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| Dr. Del Millers, Author ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE |
Dr.
Del Millers is the founder
of TheBestYouAcademy.com, EnergizedLifeAcademy.com, and author of eight books
on nutrition, fitness, and personal growth. His most recent book is ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE: ACTIVATE THE 7 PILLARS OF POSITIVE ENERGY THAT MAKE YOU FEEL ALIVE.
Reviewers applaud his book as “inspirational,” “motivational,” “smart,” and “scientific.”
Millers
typically writes a book every other year and is mulling over his next one.
However, a key goal is to take the plunge and write some fiction. When he’s not
writing or consulting, he enjoys spending time with his family, and he is
learning to play the piano and the guitar so he can teach his three daughters.
He plays tennis regularly and is a Latin Ballroom dancer.
Q: Who can
benefit the most from the advice in ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE: ACTIVATE THE 7 PILLARS OF POSITIVE ENERGY THAT MAKE YOU FEEL ALIVE? Are you targeting
entrepreneurs, working parents, scientists, celebrities….? Does your advice
apply to all equally?
Del Millers: I've consulted with hundreds of
people over the past twenty years (doctors, lawyers, accountants, business
owners and executives) who are at the verge of burnout. I've met thousands more at my seminars
that often tell me that they just can't continue with their current fast-pace lifestyle
because it's literally killing them.
These
were the conversations that inspired me to write ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE. I
wanted to help people find a solution to their personal energy crisis and show
them a new way to live and work.
To
Energize Your Life simply means to fall
in love with your life again.
To find ways to get rid of
what I call the "energy
suckers" that drain your energy everyday. And to prevent burnout by doing meaningful things with your time.
ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE is primarily for people at a personal crossroads in their
life. This could be professionals,
working parents, entrepreneurs, or even unskilled workers. The important thing is that they
realize that the way they've been living and working is no longer working for
them. Something is missing. And they're tired and ready to make a
change.
Q: How and why did you categorize
positive energy into 7 (seven) different pillars? Did
you conduct research to see what would work? Or did it come mostly from your
own experiences?
Del Millers: The seven
pillars of positive energy are the various sources from which our energy
needs can be met. Keep in mind that energy isn’t just a physical entity. We
also draw energy from our emotions, clarity of thought, as well as the
meaningful and fulfilling events in our lives.
For instance, to feel alive, not only do we
have to practice daily health-building habits, we must also clarify and understand
why we do the things we do — both at work and in our personal lives – cultivate
positive emotions, and make time for play.
Are
there other sources of positive energy that I don't know about? There certainly
could be. The seven I presented in
ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE (passion and purpose, personal evolution, physical
vitality, positive energy, positive
psychology, prosocial behavior,
and play) are based on the
wealth of new research over the past two decades on positive psychology, employee
engagement and play, as well as my years of experience consulting with executives,
entrepreneurs, small business owners, career changers and self re-inventors.
Q:
You started your career as an Electrical Engineer and
Pharmaceutical Sales Rep. What turned you, or inspired you,
to write self-help books and do consulting?
Del Millers: Like most people, engineering was something I fell into
because I was good at math and science in high school. However, I quickly realized that
sitting in a cubicle everyday wasn't what I wanted to do with my life. So, I tried technical sales then
pharmaceutical sales.
After four years in corporate America,
however, I made the discovery that I am not the employee type. So, I hung up my
suit and tie and bid farewell to corporate America to pursue the uncertain life
of an entrepreneur. And I've
always been interested in living the kind of life that inspires me. So writing about it and consulting with
others is just a natural byproduct of sharing what I know so that others may
grow.
Q: Reviewers of ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE
applaud you for the book as “motivational” and say you “know your stuff.” What
qualifies and enables you to advise readers on how to ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE?
Del Millers: Twenty years
ago, I walked away from corporate America because it was sucking the life out
of me. I needed room to breathe. To explore. To create an inspired life.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that you
have to quit your job, as I did.
However, you do have to be honest with yourself and either find ways to love
what you do or make a plan to leave it behind. In short, to live an energized
life, you either have to learn to love your job or leave it.
I chose to leave
my corporate job because I wanted to create a life I could fall in love with – an
energized life; and I did. So I’ve been a
student and seeker of this way of living practically my entire life.
And as I wrote in the book, to live an energized life is to live
a life that inspires you and those
whose path is brightened by your light.
And I’m honored and humbled that throughout
my life I have had the pleasure and privilege of inspiring others all over the
world to live better lives. Inspired lives.
Q: What do you discover to be
people’s biggest blockade to energizing (living an energized life)? Is it
different between men and women?
Del Millers: The biggest challenge that most
people (men and women) have is that most of us have been conditioned at a very
young age to be "workers," instead of "players."
We're
taught to do well in school so we can go to college, get a "good job"
with benefits and then spend the best 30-40 years of our lives climbing the
career ladder. Not that there's
anything wrong with that if that's all you want.
The
problem is most workers are restricted to a limited version of themselves in
the workplace and that's not who we are as creative, intelligent beings. Human beings are multi-dimensional, so
pretty soon our one-dimensional work life conflicts with our need to grow,
explore, and to live inspired with purpose, passion and play.
Players,
on the other hand, put creativity, fulfillment and fun at the center of
everything we do. We're not afraid
to explore our multiple selves. We
are entrepreneurs, artists, writers, bloggers, songwriters, musicians,
filmmakers, and inventers, all at the same time. In short, players are creators. We create our lives around what feels most rewarding,
exciting, enjoyable, challenging and fulfilling.
Q: How helpful is humor to convey
your messages to readers?
Del Millers: Humor is a great vehicle for
communicating important ideas.
However, it isn't the only one.
Sometimes, just showing people what's possible is all it takes to create
a chain reaction to begin the process of change.
I
still remember my big "aha moment" very clearly. Twenty-five years ago I walked into my
friends karate studio dressed in my work suit and tie. He, on the other hand, was wearing shorts
and a t-shirt and I remember thinking to myself, I want his life. Well, a year later, I had it.
Q: Can you provide three to five tips
that will lead us to energize (help to energize our lives)?
Del Millers: The following are some of the most
important lessons from ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE:
1. Learn to love your
work (or at least like it) or create a plan to move on.
Is
your job a way to support yourself while you pursue your true passion? Is it a way to hone your skills? Whatever purpose your work serves in
your life, find some element of it that you love and try and do more of
that. If you simply just hate the
work that you're doing, then it's time to start creating your exit
strategy. For most people, their
work is the biggest "energy sucker" in their lives.
2. Steal a few
"play moments" each day.
Play is an
integral source of energy. To neglect it is to
neglect one of our most fundamental needs as a human being. Play is all
around us, but is generally only noticed by the playful at heart. You stand in
a line at the supermarket, post office, bank, or airport. Why not use this as
an opportunity to increase your play quota for the day. You don't have to be a comedian. All you have to do to steal a few play
moments each day is to adapt a playful attitude.
3. Passion leads
to Life Purpose
If
you're sitting around expecting to find meaning in your life, you won't. You have to get out into the world in
pursuit of your passions and test reality. And through trial and error you will come to know the things
that feel most right to you.
While
in the pursuit of your passions you will eventually arrive at what feels most
meaningful and fulfilling to you.
Without passion and play you will end up as a mere fragment of yourself,
living a life of boredom and regret.
4. Focus on what's going right in your life
The way we think about our health, stress,
life’s daily setbacks, or a momentous defeat affects us more significantly than
the events themselves. And
research has shown that although our brain controls our biochemistry, our
thoughts control the brain. The
research also shows that negative thoughts affect our brain in such a way that
produces negative emotions. And
unfortunately, negative emotions will prevent our brain from seeing all
possible options. They narrow our
thinking and prevent us from seeing all possible options.
Positive thoughts, however, have the opposite
affect on your brain. They lead to
positive emotions. And positive
emotions expand awareness, build trust, and lead to more creative connections
and positive outcomes, such as better negotiations.
5. Be optimistic when you have every reason to be pessimistic
It’s easy to have positive energy when things
are going right and everything is unfolding as they should. But the time when
you need positive energy the most is when your world is filled with negativity,
when everything that can go wrong is going wrong, and when you’re surrounded by
negative people and negative results.
This is when you really need to dig down deep
and find the source of your inspiration and reconnect with your larger vision.
If you don’t, you’ll be buried alive in the pit of despair alongside all the
other negative people who pulled you in.
Q: Have you written other
self-help books? On what other subjects do you offer help?
Del Millers: ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE is my eighth book. My very first book was FITNESS & SPIRITUALITY:
HOW TO MAKE THE CONNECTIOM. I've also written several fitness books as well as
cookbooks.
Q: What’s next? Will you write more
self-help books?
Del Millers: I will definitely be writing more self-help books. I tend to write a new book about every
other year. And, yes, I already
have several ideas for my next book project. My ultimate dream, however, is to do something that scares
the living daylights out of me and that is to one day write a novel.
Q: Tell us something about Del
Millers. What do you like to do when you’re not energizing or writing?
Del Millers: I always encourage others to find something that they love
to do and do it often, because play leads to joy and joy is the fuel for
love. So, I try to take my own
advice. I exercise everyday, I
love to play tennis 3-4 times a week, and I am a Latin Ballroom dancer.
I am
also currently learning to play the piano along with my three young daughters
and I'm teaching myself the guitar so I can teach it to them. My all time favorite activity, however,
is just rolling around on the floor or on the grass in the park with my girls
tickling each other.
About Del
Millers
Del
Millers (aka Dr. Del) started his career as an Electrical Engineer and
Pharmaceutical
Sales Rep for some of the top Fortune 500 companies in corporate
America.
After four years in corporate America, however, he made the discovery that he
is not the employee type. So he hung up his suit and tie and bid farewell to
corporate America to pursue the uncertain life of an entrepreneur.
Dr.
Del has since authored eight books on nutrition, fitness, and personal
growth. His most recent is
Energize Your Life. Through his
online training courses —The Best You Academy and Energized Life Academy —Dr.
Del has consulted with clients on four continents and in six different
countries on how to fuel their lives and work with positive energy, and find
freedom, fulfillment, and fun.
Dr.
Del has a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and a Masters degree in psychology. He
lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and three daughters.
About ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE
'activate
the 7 pillars of positive energy that make you feel alive'
To Energize Your Life is to fuel your life
and work with purpose, passion and play.
This book on how to get the most out of life strives to
teach you the techniques required to fall in love with your life once again and
help you to:
Get rid of 'energy suckers'
Learn to use simple positive strategies to prevent burnout
Spend
more time doing what you truly love
ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE will provide new meaning or purpose to your
life, through the things that you do every single day, by the way you relate to
the world and through your interactions with others around you.
Take time to
do meaningful things every day, create a community around yourself and find
something you love to do. And if
and when that thing no longer makes your heart sing, move on to the next thing.
ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE shows you the simple positive strategies you
can employ to successfully create fulfilling work, prevent burnout, cultivate
positive emotions, enrich your relationships, become a conduit for positive
energy, and, most importantly, make time for joy.
Excerpt
Passion leads
to purpose
It’s
pointless asking yourself what is the purpose of your life if you’re sitting in
some dead-end job. You have to get
out into the world and test reality.
You have to experience life through the pursuit of your passions in
order to arrive at what feels most meaningful and fulfilling to you.
Instead
of asking “what is my purpose?”…a better way of phrasing the question is “how
am I allowing life to find its fullest expression through me?” Another good
question to ask is “what is my big vision for my life?”
These
are queries that can only be actualized through a life of passion and
meaning. Anything less and you end
up being a fragment of yourself, living a life of boredom and regret.
And
as you already know, boredom won’t
energize you, neither will regret. You have to regularly engage in
activities that make you feel alive.
You
must also find meaning in your work or
create a plan to move on.
Going to a job everyday that doesn’t inspire you does more than drain
your vital life energy; it robs you of your humanity because, as surely as a
bird instinctively knows how to fly, you were meant to aspire for
greatness. Greatness is in your DNA.
You must claim
your magnificence, proclaim your freedom, and start living your passions. This is how you give your life meaning.
It is the only path that leads to a truly energized life.
Your Life’s
Purpose
We
exist on this earth for a very short time and the purpose of our lives is “to
live.” I don’t mean to simply exist.
Getting
up in the morning and going to a job you hate, then coming home and watching
television until you fall asleep, only to get up and repeat, isn’t living;
that’s existing.
“To
live” is a verb. This means that
you have to take some conscious action in order to have an experience of life.
But,
how do we experience life?
Well,
we experience life through our senses:
smell, touch, taste, sight and sound.
Of course, we may also experience life on a deeper metaphysical level,
but that’s a topic for another day.
Therefore,
to experience life, we have to get up off our butts and go smell the flowers,
taste some good food, do something we don’t know how to do, marvel at the
beauty around us, and learn how to listen to the stillness of motion.
Our
lives are nothing more than the accumulation of our experiences. Some will be memorable and others
won’t.
Those
memorable experiences are what give our lives meaning. They bring us happiness
and joy. They touch the lives of
others and in doing so, make a difference in the world.
Those
experiences that are less memorable serve simply as a way to kill time.
So,
a better question to ask than “What is my life’s purpose?” is “What can I do with my time today that is
meaningful — in some way — to me
or others?”
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Twitter @drdelmillers
