Shawn and I have been leaders in the emerging field of lifestyle performance and I love doing events with him.

In this this insightful 5 minute interview, Shawn asked about the one thing people can do to optimize their energy right now.

I went back and listened to the 5 minute clip again this morning and I noticed a comment that he made at the end of the segment where he mentioned… (I paraphrase)  “that people are often looking for a more complicated answer to how to increase their energy, when the answer is simple“.

Now I know exactly what he meant and that he was right on. And yet, I then thought to myself, yes the answer is simple, but the truth is -  the simple answer’s are often very complex, not because they are complicated, but because you need to have a full understanding of all that goes into increasing and managing your energy, before you can do it well.

That’s the difference between a lifestyle solution and say drinking a cup of coffee. Drinking a cup of coffee to increase your energy is very simple, but the consequences of relying on stimulants to manage your energy will get very complicated. Learning how to recuperate you energy (sounds simple) but is actually pretty complex, but once you know how, it’s actually is simple.

It’s not enough to say, simply – sleep, rest, recover, (relax) and rejuvenate your energy and you’ll increase your energy; if it where that simple everyone would be doing it. Remember these are lifestyle activities and they require that you have the ability to stop yourself and those two words will reveal allot about your life. If your life is overwhelming for example, that alone will prevent you from being able to do even simple things like recuperate your energy.

So I wanted to share with you 3 steps for increasing and managing your energy.

Note: unlike food and fitness where you are working with tangible items in most cases, to manage your energy you’ve got to develop a mental dashboard so you can manage something you can’t see; managing your energy is a game of pure learning and getting grounded in experience.

1. Learn the difference between vital energy and food energy
2. Learn how how to actually recuperate or “regenerate” your personal energy
3. Get grounded in experience.

After all, it’s not what you know but how you actually live that matters!

~ JAM

PS: I will be uploading content and a very special ebook on this very subject at ManageYourEnergy.com in the coming weeks, I’ll keep you posted and keep sharing some posts on this subject.

JAM and Rosie in San Diego - Biking at Dr Fuhrman's Health Getaway

JAM here,

I am here in San Diego taking a quarterly vacation, that is “much needed” to say the least. On day one, it felt like I was withdrawing from crystal meth, as I started to pay back my accumulated energy debt from prior months and the past couple weeks.

Paying back energy debt and knowing how to do it is a key lifestyle concept you need to know if you are going to manage your energy well.

Whew! It’s no surprise to me why most of us eat our way through the day most of the time to stimulate ourselves for vital energy.  On Friday night all I wanted to do was eat to buffer the feeling of fatigue which was more extreme than usual because of my travels last week, where I virtually missed an entire night sleep.

The combination end-of-quarter fatigue, the missed night sleep and the intensity of launching the new NutrientRich.com (Tuesday the 13th) all played into a very tough Friday which took experience and fortitude to handle right.

That feeling of extreme fatigue is nothing new for most people especially people who like to be peak performers whether they say that or not. You know, we all need to be peak performers in today’s performance culture whether you’re a soccer mom or a CEO, or both.  It’s just the way it is these days. We know we can’t live at peak all the time, but to be at peak when we need to, you need to know how to manage your energy.

It’s why most people will tell you that they need a few days to wind down before they can actually get into a vacation. The key is to handle energy debt (fatigue) right and plan to handle it ahead of time, if not you end up needing a vacation after your vacation.

Unlike my trip to New Orleans two weeks ago where one decision ended up having a profound impact on my energy for the week; this go around, we ( my business partner and dear friend Rosie Battista and I) left 2 full days before the start of the conference we are attending  – Dr Fuhrman’s Health Getaway here at the Rancho Benardo Resort in San Diego, which is going to be a very relaxing yet chock full week.

My priority is getting out of energy debt and fast not only for the start of the conference, but so that when I come back from the conference, I’m powered up with reserves for the next quarter which I will need.

The only way to do that is to do what we call “facing your true condition“. It’s the process of embracing fatigue for what it is, the process of getting your energy back, by engaging in a focused period of rejuvenation.

If you are new to facing your true condition, it can be  one of the most challenging situations to be in and it requires some real understanding of physiology and energy management; if, you want to get back to your peak performing position sooner than later.

I just faced it on Friday as I arrived and all through Saturday and I’m still working on it today. Actually I will be rejuvenating all week, but the worst is over. As I said earlier it was like withdrawal. But here is Sunday and I already feel like a different person.

The ultimate secret to peak performance, is knowing how to get your energy back either proactively or re-actively given your circumstances.

I’m feeling really good about my tact these past couple days. Today I’m near ready to begin the conference starting tonight and I just finished a great workout down at the spa.

Quick Story: I was on the elliptical while listening to Meeting of the Minds on The Future of Technology, and I looked into the TV glare and saw a great reflection of the shirt I was wearing. It was my friend Shawn Phillips’ T-Shirt for Strength for Life, and on the front it says “Time for Change”. I thought to myself, “yeah it is” and proceeded to think about the changes ahead for me. It’s all a matter of lifestyle; a Performance Lifestyle that is. 

Now kicking my feet up and watching the second half of the World Cup Final.