Pattern of Renewal

In June 2012, my colleague, Mark Murphy, and I wrote a 5-week series introducing our readers to our newest content, The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity.  You can follow this link to read all 5 archived posts.

Today, Mark is going to give you a little more insight to Choice 5, Fuel Your Fire, Don’t Burn Out.  If you are planning to attend Dallas ASTD’s 2012 Southwest Learning Summit on August 14^th, consider joining us for Mark’s breakout session on Productivity.  He is going to expand on this topic in more depth.

Want to register for this event?  Contact me for a discount code for our clients and readers.

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The Premise: We all have the potential to do extraordinary things.

The Paradox:  In today’s world it’s both easier and harder than ever to achieve extraordinary productivity.

The very same technology that makes us more productive can also destroy our productivity.  There are three main reasons.

1)      The sheer number of decisions we have to make on a daily basis.

2)      Our attention is under attack.  We get interrupted every few seconds.

3)      We live in a perpetual crises of energy.  

The Promise: There are 5 choices that, when consistently made, ensure that you will achieve extraordinary productivity in your work and your life.

Choice 5 - Fuel Your Fire, Don’t Burn Out, addresses that last of the three reasons for lost productivity. 

What do people with this paradigm do differently?  They eat, sleep , relax, and connect with other people.   Of course we all do these things, but people with this paradigm do them differently. 

Watch the following video and see if you can relate?

Mark Murphy, FranklinCovey Consultant               

Copyright © 2012 - Mark Murphy

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For more information, please join us at the ASTD SWLS event on August 14^th or make an appointment using our calendar on the top right side of this page.

Increasing renewal and productivity one person at a time,

John Vakidis

Fuel Your Fire

With Spring Break around the corner, I wanted to spend a little time talking about the power of renewal.  Some of you will be taking vacations filled with fun activities.  Some people will be diving into a new book (like Smart Trust or The 3^rd Alternative) and others will simply be finding time to simply relax.

In FranklinCovey’s newest offering, The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity, we learn that renewal has a major effect on worker productivity.  In Choice 5: Fuel Your Fire; Don’t Burn Out we spend time educating participants (based on the latest brain science) about the 5 key energy drivers:

In the program video titled, Energy Crisis, Leigh Stevens, Program Architect, explains the following, “Our quality of life is influenced dramatically by the amount of energy we have.  Energy influences not only what we can accomplish, but how much we enjoy what we do.  Yet, so many of us are worn down and worn out by the urgencies of life that we end up suffering from a personal energy crisis.”

Leigh further explains, “We have two basic sources of energy. The first is our sense of purpose. When we’re doing things that are important and meaningful to us, we’re filled with energy. We give our best and enjoy making the effort. …  The second source of energy is our physical and mental capacity. Even if we’re excited about the purposes in our lives, we might lack the energy in our bodies and our brains to enjoy them or even give them our best effort.”

While vacations are a great part of renewal, they are often few and far between,  Continual renewal is really what helps drive our daily productivity.  If you feel like your life is on autopilot, you probably aren’t really contributing your best self, day in and day out at work or event in your close relationships.

If you want to learn more about increasing productivity in your life, consider joining us for one of our special 5 Choices preview events in your area: Dallas on 4/17/12 or Oklahoma City on 5/09/12. 

For more information about transforming the productivity in your organization, contact me to set up an appointment with your Client Partner and a Consultant from our Global Productivity Practice.  You can request a meeting simply by filling out a request using our Online Appointment Book on this page (top right) or by sending me an email directly.

Wishing you a great week of renewal!

- John Vakidis