| Denver Post Monday,
August 25, 2003
Also, York Dispatch, The State, The Star, The Adviser, Star
Tribune, Costa Contra Times.
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Energy addict spreads the power
By Kyle Wagner, Denver Post Staff Writer
I'm writing about energy, and I'm exhausted.
"Focus on your breathing, then," Jon Gordon advises, his voice sounding pretty gosh-darned energetic at the other end of the phone line.
This affable Florida restaurateur-turned-motivational speaker, who recently published a self-help guide called "Become an Energy Addict," talks fast and ladles out a big helping of insistence. He comes across like a radio announcer reading a commercial for a product that cures cancer and induces world peace, and by the way, it also comes in chocolate.
And by the time the phone conversation ends an hour later, it sounds as if Gordon thinks his product could do just that. That's why he wants everyone to have it.
"Energy is real," says Gordon, who will be in Denver today and Tuesday to spread some of the stuff. "When you shake someone's hand and feel their energy, or you go into a stadium and you can feel the energy in the air, you know that it's real. It's a living, breathing thing, and you can get it just like you can get something from the store."
The 32-year-old Gordon says all you have to do is plan to amass the right energy currency, which he calculates is equal to a hundred healthier ways of behaving and thinking - all of which he's conveniently labeled and arranged in "Become an Energy Addict."….
…."In trying to accomplish everything I want to do with my life, I realized that you can have the best time management in the world, but if you don't have the energy, it's not going to happen," Gordon says. "And you can't get a degree in energy, so I've been spending every spare moment reading and studying the information out there. By making a plan with that information, I actually save so much energy and have it to use when I need it."
Gordon wants to pass the savings on to you by sharing the lifestyle choices he made in order to accomplish it all. The message is that not only can you succeed, but you can do it while wide awake, without the assistance of a double latte….
…The site is also where the energy-depleted can fill out an Energy Audit to determine weak points; Gordon will personally diagnose these in a 10-minute phone call.
For every energy ill, Gordon proposes a fix as simple as "add the energy of play to your day" or "connect with nature."…
…Today and Tuesday, Gordon will be in a better space: He's walking around Denver as part of a multi- city tour to promote the book and spread a little energy. Instead of the usual book signing or seminar, he'll wander the 16th Street Mall and hit area shopping centers to hand out thousands of free cards he printed with his own money. The cards list 12 Tips to Energize Your Life, including Eat Breakfast (to avoid lagging later), Exercise (give energy to get energy) and Neutralize the Energy Vampires (those people who drain your already low supply).
The latter is one of my own Energy Audit issues. Gordon's remedy is appealing.
"
When you identify the people in your life who are sucking the life out of you, when you see those people, you need to run like hell," Gordon says…
…Gordon also gives free seminars to any nonprofit that requests one, an idea he came up with while running his own foundation, The Phoenix Organization, which raises money for youth-oriented charities in Atlanta, Gordon's home before he moved to Florida three years ago. Before that, the Long Island native, who has a bachelor's degree in government and economics from Cornell University and a master's in teaching from Emory University, ran for city council in Atlanta, owned the popular Atlanta bar Park Bench and started the Phoenix.
Now the PGA Tour, the Jacksonville Jaguars, State Farm Insurance and Cingular Wireless swear by him as their own personal power supply, posting testimonials attesting to his effectiveness.
"People used to laugh at the idea of life coaches, but now it's one of the fastest-growing occupations, and more and more people are taking advantage of them and finding help that way," Gordon says. "I think of myself as an energy coach."
He'll need some energy himself. By the end of this year, Gordon will have spiritually goosed 28 cities. And by the end of 2004, he plans to finish a memoir, tentatively titled "Spaghetti and Matzo Balls," chronicling his upbringing in a Jewish-Italian family. He and his partners also plan a series of Mama Fu's Noodle House franchises in Jacksonville.
Makes me tired just thinking about it.
STEP BY STEP
Fifteen simple changes that will energize your life, according to Jon Gordon:
1. Stop drinking sodas and start drinking water and sparkling water instead.
2. When you feel stressed take 10 deep breaths. Focus on your breathing.
3. Exercise at least 30 minutes a day. It's as easy as a walk around the block.
4. Drink green tea instead of coffee.
5. Sleep at least eight hours a night.
6. Stay away from hydrogenated oils. Read the ingredients on the back of products you buy in the supermarket. See www.Drweil.com for more information on healthful eating.
7. Surround yourself with positive and supportive people.
8. Do one thing special for yourself every day.
9. Eat fruits with your breakfast and eat vegetables with your lunch and dinner.
10. Say a prayer or affirmation before you go to bed and when you wake up.
11. Read one inspirational book a month.
12. Listen to your favorite song whenever you need a pick-me-up.
13. Eat breakfast. It will increase your energy and productivity at work.
14. Don't be too busy for lunch. Researchers agree that performance scores plunge when people miss lunch.
15. Take short breaks throughout the day. Get up from your chair and take a little walk. Stop looking at the computer screen. Stretch. Go get a cold drink of water. Short breaks help you refocus and re-energize.
Source: www.jongordon.com
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