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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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At Your Best summary
Carey Nieuwhof
How to Get Time, Energy, and Priorities Working in Your Favor
21 mins
Brief summary
'At Your Best' by Carey Nieuwhof is a guide to developing sustainable habits for success and wellbeing. It emphasizes the importance of consistency and self-awareness in achieving goals and offers practical advice for improving physical, mental and relational health.
Table of Contents
At Your Best
Summary of 6 key ideas
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Key idea 1 of 6
Thriving is when your time, energy, and priorities are in sync.
In 2006, things appeared to be going exceptionally well for the author Carey Nieuwhof. Only in his late thirties, his organization had grown bigger than anyone expected. He was happily married to his high-school sweetheart, and they had two healthy sons.
But inside, it was a different story. Nieuwhof describes the professional demands as almost unbearable, and it was taking a toll on his health and family life. He’d been sucked into a spiral of stress and began dreaming of abandoning everything for a hammock in Fiji.
There had to be another way. As Nieuwhof began to recover from burnout, he discovered three key assets to building a life he didn’t want to escape from.
The key message here is: Thriving is when your time, energy, and priorities are in sync.
In his quest to live at a pace he could sustain, he looked at what other top-performers did so well. What he found was that they didn’t only manage their time. They also had a strategy to leverage their energy and priorities, so that all three worked for rather than against them.
As soon as he brought these three key assets in sync, he not only recovered from professional burnout, but also found himself thriving physically, spiritually, and with his family.
The first key asset is focused time. One reason you never have enough of it is a failure to focus your time. You probably treat all hours equally, but they’re not. Your time gets eaten up by distractions and small tasks. The day gets away from you and you don’t get around to the important things.
While most people know they’re competing against time, few think about their energy, the second key asset. When you fail to leverage your personal energy levels, you end up squandering your most productive and valuable time, leaving you with little energy for the important tasks.
The third and final key asset is priorities. Your priorities can easily get hijacked when you allow others to determine what you get done each day, as they force you to focus on their priorities rather than your own. The key is learning to say no and feeling okay about it.
In these blinks, we’ll explore how to escape the stress spiral, and instead, live in its opposite – the thrive cycle – by aligning your time, energy, and priorities.
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What is At Your Best about?
At Your Best (2021) is a practical guide to moving beyond time management. Drawing on Carey Nieuwhof’s decades of leadership, it shows how to sync your time, energy, and priorities so that you can reach your goals, have more energy for what you love, and begin to thrive both at work and at home.
At Your Best Review
At Your Best (2022) by Carey Nieuwhof is a practical guide on overcoming the common obstacles that prevent us from living our best lives. Here's why this book is worth reading:
- Through real-life stories and relatable examples, it offers valuable insights and actionable strategies for personal growth and self-improvement.
- The book's emphasis on developing self-awareness and building healthy habits empowers readers to make positive changes in their lives and reach their full potential.
- With its pragmatic approach and accessible language, At Your Best manages to engage readers and keep them invested in their own personal development journey.
Who should read At Your Best?
- Busy people struggling with burnout
- Leaders looking for a reboot
- Anyone trying to reach their potential
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At Your Best FAQs
What is the main message of At Your Best?
The main message of At Your Best is achieving peak performance through intentional growth and healthy leadership habits.
How long does it take to read At Your Best?
The reading time for At Your Best varies depending on the reader's speed, but it typically takes several hours. However, the Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.
Is At Your Best a good book? Is it worth reading?
At Your Best is a valuable read for anyone striving for personal and professional excellence. It provides practical insights and actionable strategies for growth.
Who is the author of At Your Best?
The author of At Your Best is Carey Nieuwhof.
What to read after At Your Best?
If you're wondering what to read next after At Your Best, here are some recommendations we suggest:
- The Awakened Brain by Lisa Miller
- The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
- The Sweet Spot by Paul Bloom
- Do What Matters Most by Rob Shallenberger and Steve Shallenberger
- All In by Billie Jean King
- The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod
- Slow Productivity by Cal Newport
- Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
- Fast This Way by Dave Asprey
- A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson