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

As Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz demonstrate in their groundbreaking New York Times bestseller, managing energy, not time, is the key to enduring high performance as well as to health, happiness, and life balance. Their Full Engagement Training System is grounded in twenty-five years of working with great athletes -- tennis champ Monica Seles and speed-skating gold medalist Dan Jansen, to name just two -- to help them perform more effectively under brutal competitive pressures. Now this powerful, step-by-step program will help you to:

· Mobilize four key sources of energy

· Balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal

· Expand capacity in the same systematic way that elite athletes do

· Create highly specific, positive energy management rituals

The Power of Full Engagement is a highly practical, scientifically based approach to managing your energy more skillfully. It provides a clear road map to becoming more physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned -- both on and off the job.

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.


Make your energy and productivity skyrocket!   March 9, 2003
Karen Page (New York, NY USA)
55 out of 58 found this review helpful

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...


Tangible Peak Performance   June 21, 2003
J. Charles Hansen (San Jose, CA)
36 out of 37 found this review helpful

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 (large muscles).

A great read - stimulating - thought provoking - and possessing that rarest of information in today's world - some actual wisdom.


college students can benefit from this one too!   February 10, 2003
42 out of 44 found this review helpful

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....