Living & Working at Optimal Energy Levels

The Big Secret to Living and Working at Optimal Energy Levels by John Allen Mollenhauer
I am an entrepreneur. I own a small business, and we provide PROfessional training, coaching, and services in human performance. Why? Because it’s us, the business pros who suffer most from the hidden lifestyle challenges that can distract and hold us back from fulfilling our potential. It’s us who are not sleeping well or enough, who are overstimulated and under recuperated, over fed and under nourished, super busy and physically inactive, and dealing with fatigue, weight and health issues that become chronic over time. 

The primary reason I got into this field, after years as a fitness and tech entrepreneur, is that I too was negatively affected by tiredness and fatigue, despite being an expert in fitness and nutrition!  That experience not only had an impact on other aspects of my lifestyle, it affected various areas of my life, including my level of success and I wanted to do something about it.

Like you, I'm a driven achiever type, but at some point, down deep I felt a calling to become what I now refer to as a "New Type A”—someone who can achieve even their most ambitious goals while living in balance with vibrant health and peace of mind.  I no longer wanted to feel so challenged living a relentlessly busy life with a mindset that said, "go big or go home;" and, have so much dependent on me all the time. I simply wanted to have more space and time to take care of myself, my body, and my life at the level I needed while engaging and serving others.

That said, one thing was apparent, like so many other business pros, I didn't have the mindset or skillset to accomplish that seemingly audacious outcome. And I could see clearly, there was way more to lifestyle than eating healthy and exercising.

And so, I made it my mission to unlock the full potential of lifestyle to help business professionals, change, improve and optimize the way they live for more energy, health, and ultimately the high performance we business professionals depend on.

Enter the Big Secret.

"Lifestyle' is a big subject, but for the people who make things happen, we need to be competent in all aspects of human performance and lifestyle if we are going to achieve our goals and not burnout or trade our health for our success.  Holding that intention, has helped me give rise to a new lifestyle over the past 25 years, fittingly called the "Performance Lifestyle.” It’s a lifestyle that fully supports you and what you are up to in the world, not one or the other.  But there’s a secret that makes it all possible; one common thread influencing every aspect of the way you live.

It’s energy.

Energy is the one thing every one of us consults, consciously or unconsciously, every time we are about to make decisions to do just about anything. And if you want to be fully engaged and make consistently proactive and smart decisions— you have to get proactive about personal energy renewal.  George S. Patton, famously said, “fatigue makes cowards of us all.” And he was 100% right.  

Do I have the energy for this?

Unfortunately, in today's relentlessly busy performance culture, too often, the answer to that question is "not really," or "no" and getting through the day is an act of conscious will, coffee, extreme work ethic to stay stimulated, and a silent prayer for "second winds."  That the national average on sleep is 6.5 hours after what is for many 8-12 hours of work each day, on top of life, is a dead giveaway to that inevitable reality. And while there are a few who do, most people do not wake up with a vital energy level that is anywhere close to optimal or where it could be if personal energy renewal were a priority; or, they knew what you need to know beyond sleep alone.

If you have followed any of my past articles on the Chamber Blog or are reading any of the performance articles on the chambers' new health and wellness blog, "Thrive Morris," you know I talk about energy a lot.  The reason is simple; personal energy is a more significant determinant of one’s performance capacity than personal or professional development.

Don't get me wrong, development is an essential aspect of human performance, but consider how well you perform and how productive you are when your personal energy is low.  Hustle and drive require high levels of energy production.
​
So, What Do You Do To Increase Personal Energy? Surely, Harvard should have the answer, right?

Even though they do talk great science about mitochondria (our cells energy generators), if you are not a student of biology, this is what you will learn. And most (not all) of these are just useful "directives”; general advice will do little to increase your energy and, in some cases, work entirely against you. Ask me why when we speak.

For now, let me call it what it is, "energy marketing," and a parroting of what are often general statements about energy, that yes, even Harvard is lagging way behind on in terms of understanding.
In particular, understanding ones trailing sleep or energy debt which is often written off as a lack of motivation or "depression[i],"  when more times than not, it's fatigue.  To my fellow business professionals, energy is not a fluffy subject anymore. It's not driven merely from-the-neck-up through psychology, about mere deciding to take more action, or about willing your way through life as so many people do and then getting as much sleep as you can.  Your typical article on “The 5 Tips To Sleep Better,” will be useful, but will almost always fall way short of the insights that fulfill the promise.

This Is The Big Secret To Living And Working At Optimal Energy Levels.  

If you want to increase your energy, you’ve got to master how to source, produce, and manage your energy at the core of your lifestyle.  If there's anything you want to learn how to do "like a pro" in 2020 and beyond, it's how to proactively source, produce, and manage your energy, which, does not include mastering the menu at Starbucks.

Learning how to manage your energy will improve the way you live, including how you work, for performance, productivity and quality of life MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE.  If you want to learn more read this page.  If you want to break the pattern of low energy, brain fog and fatigue, and accelerate your recovery to look, feel and perform better, understand this. There is likely nothing wrong with you, so join me for the course I've created called PERC—the Personal Energy Renewal Course.  Expect a significant performance boost when you “PERC up” and put into play what will help you get smart about personal energy, especially when you are proactive.  It will change your life, your career, or business for the better.

John Allen Mollenhauer “JAM” is a Professional Coach and founder of Performance Lifestyle Inc®—a leading-edge training and coaching practice that helps Entrepreneurs and small business owners achieve more through a healthy-driven lifestyle.  He also works with clients at RegenUs Center in Florham Park, NJ, a company he founded to treat, pain and fatigue, help clients recharge, restore and optimize the way they live.  You can contact JAM here.

[i] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4318605/