Mr. S. was the account executive of a big advertising agency. His dayconsisted largely of a series of conferences, all of whichboth he and the agency considered at least as important asa convocation of the United Nations. At night there was aclient to entertain or a client’s radio or television showto listen to and worry over. By the time Mr. S. was in bedhe was so tense that he tossed half the night, rehashingthe day’s work, reconsidering his decisions, and ingeneral, making himself as unfit as possible to do a goodday’s work the next day.
Thousands of business executives take their work to bedwith them, believing that with a little midnignt mulling,difficult problems will suddenly solve themselves.Occasionally this may happen, but it can’t happen if youmake a habit of taking your work to bed with you, if youtoss and turn, fruitlessly considering decisions in a stateof tension, and finally become panicky and fail to getenough sleep.
SOLUTION
Worrying over your work night and day won’t make youricher, but it may make you die sooner. It’s even badeconomics. For example, a $100,000-a-year executive whodies fifteen years prematurely has lost $1,500,000. Isn’tit good business for such a man to ask himself whether hisnightly wrestling with his work is going to net him anextra $1,500,000?
Mr. S. once believed that taking his work to bed wasnecessary to his career. By the time he came to me hewanted to break this habit, but couldn’t.
His first step was to learn that sleep really begins at8:00 a.m. If you are tense all day, you will be tense atnight and pay the penalty of being unable to sleep. Mr. S.had to be taught to relax during the day.
At first he protested that this was impossible. But he hadbeen thinking in terms of free hours, when all he neededwas free minutes. I taught him the ABC Round Robin, andlater the Sleep Exercise. It took him three weeks to masterthe Round Robin to the point where he could feel himselfrelaxing physically.
When a conference was over, instead of rehashing thediscussion with his secretary and his colleagues at thewater cooler, he closed his office door and consciouslyrelaxed with the Round Robin. He did this right in hisswivel chair, making himself comfortable by propping hisfeet up on the desk. After the Robin he did the SleepExercise. Just before he went to sleep (right at his desk)he said to himself, “I will awaken in exactly fifteenminutes. When I awaken in fifteen minutes, I will feelcompletely relaxed and refreshed.” Mr. S. found that hecould learn to sleep in a matter of seconds and wake up atexactly the time he set for himself.
Once he could make himself relax consciously during theday, he found he hardly needed the Round Robin and theSleep Exercise to put him to sleep at night. Not only willMr. S. live longer now that he has learned to relax andsleep at night, but he is doing better in his business andgetting more out of life.
SUMMARY
To sleep when your work is on your mind:
1.Learn and masterthe Round Robin and the Sleep Exercise.
2.Make it a definite point to relax during intermissions inyour day’s work. Make yourself comfortable at your desk andthen put yourself to sleep with the Round Robin and theSleep Exercise. If before you drop off to sleep, you giveyourself a set time to sleep—say fifteen minutes—you willfind that you will awaken in that exact time. So don’t beafraid of oversleeping.
3.When you have mastered the Round Robin and the SleepExercise and made a habit of relaxing during the day, youwill sleep well at night. Not only that, but there will belittle likelihood of your dropping dead from hypertensionwhen you are in your fifties, as do many men who have neverlearned to make themselves relax.
ABC Round Robin and Sleep Exercise and more are includedin “How To Sleep Without Pills”http://www.sleepsecrets.info
To Download 2 Free Chapters from “Learn While You Sleep”just send blank email to sleepexit@film.par32.comMike Slawomir Cecotka – Publisher
