The Power of Full Engagement [Hardcover]

This is a superb book, probably the best and most effective self help/ change your life book that I have ever read and I have read a lot of them. I will tell you why but before I go into detail, this might be useful: "On Form" is the UK version (what a dull title) and is virtually identical apart from the cover. If you go to Amazon US you will find over 100 reviews on the American version of this book - The power of full engagement.

What is it about?
Manage energy not time. Time is strictly limited to 24 hours per day for everyone. Energy however can be managed so that you have a huge reserve of it. If you have this reserve you are far more likely to be both happy and effective in all the endeavours of you life. If you have no personal energy, you will not succeed no matter how much time you have.

How to build a reserve of energy?
You have 4 sources of energy available to you: Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Each of these can be attended to specifically to build your own personal reservoir so that you have plenty to draw on when the going gets tough.

People are not linear:
What most people and work situations fail to recognise is that people are not linear. Machines are linear. You can ask them to perform a task at the same rate all day long with no break, possibly even for months at a time with no break. People however, definitely need recovery and renewal. The authors of this book worked with athletes and discovered that only those athlete who took recovery seriously and mastered it excelled. Those others who trained hard but did not understand or master recovery were the also rans, no matter how talented and dedicated they were.

This book describes exactly how you can build renewal and recovery into your achievements and life (they call it making waves). They describe successful and inspiring ways to do this and give many examples of people they have trained who used these techniques successfully and inspiringly.

The power of rituals: This is where this book differs from any other that I have ever read and where it is probably the most powerful book for change available. Most people simply do not change, even when they realise the wisdom of change and after having been inspired by a great book for instance. Change is very hard for people. People instinctively do what they did yesterday. It is easy and less stressful to do what you know how to do, even if you know it does not work for you and will have long term consequences. It is also easy to kid yourself that lack of exercise or drinking too much for instance, are just short term in your life and you will change when you get more time or a new job or what ever. This book shows you how to be real about what is in you life but far more importantly, it shows you how to make real change happen.

Making change happen:
First identify something that is very important to you that you want to change. Then create a very specific ritual around getting that thing into your life. At first the ritual is hard work because it is new and you need to give it special attention to get it going. After 30 to 60 days, this ritual will "install" in your life and habits and will become as familiar and as important as brushing your teeth. Instead of struggling, you would miss it if it were not there. This is an amazing concept and highly successful. Once a ritual is successfully installed, you can trust it and rely on it and it wont take energy from you day. You can then go on to add more rituals if you wish to.

New year's resolutions: Many people attempt to change habits in the New Year but they often attempt them in a way that does not work well with their psychology. There are certain requirements to make a ritual powerful and easy to install. (Read the book!)

I work as a life coach and I spend my life asking the question: "What does it take for people to really change or transform their lives". So much attempted change is unsuccessful which is deeply sad. I believe this book will make all the difference to a great number of people.

This book also addresses the issue of how to manage your whole life with integrity despite being part of an increasingly busy world. How to make time for your family and for the most important areas of your life, whatever they may be.

Do read this book and then work with it - it is one of the very best.

I have also found Tony Schwartz's book "What really matters" a wonderful read. Tony experiences great financial success after writing the best seller about Donald Trump. Despite this great achievement, he is still not satisfied, so he then engages in 4 year mission to meet with teachers, educators and great thinkers all over America, seeking to find the answer to what creates a really great life.

Jim Loehr has written quite a number of books on the subject of great effectiveness. His work and ideas are really good but his writing style is (in my opinion) dreadful. Hard to read and often negatively expressed. Tony however writes like a dream or even a great journalist (not surprising since that was his trade) in a beautiful, flowing and inspiring way.

Enjoy the book.
Thank you for reading this.

After having read a plethora of self-help books I would compare this book to the high standard, easily written and concise diagnostic profile as The 7 habits of highly effective people. It was for me an add on to the information written by Stephen Covey however, digs further into the habits of your life in the way you manage your energy and what is adding or taking away your energy levels.

Highly recommended.

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.