Fully Engaged: Using the Practicing Mind in Daily Life

To be fully engaged in life means that we have clear goals, and we have the focus and skills to accomplish those goals with ease and a sense of calm awareness. In his first book, The Practicing Mind, which remains a bestseller in its category, Tom Sterner set out clear guidelines for developing focus and discipline to achieve any life goals. That book taught readers that they could not only master any skill or challenge but that they could learn to love the process. As Tom traveled and spoke about the book, he kept track of the sorts of questions readers of the book and participants at his seminars asked, and the answers to those questions, or more accurately, the exploration of those questions, became the basis of Fully Engaged. This new book explores specific techniques, such thought awareness training and setting goals with accurate data, and demonstrates how using these techniques will not only help you reach your goals, but will keep you engaged in each moment of your life and the process of reaching those goals. Being thus engaged will result in less stress and more satisfaction in every aspect of life.

Whether it be getting through a job interview, dealing with a difficult person, struggling with illness, or learning a golf swing, these truths apply to all of them and they bring peace and contentment into this moment as well as amazingly increased productivity. We may understand the steps to reach a goal, but until we see how to accomplish those steps with the least amount of effort and without a sense of struggle, we’ll avoid taking them. In order to fully engage in those steps, we must cultivate two aspects of our personalities, the “observer” and the “creative” personas, which will allow us to detach for a moment to better evaluate what is needed in each moment to work toward our potential. Tom teaches that a daily practice of meditation and thought awareness training develops this ability within us to be more aware of what our mind is doing and which strengthens our ability to use our mind’s energy to serve us in ways that we can’t even imagine. He calls this process “present moment functioning,” and with stories and clear guidance, he demonstrates how we can all use its power to focus, perform any task better, experience our personal power, and find the inner peace that results from calming the drama and remaining in the moment.