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An energy policy for life
Finding time for yourself on and off the job pays dividends LESLIE GARCIA Staff Writer Dallas Morning News Published: June 6, 2005 Raise your hand - if you can pry it off your keyboard or the steering wheel or your BlackBerry or your kid's packed schedule - if you would like more hours in a day. OK, so it's a trick question. We all get the same 24 measly hours. And we are so good at organizing them - with our cellphones and pagers and planners and Palm Pilots and every other conceivable device.
Aren't we? If you raised your hand and still don't feel as organized as you think you should, maybe it's time to redirect and focus on what may be lacking: energy.
Such is the premise of The Power of Full Engagement (Free Press; $15 paperback). Being "fully engaged" begins, write authors Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, with "feeling eager to get to work in the morning, equally happy to return home in the evening and capable of setting clear boundaries between the two."
It's a nice idea. But think of those days when we sit all eight to 10 hours on our respective fannies. We eat at our desks, e-mail colleagues instead of walking to their cubicles, think we're going to get great ideas staring at the computer screen. By the time we get home, we're ready to jump out of our skin, or at least bite some unsuspecting loved one's head off.
In order to feel the power, they say, we have to build time into our days to re-energize. Yes, managing our energy starts with taking and making time for ourselves. But more than that, it's the commitment to do so.
For some of us that might mean taking a break from work to exercise. For others it could be eating lunch with someone special or drinking a cup of tea while listening to the birds.
It's incorporating rituals, building routines, into our lives. Maybe it's date night on Wednesday. Or a five-minute meditation every afternoon. Or a walk around the block every night after dinner.
It's a four-part harmony, write the authors: Being "physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interest."
Sounds great, albeit overwhelming and a bit like another notation on a crowded to-do list. But there's more to it than that. Become fully engaged and see if you don't notice a difference. These three women did.
Work breaks into your routine
Lorea Belle Seidel is 39, a new mom and (big breath here) a senior organizational effectiveness specialist for Southern Methodist University. Until a few months ago, she thought nothing about sitting at her desk and working straight through until she'd accomplished what she set out to do.
Late-morning hunger pangs? She'd hit the vending machine for some M&M's. Lunch? At her desk. Late-afternoon yawns? She'd snack again.
Then one day, her boss handed her The Power of Full Engagement.
"What they're teaching is to manage your energy to have enough to sustain you throughout the day and accomplish all you want to do," Ms. Seidel says. "If you don't eat properly and don't exercise and you eat lunch at your desk, you won't be as productive as you would if you worked 71/2 hours and had taken critical breaks and replenished your body."
She now walks to co-workers' desks for periodic visits. The breaks help her mind relax, she says. Her neck muscles don't feel as clenched; her back relaxes.
Ms. Seidel has started bringing snacks from home: cheese wedges, strawberries, carrots, peanut butter. Her supervisor encourages everyone to take breaks, get out of the office.
"I'd say just try it out," she says. "Really monitor how you feel at different points during your day. The difference may be subtle at first. Take the time to notice it. Maybe your eyes aren't quite as blurry; you're not as fatigued. You don't have a headache."
Her department, which coordinates SMU's Wellpower wellness program for employees, plans to incorporate such techniques into the program.
"I was a therapist, and I look at what this does to people in their home lives," she says. "If you go home exhausted and have nothing to give your family, what are you working for? You're working to die. But if you have energy to do things with your family - go for a walk, play with your kids, cook out - without being irritated, without being mad, that's the way to manage your day."
Exercise without fail
Three times a week, Frisco mom and Frito-Lay employee Gina Braat either runs on the company's Plano campus or works out in its 130,000-square-foot fitness facility.
"There's something about sweat that really manages your stress," says Ms. Braat, 43, who handles the company's export program. "It boosts your endorphins and stays with you."
On days she feels particularly stressed, it would probably be easiest to simply sit at her desk and feel overwhelmed. But she craves her exercise.
"It's like a drug," she says. "You get addicted and can't stop."
On Mondays, she runs or does Pilates. On Wednesdays, she kick-boxes. On Fridays, she's in "boot camp." The core group of 10 to 15 have been sweating it out now for two years.
"We all suffer together," Ms. Braat says. "We complain, we get through it together and then it's 'See you next week!'"
The camaraderie is an added bonus, says Valerie Nosenzo, fitness and programs administrator for Frito-Lay.
"That was one thing I never expected," she says. "They hold each other accountable and work as a team, which I find a wonderful thing. It's a great support system."
Providing employees with the option of working out or spending time in various classes and activities helps make for more balanced employees, says John Rath, general manager of Frito-Lay's employee association.
"They recharge themselves ... they're cheerful, energized again, ready to go back to work," he says.
An added plus, Ms. Braat says: Because she works out at noon, she has more time and energy for her family in the evenings.
Live in the moment
Yoga has been the saving grace for Caroline Smith, a Dallas mother of two and solutions architect for a national technology company. About four times a week, she checks her schedule and finds a class that fits into it.
"I couldn't even touch my toes before I started," Ms. Smith, 42, says. "Now I can. My back is straighter. But the biggest thing is the stress relief. I'm finding out now I'm almost addicted to my yoga classes, especially if I've had a tense day at work or with the kids."
Before she began taking yoga three years ago, she'd sometimes come home and be short with her children. She's not an angry person, she says, but she had no other way to release her frustrations.
"I'm able to relax in class, and the meditation and stress relief carries on into my life. I'm more serene; the whole world seems more serene. You accept things."
One of the main practices of yoga is learning to live in the moment, says her instructor, Veronica Graves.
"It's becoming fully within the now, letting go of the thoughts of the future, concerns about the past ... it's understood that is the source of creativity, the source of inspiration," says Ms. Graves, who is also a wellness coach and certified personal trainer.
"How's that good for a corporation?" Ms. Graves asks. "Innovation, creativity. An employee who is fully present and engaged is a much higher producer than someone who is frustrated, in pain, possibly has an illness because they're not taking care of their well-being."
As Ms. Smith's wellness coach, she talks to her client several times a week. One assignment: Instead of dwelling on the bad, listen for when people compliment you. Sounds simple, but such steps have helped to make Ms. Smith's life more fulfilling.
"It's not just about losing weight ... but it's a total makeover: How to be well all over, mentally and physically. It's total wellness. Veronica will be planning things like bike rides, new adventures. I've always wanted to sail, so now I'm going to take sailing lessons.
"It's how to live your life a little better. I'm enjoying the present moment," she says.
"I'm more aware of what I'm doing instead of thinking about tomorrow." Copyright 2005 The Dallas Morning News
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