" Without time for recovery, our lives become a blur of doing unbalanced by much opportunity for being"
Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz are CEO and presidents respectively of LGE Performance which they founded in 1993 and is responsible for running the Corporate Athletic training system.
Jim Loehr spent thousands of hours watching videos of professional tennis players in order to discover what separated the elite players from the rest. At first, he did not find anything, however on further observance, he noticed that top players generally had a much better way of relaxing after each set point in order to prepare for the next one.
This x-factor in success (in addition to talent) was termed as management of energy. For some of these top sports athletes it was focus, purpose and resilience - that is, control of physical and emotional energy that kept them there.
The natural pattern of action and recovery is called 'oscillation'. We often try to override this pattern by over doing things. Without a program of natural recovery in place, the body will come back at us through a long-term weakening of physical health and the body has no chance to rid itself of toxins, physical and mental stress.
In their book The Power of Full Engagement, Loehr and Schwartz compared the tennis greats John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors. When we think of McEnroe, we visualize his emotional outbursts at umpires and we may naturally assume that he was 'pumped up' and it was part of his success. But in fact in his autobiography McEnroe says that his outbursts were a handicap that wasted his energy and contributed to some landmark losses. Connors played for six years longer than his rival and remained successful. His greater emotional control meant that he also enjoyed himself.
People who are very clear on who they are and their mission tend to be bursting with energy, yet they are also aware of the need for times quite times and reflection to renew themselves.