Subtitled 'Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal', this book claims that without the right quality, quantity, focus and force of energy, we are compromised in everything that we undertake. In other words, performance, health and happiness are all grounded in the skilful management of our energy.

What the authors call 'full engagement' is a function of leadership - both individual and organisational - and happens when energy is mobilised, focused, invested and renewed appropriately.

Old thinking vs new thinking

The authors identify two different paradigms for how we think about engagement:

Rituals that help to manage and renew energy

Some rituals the authors identify that can easily be built into your daily routines can significantly help you to manage and renew your personal energy:

• Take brief breaks at regular intervals
• Express appreciation to others
• Reduce interruptions (e.g. turn off email alerts / mobile phone; close the door)
• Spend more time doing what you do best and enjoy doing
• As with physical training, push beyond your normal limits for specific short periods of activity to build up stamina and capacity

Equally, negative habits can distort, block and impede performance through wasting or diminishing energy. These may be things like:

• habitual negative assumptions
• drinking or smoking as an unconscious response to stress
• feeling 'too tired' to do things that you enjoy
• eating convenience foods that do not feed your vital energy
• working for long periods without a break

So if, as the authors suggest, every thought, feeling and action has an energy consequence, what changes could you make to balance how you expend, recover and renew your energy?

"The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have"