"Relax Focus Succeed" is Born

"Relax Focus Succeed" is Born

- Lessons Learned, Episode 22

A few episodes back, I mentioned that I had been diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, which greatly affected my ability to work. I started my Relax Focus Succeed newsletter in 2002 (You should subscribe at https://www.relaxfocussucceed.com).

Later that year, I started the RFS blog. My first first blog post laid out my basic philosophy and plan. I didn't realize it at the time, but that blog post was eventually to become the first draft of my book Relax Focus Succeed, first published in 2007!

While living with and coping with my chronic disease, I discovered one of the most valuable habits I've ever developed: Taking time in the morning to be quiet, quiet my mind, take stock of how I'm doing, consider the day ahead, and then: Read and Write.

Part of this routine was directly related to the disease and to pain management. Meditation and mindfulness had led me to start meditating. And in the early years of the disease, I was too stiff and sore for the first hour or two after waking to do very much physical activity. So I sat in a chair and read and wrote.

Eventually, that regular practice became introspective. As my business improved and grew, despite my short work days, I realized that I was achieving more than many people while working a lot less. I was adding clients and "computers under management" at a steady and sustainable pace. 

I was doing in thirty hours per week what most people were not achieving in fifty hours per week.

"Had To" Was Not The Answer

They say necessity is the mother of invention. And you might be tempted to say that I was simply doing what had to be done. But my experience tells me that sincerely desiring something at the highest level, combined with no change in behavior, results in . . . you guessed it . . . no change in results.

I also have a collection of college degrees in the behavioral sciences, so I am a firm believer that actions and behavior are directly related to results and outcomes. Something in what I was doing, including working a shorter schedule, was creating a great deal of success.

I added self-examination journaling to my routine, which eventually led to my personal formula for accomplishing two things at once: Balancing my work and life, and being more successful as a result.

Let me be clear: I didn't set out to create more work/life balance. That just happened as a result of my behavior. It took me a long time to connect all the dots and figure out which way the causal arrows pointed. 

Obviously, the disease was not causing success. But the disease led to specific behaviors, and the behaviors caused BOTH the work/life balance and the success in my business.

So, my RFS blogging and newsletter are a result of me working through the pieces of this puzzle. Over time, the RFS newsletter grew to have a mailing list almost as large as (and sometimes larger than) my technology newsletter. After a few years of synthesizing my thinking on all this, I started writing the book Relax Focus Succeed.

I thought that would be my first book, but it turned out to be my third. But that's a story for another day.

If there's a lesson here, it's that you should take time to seriously examine your life and work. They are directly related. And no matter how you might want to believe they're not connected, they absolutely are. Both are worth examining in detail. 

Do you have a philosophy of how your personal and professional lives are connected to each other and affect each other. If not, today's a good day to start. I humbly recommend my Relax Focus Succeed blog as a place to start.

All comments welcome.

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Episode 22

This Episode is part of the ongoing Lessons Learned series. For all the information, and an index of Lessons Learned episodes, go to the Lessons Learned Page. https://blog.smallbizthoughts.com/p/lessons-learned-blog-series.html

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