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creating sustainable results in growth and performance

Summary of the Solutions Training System

1. Objective: Perform in the storm.

Build the necessary capacity to sustain Solutions in the face of increasing demand.

2. Central conclusion: Energy is the fundamental currency of Solutions.

	Capacity is a function of one's ability to expend and recover energy.
	Every thought, feeling and action has an energy conse­quence.
	Energy is the most important individual and organizational resource.

3. Full engagement: Optimal energy in the context of high perfor­mance.

	Physically energized
	Emotionally connected
	Mentally focused
	Spiritually aligned

4. Full engagement is a consequence of the skillful management of energy in all dimensions.

5. Full engagement principles:

	Managing energy, not time, is the key to Solutions.
	Full engagement requires drawing on four separate but related dimensions of energy: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
	Because energy capacity diminishes with both overuse and underuse, we must learn to balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal.
	To build capacity, we must push beyond our normal limits, training in the same systematic way that elite athletes do.
	Positive energy rituals-highly specific routines for managing energy-are the key to full engagement and sustained Solutions.

6. Full engagement requires drawing on four separate but related sources of energy:

	Physical capacity is reflected in one's ability to expend and recover energy at the physical level.
	Emotional capacity is reflected in one's ability to expend and recover energy at the emotional level.
	Mental capacity is reflected in one's ability to expend and re­cover energy at the mental level.
	Spiritual capacity is reflected in one's ability to expend and recover energy at the spiritual level.
	The most fundamental source of energy is physical. The most significant is spiritual.

7. Four sources of energy:

	Physical capacity is defined by quantity of energy.
	Emotional capacity is defined by quality of energy.
	Mental capacity is defined by focus of energy.
	Spiritual capacity is defined by force of energy.

8. Measuring energy:

	The quantity of available energy is measured in terms of volume (low to high).
	The quality of available energy is measured in terms of unpleasant (negative) to pleasant (positive).
	The focus of available energy is measured in terms of broad to narrow and external to internal.
	The force of available energy is measured in terms of self to others, external to internal and negative to positive.

9. Optimal performance requires:

	Greatest quantity of energy
	Highest quality of energy
	Clearest focus of energy
	Maximum force of energy

10. Barriers to full engagement: Negative habits that block, distort, waste, diminish, deplete and contaminate stored energy.

11. The Full-Engagement Training System: Removes barriers by establishing strategic positive energy rituals that insure sufficient capacity in all dimensions.

12. Positive energy rituals support effective energy management.

Skillful energy management requires summoning the appropriate quantity, quality, direction, and force of energy.

13. Lifelong energy objective: To burn as brightly as possible for as long as possible in the service of what really matters.

	Strongest possible physical pulse.
	Strangest possible emotional pulse.
	Strongest possible mental pulse.
	Strongest possible spiritual pulse.

14. Chronological age is fixed. Biological age can be modified with training.

Biological age (reflected in performance capacity) is determined by one's ability to effectively expend and recover energy.

15. Full engagement requires periodic strategic recovery.

The energy that serves full engagement is renewed and stored during periods of strategic recovery (disengagement).

16. The rhythmic movement between energy expenditure and energy recovery is called oscillation.

Oscillation refers to the optimal cycle of work/rest intervals.

Chronic stress without recovery and chronic recovery without stress both serve to reduce capacity.

In sport, these conditions are referred to as overtraining and undertraining.

17. The opposite of oscillation is linearity.

Linearity is excessive stress without recovery or excessive recovery with insufficient stress.

High-pressure situations generate powerful forces of linearity.

18. Sustained Solutions is best served by assuming the mentality of a sprinter not a marathoner.

Over the span of a thirty- to forty-year career, performance is optimized by scheduling work into 90- to 120-minute periods of intensive effort followed by shorter periods of recovery and renewal.

19. Most of us are undertrained physically and spiritually (not enough stress) and overtrained mentally and emotionally (not enough recovery).

20. Interval (cyclical) exercise is far superior to steady-state (noncyclical) exercise in terms of enhancing energy-management skills.

21. Energy in the human system is multidimensional.

A dynamic relationship exists between physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy.

Changes in any one dimension of energy affect all dimensions.

22. Energy capacities follow developmental lines.

First level of development is physical.

Second level of development is emotional/social.

Third level of development is cognitive/mental.

Fourth level of development is moral/spiritual.

23. Each of the four dimensions follows its own developmental stages: (E.g., emotional development, cognitive development, moral development.)

24. The Full Engagement training system begins spiritually with a connection to purpose and vision.

25. High positive energy is the fuel for Solutions.

High positive energy flows from the perception of opportunity, adventure and challenge (approach). Negative energy is precipated by the perception of threat, danger and fears about survival (avoidance).

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