E=WELL, EVERYTHING ...Through the Looking Glass

Morning Guys

New month - new theme. It's all about energy.

Ever since Isaac Newton postulated his 4 laws of thermodynamics (energy movement and transition), and his 3 laws of motion, mankind has known that the universe is best described in terms of energy and energy conversion. Since I don’t want this post to be about physics but about personal growth, then let me get to the chase … 4 of these 7 laws have direct implications to us as human beings. Here they are, in my own words:

Simplified Energy Law: Energy can be neither created nor destroyed; it is finite.
Application: We have limited energy; we are not energizer bunnies that can go without renewing energy.

Simplified Energy Law: Everything in the universe naturally “winds down” and tends toward disorder and chaos; it takes new energy to create structure and organization.
Application: Our natural tendency is towards disorganization and chaos; it takes “new” energy to oppose that tendency.

Simplified Motion Law: Things keep moving the same way unless some new force is applied. 

Application: If you want to get a new result, you have to do something new (Einstein said that doing the same thing but expecting a different result is insane).

Simplified Energy Law: Two systems of different energy, when opened to each other, eventually become identical; the smaller system eventually generally looks more like the larger system than vice versa.
Application: We generally grow up to become like the family, friends and communities that we are a part of; it takes effort to oppose that tendency.

Back in 2005 when I attended the Willow Creek Leadership Summit I saw what has probably been the single most important presentation in my life because it connected a bazillion dots in the mental picture that I was building about how to create and sustain a healthy, effective and productive life. Jack Groppel, co-founder of the Human Performance Institute, spoke about the 4 Human Energy Laws. (I’ve shown you his video about the “boar in the bushes.”) This talk exploded open for me not just a new mental model but also an entirely new cadre of literature which I voraciously consumed.

His colleague and also co-founder of the HPI is Jim Loehr. Jim, along with Tony Schwartz, wrote, “The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal.”  This book is in my top 5 all-time reads and is a book to which I often refer. The book explains in more detail what Jack had presented at the talk, that the goal is to mobilize, focus and renew energy … whether as an individual or as a manager/leader (or parent). In their teachings they present 4 new energy laws ... or principles ... not of the universe, but of human beings: 

Principle # 1 – Full-engagement requires us to draw on four separate but related sources of energy: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

Principle # 2 – Because energy capacity diminishes both with overuse and underuse, we must balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy recovery.

Principle # 3 – To build capacity, we must push beyond our normal limits (“no pain, no gain”). We can benefit by targeting specific "muscles" for improvement, training in the systematic way that high performance athletes do.

Principle # 4 – Positive energy rituals – highly specific routines for managing energy – are the key to full-engagement and sustained high performance.

When Jim or Tony or Jack talk about the first principle they refer to each of the energy levels as valences, reminding me of my chemistry and physics courses. Electrons can be found at more or less energetic levels within an atom, depending on the energy introduced to the system. And when that process is controlled to harness and then release energy in a specific way, that energy can be focused … like a laser!

OK I promised this post wouldn’t be about physics. But here’s the thing … they refer to our 4 basic constituents of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual using words that I see typically in physics discussions: quantity; quality; focus; force. As a meteorologist who had my head in the clouds for many years, my mind immediately created the following image, which I have used in training sessions since 2007 (it wouldn’t surprise me if this is exactly what they show at HPI training sessions because the words and concepts lend perfectly to this model ... one day I may sign up for one of their sessions to see if I'm right).

Just look at that diagram and reflect on it … that’s all I’m hoping from you this week. Just think about it. It is a powerful metaphor for effective and productive living. As you are thinking, consider the following … for full engagement we need to be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned.

Finally, think about the word “integrity.” Typically that word evokes thoughts about honesty and being a person of your word. There’s another side. The concept of INTEGRITY means that the “whole thing is working well, undivided, integrated, intact, and uncorrupted.” Being a person of integrity means being a whole person, an integrated person, with all of your parts working well and delivering the functions that they were designed to deliver. It truly is “running on all cyclinders.”

We speak about our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual sides as if they are separate, but they’re not. The ancient Greeks separated them to make it easier to discuss them … and I think they did us a great service from a teaching perspective. But the ancient Hebrews didn’t believe in such separations … they believed in a blended or fused system where everything works together. Timothy Ferris, (the “4-hour Body” guy) feels the same way, as he writes, “the Cartesian separation of mind and body is false. They’re reciprocal.”

Over the next 3 weeks I want to zoom in to three specific truths which I’ve learned that relate directly to this discussion about human energy; I believe that they are truths which our society has lost and that desperately need to be recaptured because we are in an energy crisis: a human energy crisis. People are fading all around me, and for too many, the "lights" have almost gone out.

I love you guys.

Dad