Rating: 
Summary: Perfect for the retiree living alone.
Review: Those of us who are retired and not living with others are a perfect market for this book. Without jobs or family members making demands on us, with most of our time our own, we can fall into habits that work against us: watching TV at all hours of the day and night, sleeping erratically and at all hours, napping during the day even when we're not tired.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.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny the "gurus"just realized it; useful guide for most
Review: For those that have practiced any sport, it is obvious that energy is what makes people succeed. However, based on my experience in corporate America, this book will be very useful for most, since it provides a nice well-balanced approach to managing the daily stresses of life. Regretably, most of the discourse focuses on common sense, and there are not many practical tips and suggestions fr putting the book's insights into practice.
Rating:
Summary: Life-changing concepts for even the best of us
Review: This book teaches so well about how to manage energy for all types of people in different stages of life. I helped develop a training based on this book (each trainee received a copy), and the content consistently received rave reviews. The trainees all agreed that using these concepts would help them gain more from their lives and wanted to share their learnings with their co-workers and direct reports. I used the concepts while I was working full-time for a large corporation, AND I use it in my very different life as a first-time mother. Recommended for anyone who wants to accomplish more and gain more meaning from life. (Of course, this requires the abililty to take what you read and apply it to your unique station in life.)
Rating:
Summary: Good book for managers and others who need to relax more.
Review: "The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal" is a good self-help book for business executives, managers, athletes, and others who feel overwhelmed by the demands of their jobs and who want to improve their effectiveness. Loehr and Schwartz argue that life isn't a marathon, rather it's a series of sprints. To be successful, individuals need to balance recovery time with actual sprinting. A tired sprinter probably won't win the next race. And, most of us treat life like a constant race with no downtime. Loehr, a performance psychologist, came upon these observations while he was studying professional tennis players to learn what separates the greatest players from the less successful players. Loehr discovered what separated the greatest players, such as Ivan Lendl, from the less successful players wasn't how they played tennis points. Rather, it was how they behaved between playing points. The greatest players developed rituals to help calm and relax themselves in the short time between points. When Loehr used EKG telemetry to monitor player heart rates, he discovered that: "In the sixteen to twenty seconds between points in a match, the heart rates of top competitors dropped as much as twenty beats per minute. By building highly efficient and focused recovery routines, these players had found a way to derive extraordinary energy renewal in a very short period of time." The less successful players, on the other hand, didn't have rituals to help them recover between points. Their heart rates remained high between points, and they couldn't seem to calm their stress. Similarly, Loehr and Schwartz say many managers and executives don't have rituals to help them relax and remain effective. The authors argue that rituals help us connect to our values and what we hold most dear. Rituals assure our effort is directed to serve our most important goals. Loehr and Schwartz write: "We hold ourselves accountable for the ways that we manage our time, and for that matter our money. We must learn to hold ourselves at least equally accountable for how we manage our energy physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually." To help managers balance production with recovery, Loehr and Schwartz developed The Complete Corporate Athlete Training System. (Loehr and Schwartz are partners in LGE Performance Systems, which works with executives and managers.) Loehr and Schwartz tell us physical energy is crucial, even for those whose work is sedentary. If we don't take care of our health, everything else will become more difficult. Loehr and Schwartz say the specificity of goals is important to success. We can't spend too much time thinking about our rituals or they'll become equivalent to New Year's resolutions that are quickly dropped. Rituals must be nearly automatic. For example, it's probably good to have fixed times for exercise. In addition to the physical realm, Loehr and Schwartz argue we must similarly develop rituals to develop personally on emotional, mental, and spiritual levels.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Theme. Practical. Ideas may sound Ordinary.
Review: Theme: Time is limited (365days, 24hrs) to handle increasing demands in life. We can manage this by increasing our energy in four aspects: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. The key is to challenge our energy limits to expand our energy capacity, and to recover afterwards before the next challenge. This energy management concept does give you hope after so many futile efforts in putting our life in order. The theme is intellectually sound, and the coverage (4 dimensions) is comprehensive. The tone is motivational: It encourages us to challenge ourselves, while advises us to take a break despite some societies admire hard work and busy schedule. The authors are consultants with actual experience in enhancing sports people and business executives' energy performance. They are able to provide a lot of cases to illustrate ideas, plus useful details what can be done for specific problems. This book is useful only to people who are determined to act to improve his/her energy. The book is easy & light to read. The context of energy is new, but the ideas inside (e.g. balanced diet, physical exercises, positive thinking etc.) may sound ordinary to some people. You can interpret "energy" as "health" actually. The scope of four dimensions are wide, so the contents are only quick overviews. Some of the points are repetitive while some sound detached from main theme. This is particularly noticeable in later sessions (Chapter 9 and 10.)
Rating: 
Summary: lots of fluff
Review: This is a book about managing and developing your energy and apply it to life and work. Every person has different biorhythms, and the concept is that to accomplish what you want, you need to train your body to maximize your energy when you need it, just as an athlete trains everyday to get the job done when it counts. The Power of Full Engagement was full of common sense and anecdotal stories of how other people 'trained' to manage their energy (fluff). There was nothing new in the book, if you have read other self-help or motivation books. I also felt like this book was written to promote the author's institute that trained several high-profile athletes too many times.
Rating:
Summary: A definitive guide for energy optimization
Review: I started life as an energetic optimist, but after many disappointments, my energy and enthusiasm waned. This book shows you how to reverse this downward trend and optimize your energy. With more energy available, you are more inclined to express your talents, and experience greater success. The strategies offered in this book will increade the quality of your life. To learn how to be use your disturbing emotions as optimization signals and optimize your emotional, personal and business life, read Optimal Thinking: How To Be Your Best Self as well.
Rating:
Summary: Tangible Peak Performance
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The Personal Rocketry: a Great Read to Get High
Review: How can one expect to achieve high performance and personal renewal without energy? Energy is a basic aspect of existence that is not well understood in relation to individual and corporate performance. To realize your energy you must point on the idea "We become what we think." Only in developing, supporting, and applying your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual "muscles", you become "fully engaged." This is the only way of programming your mental computer. Your life isn't a persistent marathon, it's rather a series of sprints. To be successful, you need to balance recovery time with actual sprinting. The greatest players developed rituals to help relax themselves in the short time between points. The less successful players didn't have rituals to help them recover between points. Their heart rates remained high between points, and they couldn't seem to calm their stress. After reading just the first chapters, I found Loehr and Schwartz to be full of wonderful knowledge. The reading alone caused my energy to increase. This book will give you real tools to manage effectively your energy. With simple explanations and stories that every reader can relate to. So everybody should read this book. You'll be amazed at all the unproductive thinking habits you have developed. I highly recommend it to those who wants to improve the quality of their professional and personal lives. Alexander Petrochenkov
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read!
Review: Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz offer a lot of solid, common sense advice. The authors recommend going to bed and getting up at a consistent time - not exactly Ben Franklin's "early to bed, early to rise," but close. They recommend regular exercise. They say it's good to work and to rest, and each has its place. They say to examine yourself and try to see yourself as others see you. In other words, they recommend many time-honored techniques of physical, mental and spiritual growth,combined with prioritizing how you use your energy and how you recharge your batteries. This attitude makes the book unique. The principles may be ancient, but we find the vehicle distinctly contemporary, a combo of New Age jargon and workout-style performance charting, with (at last) a key to time management that makes sense and captures all areas of one's life. Some readers will find that thrilling, others will groan.
| 
