By Anthony Hilb

I noticed I was stressed when putting in long work days, so I decided to research relaxation techniques. I considered myself a Type-A kind of person when it came to work, and I noticed I wasn’t completely happy with the results. Feeling drained the majority of the time isn’t the goal of owning a business for me.

The Type-Z Guide to Success by Marc Allen has been a tremendous resource. Here are a couple of passages from the book I’ve enjoyed:

“I started to see – and then to believe – that not only was it possible to create success in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, but that it’s the very best way to do it. All our stress doesn’t help us one bit; in fact it works against us. The more we relax, the more effectively we do any kind of task.” -Marc Allen

In an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way….

“Many people in our culture don’t believe that it’s even possible to succeed and still have a life of ease. Or they believe they need to work really hard, maybe even be Type-A workaholics, before they can succeed – and then they can relax and have a life of ease.

Many people even equate success with stress: There’s a deep core belief that success has to be stressful, that’s just the way it is, you have to be a Type-A to succeed. I absolutely disagree with this belief (and I’m not the only one!). There are many people who believe exactly the opposite: The more relaxed you are, the more at ease, the more you can and will succeed.

You make better decisions when you’ve considered everything in a relaxed state. (Everyone knows the value of “sleeping on” something – what can be perplexing in the afternoon is so often simple and clear the next morning.) The decisions we make in stressful states so often lead to more stress; it’s the plans we make and ideas we have when we’re relaxed that can take our success to a much higher level.” -Marc Allen