Renewal and Recovery

The Masters of Renewal and Recovery

Craig Lowndes could be mistaken as a petrol head or perhaps even an adrenaline junkie.  It’s true that he does spend a vast majority of his time skilfully driving powerful cars around a track at warp speed and there is no doubt he is highly competitive. These traits and skills have led to him achieving excellence , becoming a V8 Supercar champion and one of Australia’s most popular sporting heroes.

V8 Supercar driving requires 100% focus.  Legendary British racing driver Stirling Moss describes competitive high speed driving perfectly, “It is necessary to relax your muscles when you can. Relaxing your brain is fatal.” Many researchers now believe that regardless of your inborn talent, it is possible to achieve excellence in almost any domain through single-minded focus and purposeful practice. The ability of Craig Lowndes and others like him to completely shut out distractions and have 100% focus on driving a high powered car around a racing track for hours on end, is integral not only to his success but also to his life.  A moment of lost concentration and focus can ultimately mean severe injury or death to him and others. For the everyday person, the outcome of losing attention or focus is not usually life-threatening. But it is a reality that many of us juggle several tasks at a time and struggle to focus on any one of them for very long.  Lack of absorbed focus takes it toll on the depth and quality of whatever we do and is an inefficient way of doing things. We often allow ourselves to be distracted by the urgent but not important tasks in our day and become very reactive rather than focusing intensely on our priorities. We get so caught up in the business and logistics of life that we don’t stop to consider what it is we really want or where to invest our time and energy to achieve those goals. Tony Schwartz, author of CEO of The Energy Project, believes that if more of us were able to focus, great performance in almost anything would be much more common than it is. Tony goes on to explain that, “Human beings aren’t meant to operate like computers: at high speeds, continuously, for long periods of time. Rather, we’re hard-wired to be rhythmic. We’re at our best when we pulse between spending and renewing energy. Unfortunately, the need for rest and renewal gets little respect and the result is that we increasingly find themselves working at a pace that feels unsustainable. We’re in an energy crisis – and this one is personal.” The Energy Project has some great resources which have certainly made me stop and reflect on the way that I (don’t) recover and renew my own internal machinery.  The Energy Project is offering a series of free  Take Back Your Life in Ten Steps webinars, which will help to re-energize, refocus, and reengage you. Each month, Director of Product Development, Emily Pines  shares The Energy Project’s expertise around ten simple practices featured in Tony Schwartz’ blog, “Take Back Your Life in Ten Steps,” onHBR.org that will enable you to achieve more in less time through renewal and recovery. In the first webinar that I recently attended with the Energy Project I immediately picked up a handful of tips that had me wondering why I hadn’t been utilising them earlier. Top tips included:

• Start thinking about life as a sprint event not a marathon. Sprinters give 100% because they can see the finish line.
• Take a break every 90 minutes to renew and recover from whatever task you are doing.  The break doesn’t need to be mammoth, it can be as simple as a deep-breathing exercise, getting up from your computer for 5 minutes or taking a fuel stop. We all know how easy it is to work for hours on end without a break, so set a timer if you need to. This tip is crucial to our energy renewal and recovery.
• Work at increased capacity over shorter periods of time (90 minute cycles)
• Go to sleep earlier
• The value you create equals the energy you invest NOT how long you work
• Vacations fuel productivity

I especially liked the thought that we were left with. “Seize back your life – it belongs to you.”