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Performance, health and happiness are grounded in the skillful management of energy
Tony Schwartz
Many factors responsible for how we feel on a daily basis. In fact there are so many factors that it is hard to be aware and recognize everything that influence our mood and satisfaction. Fortunately there is one concept if understood can help us to become aware of how we feel each and every day and why we feel in a certain way. And this concept is managing our energy in systematic manner.
Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz wrote book called: “The Power of Full Engagement“. They introduce the concept of Energy Management.
Managing Energy, not time, is the key to high performance
System they introduced is not new but the way they lay it out is profound. I have very similar concept of 4 energy levels, but I never realized it until I’ve read this wonderful book. In fact it is probably one of the best books I can’t recommend highly enough.
Tony and Jim work with professional athletes, most of the time with tennis players and they are highly respected authority on high performance and full engagement in work and in life.
4 Fundamental Sources of Energy
There are 4 fundamental sources of energy.
1. Physical
2. Emotional
3. Mental
4. Spiritual
Lack of energy on any of those levels will lead to low energy, which lead to low quality of life, low awareness level and lack of engagement in all areas.
In order to experience high quality of life, you have to be
• Physically energized
• Emotionally connected
• Mentally focused
• Spiritually aligned
On Physical level it show how physically energized you are and it includes Quality and Quality of sleep, Exercise, Diet and Hydration (drink enough water)
On Emotional Level it shows how emotionally connected we are and it includes Openness, Trust, Enjoyment, Patience
On Mental level it shows how mentally focused we are and it includes Visualization, Positive Self-talk, Positive Attitude
On Spiritual level it shows how well we align with our purpose and values and it includes Integrity, Courage, Persistence, Honesty…)All of that in energy and we need all 4 level fulfilled in order to live life to the fullest, be fully engaged, happy and fulfilled.
Now you can see that if your energy level is low, you can just take a look on this system and figure out where is the problem and then you can go ahead and fix the problem.
All levels are different but interconnected. Increase of energy on one level will give you more energy on another level. For example if you exercise (physical level) it will get your emotional muscle stronger and atr the same time because your emotional muscle become stronger you can get more work done in less time and so on.
The fundamental level of energy is physical, but most important level is spiritual. You have to really know what you want and what your deep values. If you don’t know your deep values, it is hard to focused and get anything done because there is no priority in any of your action. If you spiritually align it will give you a boost of energy and make focus and discipline almost an effortless task.
Rituals
You can look at any problem on any level as a muscle that can be exercise. For example on a physical level when you exercise biceps muscle it will grow more when you exercise it. On emotional level it is the same concept. You can choose to exercises muscle of trust.
The best way authors discovered to exercises any muscle is by implementing rituals (habits). I personally went through a lot of different systems in my life and can totally agree with authors that the fastest and easiest way to develop any skill or develop any muscle is by forming a habit. It takes somewhere from 21 to 30 days to form a habit if you do it every day. I can tell from the experience that it is not that easy at the beginning but after 30 days it becomes easy to do then not to do something.
My recent habit I formed is to work out regularly 3 times a week. I do it for more than 2 months now and I didn’t skip work out even once. Here is the interesting part. Sometimes I don’t feel very well the day I need to go to work out, but when time come to go to the gym, I don’t even question myself should I go or not, it is totally automatic now. Next thing I know, I am on my way to the gym and it is start to happened on autopilot. This works perfectly.
Now it is hard for me to stay home because new habit is in place. The same way we can form any habit. I am working now on a habit of waking up at 5:30Am, do my morning exercise routines and get to work on my most important tasks first thing at 7:00AM.
Specificity
Tasks has to be very specific, otherwise you will not follow through. Example of specific task is: I will go to gym at 7:00PM 3 times a week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Recovery and Renewal
One of the most important concepts is concept of recovery and renewal. Too much recovery time leads to stagnation (eat too much and no exercises). Similarly, not enough recovery leads to exhaustion (work too much and not enough breaks or vacation time).
We have to balance our energy on all levels. If you work to much, it will lead to stress and imbalance in all areas of life and at the same time make you’re less productive. In this case you can choose to take brakes every hour and do some starches, possibly take walk outside in your brake time, and take a mini nap for 10 minutes with your eyes closed. It will give you more energy and make you more productive and fulfilled. Sometimes less is more.
Those are several of important concepts of this system I described here. It is by no means inclusive. It is important to understand the concept itself and its application. I will be coming back to this over and over, because I believe that this is a fundamental systematic approach to understand any issue we are facing and by recognizing the missing component we can tweak and improve our level of awareness, self-fulfillment and happiness.
