BOOK REVIEW
Alexander Kuttappan
Name of the Book: The Power of Full Engagement – Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal
Name of the Authors: Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
My Quality Rating: Very good
Summary:
The central theme of the book is ‘Performance, Health and Happiness is grounded in the skillful management of energy’.
To be fully engaged, one must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interest.
Principles for Full engagement are: Drawing on four separate but related sources of energy( physical, emotional, mental and spiritual); because energy capacity diminishes both with overuse and with underuse, we must balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal; to build capacity, we must push beyond our normal limits; and positive energy rituals-highly specific routines for managing energy-arethe key to full engagement and sustained high performance.
A three-step, Purpose-Truth-Action, change process is presented with case studies and tools.
With a lot of Scientific research data presented how to manage Physical, Emotional, Mental and Spiritual energies to become fully engaged.
Social / Historical context:
This book is written at the right time and in the right context. Everybody is running behind money to live a luxurious life, to seek more pleasures, to gain name and fame but most of us get depleted on the way and not all those who get what they wanted live happily, after all.
Jim who has coached hundreds of athletes in different sports including Jim Courier, Monica Seles in Tennis, gives the balancing act in managing all energies, which is not only applicable for athletes but for all those who want to live fully engaged life.
The intention of writing this book was to provide a life-changing road map to become more fully engaged on and off the job, i.e. physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned.
The demand for this book will continue as pressures in life bound to increase.
Writing Style:
Language is simple and direct. Case studies that are presented are not only interesting but also easy to connect with the situation.The writing style is really powerful in influencing individuals to change.
My thoughts:
Developing a model that would fit anyone to live fully engaged life is praise worthy!
The basic content of ‘Energy management’ is a familiar ground for Indian philosophy. Every Yoga master would teach probably all these. By presenting a methodical and practical way to improve oneself,this books stands out!!
Today there is no dearth of information, thanks to google. Every individual wants to improve from where he is, thanks to human nature. But ‘How-to-do-it’ is not clear. This book presents that methodology.
Since these principles and methodology are developed from coaching athletes, sometimes I felt some terminologies are over-used like Emotional muscle, Spiritual muscle etc. But it may help some to associate better.
I would strongly recommend this book to all those who want to improveand make their life more meaningful.