Quotes from Jim Loehr

Positive energy rituals—highly specific routines for managing energy—are the key to full engagement and sustained high performance.

relying on junk food for bursts of energy; smoking or drinking to manage anxiety; furiously multitasking to meet demands; setting aside more challenging, long-term projects in favor of what feels immediately pressing and easier to accomplish, and devoting little energy to personal relationships. The costs of these choices and many others only show up over time.

The performance demands that most people face in their everyday work environments dwarf those of any professional athletes we have ever trained.

Because the rest of us are evaluated more by what we do with our minds than with our bodies, we tend to discount the role that physical energy plays in performance. In most jobs, the physical body has been completely cut off from the performance equation. In reality, physical energy is the fundamental source of fuel, even if our work is almost completely sedentary.

Unpleasant facts don't go away simply because we stop paying conscious attention to them.

The benefits of a sustained fitness program decrease significantly after just one week of inactivity—and disappear altogether in as few as four weeks.

During those 41/2 hours of focused morning work, Peter was able to write nearly twice as much as had sitting at his desk for up to ten hours a day in previous years.

You are not right because people agree with you; you are right because your facts and reasoning are right.

Overwork is this decade's cocaine, the problem without a name," says Bryan Robinson, who has written widely about the phenomenon and estimates that as many as 25 percent of Americans have the addiction.

Jump ahead to the end of your life. What are the three most important lessons you have learned and why are they so critical? • Think of someone that you deeply respect. Describe three qualities in this person that you most admire. • Who are you at your best? • What one-sentence inscription would you like to see on your tombstone that would capture who you really were in your life?

We are machine-centered in our thinking—focused on the optimization of technology and equipment—rather than human-centered—focused on the optimization of human alertness and performance.

We grow the aspects of our lives that we feed – with energy and engagement – and choke off those we deprive of fuel. Your life is what you agree to attend to.

Energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performance.

As Aristotle said: "We are what we repeatedly do." Or as the Dalai Lama put it more recently: "There isn't anything that isn't made easier through constant familiarity and training. Through training we can change; we can transform ourselves.

To be fully engaged, we must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interest.

Rituals also help us to create structure in our lives.

With confidence, you can reach truly amazing heights; without confidence, even the simplest accomplishments are beyond your grasp.

The simple, almost embarrassing reality is that we feel too busy to search for meaning.

Energy, Not Time, Is Our Most Precious Resource

The most important organizational resource is energy.

Gallup found that the key drivers of productivity for employees include whether they feel cared for by a supervisor or someone at work; whether they have received recognition or praise during the past seven days; and whether someone at work regularly encourages their development. Put another way, the ability to communicate consistently positive energy lies at the heart of effective management.

The more exacting the challenge, the more rigorous our rituals need to be.

We live in a world that celebrates work and activity, ignores renewal and recovery, and fails to recognize that both are necessary for sustained high performance.

It is a mark of courage to set aside self-interest in order to be of service to others or to a cause.