety).
What's wrong with extrinsic motivation? It is based on the fact that we want to get more money, attention, approval, etc. than we currently have. They make up for the deficit, and do not give growth. Intrinsic motivation gives us what we ourselves enjoy.

The authors mention an experiment in which children were rewarded for something they liked themselves, and they didn't like it.
There are some great books on motivation. For example, Maxim Ilyakhov wrote about one of them in one of the issues of the Megaplan mailing list - "Drive" by Daniel Pink.

Quotes

The most precious resource is energy, not time. After a long day at work, we return home completely exhausted and perceive the family not as a source of joy and recovery, but as another problem.
Energy, not time, is the main currency of high efficiency.

We pride ourselves on multitasking, and our readiness to work from dawn to dusk is everywhere like a medal for bravery.

Feeling that there will never be enough time, we try to pack as many things as possible into each day.

Our life is ultimately judged not by the amount of time we have spent on this planet, but by the energy we have invested in that time.

Efficiency, health and happiness are based on the skillful management of energy.

To turn on the full power, we must be energetic physically, turned on emotionally, mentally focused and united in a common spirit to achieve goals. Working at full capacity begins with a desire to start early in the morning, an equal desire to return home in the evening, and a clear line between work and home.

In order to maintain the powerful rhythm of our lives, we must learn to expend and renew energy rhythmically.
The richest, happiest and most productive life is characterized by the ability to fully dedicate ourselves to the tasks before us, but at the same time periodically disconnect from them and recover.

Energy is simply the ability to do work. Our most fundamental biological need consists in the expenditure and accumulation of energy.

Restoring energy is more than just being out of work.

Sounds become music through pauses between notes, just as words are made from spaces between letters. Not allocating enough time for recovery, we replace our lives with not always useful and clearly defined activities.

We live in a world that celebrates work and activity, ignores rest and recovery, and tends to recognize that both are important for high performance.

In order to increase the capacity of the "batteries", we must subject ourselves to more stress - accompanied by adequate recovery.

Key "muscles" to achieve a positive emotional state are self-confidence, self-control, communication skills, and emanation. The small, supportive “muscles” are patience, openness, trust, and pleasure.

Any activity that brings a sense of joy, self-realization and self-affirmation is a source of emotional recovery.

Most often, we are given to understand that we will achieve greater productivity if we think about work as long and continuously as possible. We are not entitled to any compensation for breaks and in general any way of working, except for bowing our heads for the maximum possible time.

The stronger the storm, the more we tend to turn to our habits—and the more important positive rituals become.
Most effective people necessarily have rituals that optimize their ability to rhythmically move from stress to recovery.
The rituals of the annual holidays give us the opportunity to remember important events. In more broad sense rituals imbue key moments in our lives with meaning.
We have negative associations with rituals, but this is because we do not choose them ourselves, but they are imposed on us. When a ritual seems empty, it loses touch with our values.

When intentions are formulated in negative form“I will not be angry,” they exhaust their reserves of will. Not-doing requires constant self-control.

It's time to admit that time management doesn't work anymore. Habitual schemes and practices of time management constantly fail. There are more and more things to do, but there is not enough strength even for half. The thing is that it is not time that matters, but energy. Energy is yours main resource and energy management is your key to high performance, health, and happiness. Learning to manage your life energy you will begin to live fully and happy life. Summary The world bestseller “Life at full capacity” will help with this.

The authors

Authors of the bestselling book Life at Full Power Tony Schwartz and Jim Lauer have been doing for many years psychological preparation athletes, businessmen, rescue and special services. The clients of their training company LGE Performance Systems were such professional sports stars as tennis players Pete Sampras, Monica Seles, Gabriela Sabatini, well-known golfers, hockey players, basketball players, and speed skaters.

Why You Should Read This Book

In Life at Full Power, you'll learn how to combine intense work with happy personal life, physical and mental health.
. You will learn how to manage the main types of energy and create reserves of positive energy.
. You will understand why it is important to be able to set goals and create positive rituals.

Jim Lauer, Tony Schwartz

Life at full capacity. Energy management is the key to high performance, health and happiness

Foreword

The cure for downshifting

Many have been waiting for this book for a long time. They waited, still unaware of its existence, name and authors. They waited, leaving the office with a greenish face, drinking liters of coffee in the morning, not finding the strength to take on the next priority task, struggling with depression and despondency.

And finally we waited. There were experts who convincingly, extensively and practically answered the question of how to manage the level of personal energy. Moreover, in various aspects - physical, intellectual, spiritual ... What is especially valuable is the practitioners who trained leading American athletes, FBI special forces and top managers of companies from the Fortune 500 list.

Admit it, reader, when you stumbled upon another article about downshifting, you must have thought: “Maybe I should drop everything and wave somewhere in Goa or in a hut in Siberian taiga?..” The desire to drop everything and send everyone to one of the short and capacious Russian words is a sure sign of a lack of energy.

The problem of energy management is one of the key ones in self-management. One of the members of the Russian Time Management Community once came up with the formula "T1ME"-management - from the words "time, information, money, energy": "time, information, money, energy". Each of these four resources is critical to personal effectiveness, success, and development. And if there is quite a lot of literature on managing time, money and information, then there was a clear gap in the field of energy management. Which is finally starting to fill up.

In many ways, of course, one can argue with the authors. Undoubtedly, they, like many Western specialists, tend to absolutize their approach, rigidly oppose it to the “old paradigms” (for which, in fact, it is not a denial at all, but an organic continuation and development). But this does not detract from the main advantages of the book - relevance, simplicity, manufacturability.

Read, do everything and fill your Time with Energy!

Gleb Arkhangelsky, CEO company "Organization of Time", the creator of the Russian Time Management Community www.improvement.ru

Part one

Full power driving forces

1. At full power

The most precious resource is energy, not time

We live in the digital age. We race at full speed, our rhythms are accelerating, our days are cut into bytes and bits. We prefer breadth to depth and quick reaction to thoughtful decisions. We glide across the surface, hitting dozens of places for a few minutes, but never staying anywhere for long. We fly through life without pausing to think about who we really want to become. We're online, but we're offline.

Most of us just try to do the best we can. When demands exceed our capacity, we make decisions that help cut through the web of problems but devour our time. We sleep little, eat on the go, fuel ourselves with caffeine and soothe ourselves with alcohol and sleeping pills. Faced with relentless demands at work, we become irritable, our attention easily distracted. After a long day at work, we return home completely exhausted and perceive the family not as a source of joy and recovery, but as another problem.

We have surrounded ourselves with diaries and to-do lists, PDAs and smartphones, instant messaging systems and reminders on computers. We believe this should help us manage our time better. We pride ourselves on multi-tasking, and our readiness to work from dawn to dusk is everywhere like a medal for bravery. The term "24/7" describes a world where the work never ends. We use the words "obsession", "crazy" not to describe madness, but to talk about the past working day. Feeling that there will never be enough time, we try to pack as many things as possible into each day. But even the most effective management time does not guarantee that we will have enough energy to do everything planned.

Are you familiar with such situations?

You are at an important four-hour meeting where not a second is wasted. But the last two hours you spend the rest of your strength only on fruitless attempts to concentrate;

- You carefully planned all 12 hours of the upcoming working day, but by the middle of it you completely lost your energy and became impatient and irritable;

- You are going to spend the evening with the children, but are so distracted by thoughts about work that you cannot understand what they want from you;

- Of course, you remember your wedding anniversary (the computer reminded you of this this afternoon), but you forgot to buy a bouquet, and you no longer have the strength to leave the house to celebrate.

Energy, not time, is the main currency of high efficiency. This thought turned our understanding of what is driving force high efficiency for a long time. She has led our clients to redefine their management principles. own life– both personal and professional. Everything we do - from walking with children to communicating with colleagues and accepting major decisions, requires energy. It seems obvious, but that's what we often forget about. Not having the right amount, quality and focus of energy, we jeopardize any business we undertake.

Each of our thoughts or emotions has energetic consequences - for better or for worse. Our life is ultimately judged not by the amount of time we have spent on this planet, but by the energy we have invested in that time. The main idea of this book is quite simple: efficiency, health and happiness are based on the skillful management of energy.

Of course, there are bad bosses, a toxic work environment, difficult relationships, and life crises. However, we can control our energy much more completely and deeper than we imagine. The number of hours in a day is constant, but the quantity and quality of the energy available to us depends on us. And this is our most valuable resource. The more responsibility we take for the energy that we bring into the world, the stronger and more effective we become. And the more we blame other people and circumstances, the more our energy becomes negative and destructive.

If you could wake up tomorrow with more positive and focused energy to invest in your work and family, would that improve your life? If you are a leader or manager, would your positive energy change the work environment around you? If your employees could rely on large quantity your energy, would the relationship between them change, and would it have an impact on the quality of your own services?

Leaders are conductors of the energy of the organization - in their companies and families. They inspire or demoralize those around them—first by how effectively they manage their own energy, and then by how they mobilize, focus, invest, and renew the collective energy of their employees. Skillful management of energy, individual and collective, and makes possible what we call the achievement of full power.

To turn on the full power, we must be physically energetic, emotionally turned on, mentally focused and united in a common spirit to achieve goals that lie beyond our selfish interests. Working at full capacity begins with a desire to start early in the morning, an equal desire to return home in the evening, and a clear line between work and home. It means the ability to fully immerse yourself in the fulfillment of your mission, whether it be a decision creative task, managing a group of employees, spending time with loved ones or having fun. Working at full capacity implies the need for a fundamental lifestyle change.