Relax Your Way to Success

 
One key characteristic of successful
people is that they are relaxed and
confident. I've often noticed this.

I think this is especially true of
actors, singers, and other people in
the performing arts.

If you are a performing artist, tension
can be deadly.

Relaxation seems to apply to everything
else as well. A relaxed person is much
more apt to tap their creative resources
and can therefore find success in a more
natural way.

I've noticed something. I notice that
I'm generally highly competent at something
when I'm totally relaxed doing it.

Getting to that place where I feel competent
can sometimes be accompanied by tension.

Perhaps a shortcut to competence is to be
relaxed before you need to be. In other
words, why not start out relaxed?

Why not be relaxed, even though you are
learning something new?

Relaxation gets you there faster.

You remember better. You think better.
You act better. You feel better. You
do all of these things better when relaxed.

Of course, tension can have its place
too. Stage performers often say that
a little bit of stage fright is a good
thing. Why? Because it motivates them
to give a great performance.

So, relaxation can be somewhat of a paradox.

Taking steps to relax yourself can be very
helpful. Yet, you would never want to be
so relaxed that you didn't care.

Successful people seem to manage these kinds
of contradictions very well. They know how
to relax deeply and care deeply, both at the
same time.

There's a type of surrender that takes place
when you relax. You are relaxing yourself by
surrendering yourself to something greater than
yourself.

One of the great sensations of being in a stage
production is the sensation that you are participating
in something that is greater than your little self.

Your big self is overriding your little self. That
is to say, you are surrendering something little to
gain something big.

When I need to relax more, I sing HU. Singing
HU is a spiritual practice that brings better
attunement with God.

Anything that attunes you better with God, will relax
you.

Here's instruction on how to sing HU:

How to Sing HU

There are many many ways to attune yourself to God.

One way is through natural distractions. Taking a walk
out in nature gives you lots of things to see and hear
that will slow you down and relax you.

Natural distractions have a built-in rhythm. Attune
yourself to this rhythm and you start to relax.

For example, slowing down and taking care of a pet
can relax you.

The sun, the sky, great bodies of water, living things
--- all these things are natural distractions. All are
relaxing.

Another way to relax is to do something nice for someone
else. This is something my mother taught me. Doing
something nice for someone almost always relaxes me.

However, when I'm really in a bind, I sing HU. Singing HU
seems to work when nothing else will work.

For example, I sang HU just prior to emergency surgery
to save my life. It totally relaxed me.

Not every situation is an emergency. I'll also sing HU
when I don't need to.

In general, I try to keep a relaxed attitude as I go
through my day. This keeps me from spending my energy
on things that are not worth spending energy on; for
example, worrying about something I can do nothing about.

Just remembering to relax can be helpful.

Sometimes, that's all it takes. Sometimes, all I need to
do to relax is to remember to relax.

In other words, relaxation is an acquired taste. You can
learn to relax just as you can learn to do lots of things.

Well, I'm kind of relaxed now. Writing relaxes me too.

Writing is a creative outlet. Creative outlets tend to
be relaxing.

Ed Abbott

The Determination to Succeed

 
Nothing succeeds like determination.
So goes the old cliche.

It's true. The determination to succeed
is often the determining factor in your
success.

I recall reading a book by Akio Morita,
a co-founder of Sony Corporation and
later, Sony's chairman.

He was writing about Sony as it was in the
late 1940s. World War II was over and he
and his partners were building their company
on top of the rubble of war.

They wanted to get into the business of selling
recording equipment. In particular, they were
interested in tape recorders and audio tape.

They had no equipment to manufacture audio tape.

Rather than let this stop them, they hand-painted
the magnetic material on to the tape backing.

I couldn't believe it when I read this!

Imagine sitting there hunched over strips of tape
using little paint brushes to paint the magnetic
surface on to the tape. It would take days and
days!

Most people would have said, "Impossible! I give
up!"

They were determined to succeed.

As I recall, he wrote that he could not believe
it either! He could not believe that they had
actually done that.

He sat there writing about things that he could
just barely believe had actually happened.

Not everything Sony did in the early days was a
success.

I remember the book had a picture of a rice cooker
the company had developed around that time. The
caption to the picture said the rice cooker never
worked quite right.

One more story.

While in college, I had a teacher who served in the
U.S. Military immediately after World War II. He
was stationed in Japan.

At that time, the local Japanese were collecting
beer cans from the G.I.s and cutting them up and
turning them into cigarette lighters that were then
sold back to the G.I.s.

Even though the cigarette lighters, fashioned from
beer can parts, were very clever, the G.I.s viewed
these home-made gadgets as a joke.

They were a joke that worked. The lighters lit
cigarettes.

My teacher, speaking from the perspective of the
1980's, said they never thought back then that those
cigarette lighters would one day turn into television
sets and automobiles.

See what happens when you are determined? You start
with whatever circumstances you find yourself in and
you build and build and build.

Life starts where you are.

The determination to succeed pretty much guarantees
that where you start out will not be where you end
up.

Ed Abbott

Getting Better Each Day Is Good For Your Morale

 
OK. I'm working on the following
article for my website:

How to Succeed

The basic premise? Getting better
at something each and every day is
good for your morale.

Why? Because if you get better at
something every day, eventually you
get there.

Build just a little bit of skill each
day and one day, you become very good
at what you do.

It's one reason I like blogging. You
don't have to build your blog all at once.

You can build it a little bit at a time, one
step at a time.

Ed Abbott