At Your Best: How to Get Time, Energy, and Priorities Working in Your Favor

by Carey Nieuwhof

CHAPTER 1 IN A SNAP The typical formula for growth is as simple as it is stupid: more people equals more hours. Many people are overwhelmed, overcommitted, and overworked doing exactly what they thought they wanted to do with their lives. If you don’t declare a finish line to your work, your body will. You used to have to go to the office to work more. Now, thanks to your phone, the office goes to you. The most prosperous people who ever lived (which is everyone in the developed world in the twenty-first century) have made their lives about survival. Too many people build lives they want to escape from. If your busy season has no ending, it’s not a season—it’s your life. Workaholism is the most rewarded addiction in our society. Top performers do what they’re best at when they’re at their best—they work in their area of principal gifting and passion when their energy is at its highest. Everybody gets three primary assets every day: time, energy, and priorities. When you don’t have an intentional strategy, then time, energy, and priorities work against you, not for you. You can protect your time, prioritize your family, and still crush it at work. Constant stress denies many people permission to dream or to accomplish what they’re called to do.