Relax…

No, not another column about being lazy! I’m back from the summer holiday now and moving on from extolling the virtues of laziness. What I’d like to offer this week is a little reflection on how difficult it can be to achieve business goals without being properly relaxed.

For me, sport and business are pretty well connected – indeed the very concept of coaching, now rightly so popular in the world of business, originated in the world of sport. So, I often draw parallels between business and my particular sport, which is running. Having started again to run later in life, I’ve benefitted greatly from expert advice when warming up for a large event. The bigger events where money is being raised for charity often have professionals on hand to help you warm up thoroughly. It is no coincidence that these are the events where the best times are always achieved.

With a professional to guide you, it’s easy to make sure your muscles are relaxed and supple enough to cope with the stresses and strains that are about to come the way of your ageing legs. I know this is a physical phenomenon and the stress in business is very often mental but the connection is very definitely real.

After all the brain is a muscle and that’s often where business problems start and finish – inside your head. Physical relaxation very often leads to mental relaxation and it’s a great place to start if you’re looking to improve your business and overall performance levels.

I also know from personal experience that physical relaxation aids focus and clarity of thought – the very tools you absolutely must have to help you cut through complex business issues. It stands to reason that relaxed people perform far better that tense ones but how often do we ignore that fact and plough on regardless?

Ignoring the need to relax can have disastrous effects far beyond a malfunction on the day. To continue the sporting metaphor, muscle damage can ruin a footballer’s season or even end his/her career so the effects can indeed be long-lasting. High stress levels can of course be damaging in a business context and very often the answer to the problem comes from within.

Of course, there are many ways to relax and I can clearly remember a situation that mattered for me. Having failed my driving test on more than one occasion, I was indebted to the instructor who finally got me over the hurdle. His secret of success was very simple – he relaxed me with humorous stories before the test and got me to put my nerves out of mind. Jokes and humour are obviously very light-hearted things but when used to good effect as on this occasion the results can be life-changing.

Don’t be afraid to relax – we all need to warm up like professional athletes, especially in a business world that often requires mental marathons of us!