December 31, 2012

The power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.

The power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.

Managing energy, not time, is the key to high performance and personal renewal.

The power of full engagement

Old Paradigm                    New Paradigm
Manage time                     Manage energy
Avoid Stress                    Seek Stress
Life is a marathon              Life is a series of sprints
Downtime is wasted time         Downtime is productive time
Rewards fuel performance        Purpose fuels performance
Self-discipline rules           Rituals rule
The power of positive thinking  The power of full engagement.

Principle 1: Full engagement requires drawing on four separate but related sources of energy: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

Principle 2: Because energy capacity diminishes both with overuse and with underuse, we must balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal.

Principle 3: To build capacity, we must push beyond our normal limits, training in the same systematic way that elite athletes do.

Principle 4; Positive energy rituals - highly specific routines for managing energy - are the key to full engagement and sustained high performance.

The mind and body are one. The primary markers of physical capacity are strength, endurance, flexibility and resilience. These are precisely the same makers of capacity emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Emotional flexibility reflects the capacity to move freely and appropriately along a wide spectrum of emotions. Emotional resilience is the ability to bounce back from experiences of disappointment, frustration and even loss. Mental endurance is a measure of the ability to sustain focus and concentration over time, while mental flexibility is marked by the capacity of move between the rational and intuitive and to embrace multiple points of view. Spiritual strength is reflected in the commitment to one's deepest values, regardless of circumstance and even when adhering to them involves personal sacrifice. It reflects the tolerance for values and beliefs that are different than one’s own, so long as those values and beliefs don’t bring harm to others.

  • To maintain a powerful pulse in our lives, we must learn how to rhythmically spend and renew energy.
  • We build emotional, mental and spiritual capacity in precisely the same way that we build physical capacity.
  • A positive ritual is a behavior that becomes automatic over time - fueled by some deeply held value.
  • Energy is simply the capacity to do work. Our most  fundamental need as human beings is to spend and recover energy.
  • We call this rhythmic wave oscillation, and it represents the fundamental pulse of life.
  • We are oscillatory beings in an oscillatory universe.
  • Rhythmicity is our inheritance.
  • Expanding capacity requires a willingness to endure short-term discomfort in the service of long-term reward.
  • The longer, more continuously and later at night you work, the less efficient and more mistake-prone you become.
  • Interval training is means by which to build more energy capacity and to tolerate more stress, but also to teach the body to recover more efficiently.

The range of what we think and do
Is limited by what we fail to notice
And because we fail to notice
That we fail to notice
There is little we can do
To Change
Until we notice
How failing to notice
Shapes our thoughts and deeds
   - poem written by R.D. Laing

Summary of the Full Engagement Training System

1. Objective: Perform in the storm
Build the necessary capacity to sustain high performance in the face of increasing demand

2. Central Conclusion:Energy is the fundamental currency of high performance
Capacity is a function of one’s ability to expand and recover energy
Even thought, feeling and action has an energy consequence
Energy is the most important individual and organizational resource


3. Full Engagement: Optimal energy in the context of high performance
Physically, energized
Emotionally connected,
Mentally focused &
Spiritually aligned

4. Full Engagement is a consequence of the skillful management of energy in all dimensions.

5. Full engagement principles:
Managing energy, not time is the key to high performance
Full engagement requires drawing on four separate but related dimensions of energy: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
Because energy capacity diminishes with both overuse and underuse, we must learn to balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal.
To build capacity, we must push beyond our normal limits, training in the same systematic way that elite athletes do.
Positive energy rituals - highly specific routines for managing energy - are the key to full engagement and sustained high performance.

6. Full engagement requires drawing on four separate but related sources of energy:
Physical , Emotional Mental & Spiritual capacity is reflected in one’s ability to expend and recover energy at the physical, Emotional Mental & Spiritual  level, respectively.
The most fundamental source of energy is physical and the most significant is spiritual.

7. Four source of energy
Physical energy is defined by quantity of energy
Emotional capacity is defined by quality of energy
Mental capacity is defined by focus of energy
Spiritual capacity is defined by force of energy.

8. Measuring energy:
The quantity f available energy is measured in terms of volume (low to high)
The quality of available energy is measured in terms of unpleasant to pleasant
The focus of available energy is measured in terms of broad to narrow and external to internal.
The force of available energy is measured in terms of self to others, external to internal and negative to positive.

9. Optimal performance requires:
Greatest quantity of energy
Highest quality of energy
Clearest focus of energy
Maximum force of energy

10. Barriers of full engagement: Negative habits that block, distort, waste, diminish, deplete and contaminate stored energy.

11. The full engagement training system: Removes barriers by establishing strategic positive energy rituals that insure sufficient capacity in all dimensions

12. Positive energy rituals support effective energy management

13. Lifelong energy objectives: To burn as brightly as possible for as long as possible in the service of what really matters.
Strongest possible physical pulse
Strongest possible emotional pulse
Strongest possible mental pulse
Strongest possible spiritual pulse

14. Chronological age is fixed. Biological age can be modified with training.
Biological age (reflected in performance capacity) is determined by one’s ability to effectively expend and recover energy.

15. Full engagement requires periodic strategic recovery.
The energy that serves full engagement is renewed and stored during periods of strategic recover(disengagement)

16. The rhythmic movement between energy expenditure and energy recovery is called oscillation.
Oscillation refers to the optimal cycle of work/rest intervals
Chronic stress without recovery and chronic recovery without stress both serve to reduce capacity.
In sport, these conditions are referred to as overtraining and undertraining

17. The opposite of oscillation is linearity
Linearity is excessive stress without recovery or excessive recovery with insufficient stress
High-pressure situations generate powerful forces of linearity

18. Sustained high performance is best served by assuming the mentality of a sprinter not a marathoner.
Over the span of a thirty-to-forty-year career, performance is optimized by scheduling work into 90-to-120 minutes periods of intensive effort followed by shorter periods of recovery and renewal.

19. Most of us are under trained physically and spiritually (not even stress) and overtrained mentally and emotionally (not enough recovery).

20. Interval exercise is far superior to steady-state exercise in terms of enhancing energy-management skills

21. Energy is the human system is multidimensional
A dynamic relationship exists between physical , emotional, mental and spiritual energy.
Changes in any one of the dimension of energy affect all dimensions

22. Energy capacities follow developmental lines.
First level of development is physical
Second level of development is emotional/social
Third level of development is cognitive/mental
Fourth level of development is moral/spiritual

23. Each of the four dimensions follows its own developmental stages

24. The full engagement training system begins spiritually with a connection to purpose.

25. High positive energy is the fuel for high performance.
High positive energy flows from the perception of opportunity, adventure and challenge (approach). Negative energy is precipitated by the perception of threat, danger and fears about survival (avoidance).

Primary capacities /skills
Physical:hearts and lungs,Abdominals,Shoulders & back, legs and Arms
Emotional: Self-Confidence, Self-regulation, Interpersonal effectiveness & Empathy / caring
Mental: Focus, Realistic optimism, Time management, & Creativity
Spiritual: Character, Passion/commitment, Integrity, & Service to others

Supportive Habits/skills
Physical:sleep, exercise, diet and hydration
Emotional: patience, openness, trust & enjoyment
Mental: visualization, positive self-talk, positive attitude, mental preparation
Spiritual: Honesty, integrity, courage and persistence.


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