Keeping calm key to success

By ESTELLE SARNEY

It's the weekend - maybe you're taking your time reading this. Maybe you've got your feet up, tea in hand, feeling relaxed, calm.

Now, think about work. Sorry to disrupt your mood. Did your chest tighten? Your breathing quicken? Did your brain start buzzing with the 101 things you have to do next week?

There's a man who says he can make you feel as calm at work as you did a minute ago. Australian Paul Wilson has even written a book about it - called Calm at Work (Penguin, $28.95).

Auckland-based company Peak Performance International is about to start running courses in Australasia to teach workers Wilson's ways of progressing at work without stress.

On April 10 it presents A Taste of Calm in Auckland, hosted by Wilson. So what's it all about?

Essentially, it's about changing your perception of the things that stress you at work, rather than trying to change the things themselves.

Trying to change your boss, your colleagues or deadlines only creates more stress, says Wilson.

He claims it's more helpful to create a "calm centre" within yourself so that these often unchangeable things don't bother you any more.

He agrees that it sounds wishy-washy at first. Many of his techniques are derived from forms of meditation, which some people dismiss as hokum and would never talk about in the same breath as business.

But learning how to be calm has worked for Wilson. Twenty-five years ago he was a 23-year-old manager at an advertising agency in Sydney, overseeing 30 staff.

"I was way out of my league," he recalls.

"At that age I was totally ill-equipped to handle the job and was nearly out of my mind with stress."

He didn't want to quit, so turned to ways of dealing with it.

He had dabbled in meditation and martial arts, and adapted some of their calming techniques to use at work.

Within a couple of months there was such a pronounced improvement in his temperament and results that colleagues asked him to explain how he had done it.

The following year he wrote his first book, The Calm Technique: Meditation without Magic or Mysticism. Several books later he has sold eight million copies and had his advice translated into 20 languages.

He established The Calm Centre in Sydney, Australia, in 1995 to pool the ideas of psychologists, natural therapists, academics, artists and musicians.

Meanwhile, he continued working in Sydney as chairman of an advertising agency, a director of a hospital and medical research foundation, and in his own business consultancy and software company.

"By keeping my hand in a range of industries I've been able to hone my techniques," says Wilson.

"Factors that cause stress in finance are different to those that cause stress in health. Finance can be more fear-driven, where personal performance equals status and personal wealth.

"Some nurses, on the other hand, suffer from feeling a lack of control, of being trapped by processes.

"I've done a lot of work on what makes people successful - be it in business, sport, the arts, science - and a sense of calm is uniform to them all," says Wilson.

"For the most profound demonstration, watch a martial artist achieve the 'impossible' - smash bricks without pain. This ability comes from a state of deep focus and calm."

One of the most common workplace stresses is the deadline. Wilson says you can attack a deadline calmly by redefining it as "time allocation", and breaking down the task at hand accordingly.

If you really feel you don't have enough hours to complete the task, renegotiate the deadline early.

Eliminate procrastination by dividing the task into small steps, writing them down, allocating time to each one, then throw yourself into the least pleasant ones first.

Focus 100 per cent on each step, one at a time. Give yourself a reward once the task is completed - maybe a longer lunch break.

If your day typically involves a lot of meetings, leaving you feeling you are rushing from one place to another, Wilson offers two simple ways to move through them more calmly:

* Depart 10 minutes early for all outside appointments.

* Schedule a 15-minute buffer between each engagement.

This might leave room for fewer meetings, but Wilson argues that is no bad thing.

"The singular biggest waste of time at work is meetings," he says.

If you must have one, decide in advance what the point of it is, make sure everyone sticks to the point, then write down the outcome. Food and drink, if any, should be brought out at the end.

To achieve a long-term goal, Wilson advises "backward planning". Visualise yourself where you want to be, then work back - where will you be a year before then, and a year before that? Then you can start planning for each step.

To achieve calm, he says, attention must be paid to six things:

* Commitment to finding peace and contentment.

* Meditation: either a traditional form or Wilson's adapted calm technique.

* Swap tension-producers such as coffee, tea and commercial snack foods for calm substitutes such as herbal tea, water and fruit.

* Exercise: find a form that's a pleasure, not a chore. An early-morning walk can work wonders in clearing your mind and giving time to plan.

* Selflessness: helping others with needs greater than yours leads to feelings of peace and fulfilment.

* Attitude: maintain a positive and happy outlook on life and you will find it easy to be calm.

The greatest rewards will be gained by striving to do well in all six areas, but Wilson says long-term peace and contentment can still be achieved by paying attention to commitment plus three of the others.

Contrary to what many driven executives protest, calm is not a euphemism for laziness or lack of dedication, says Wilson.

It is an orderly, restful, creative state of mind - the most efficient and powerful state of mind possible.

* Paul Wilson presents a three-hour introductory session to his techniques, A Taste of Calm, on April 10 at Auckland's Sorrento in the Park, One Tree Hill. It costs $95 a person. For more information visit Peak Performance or call 358-7357.

The Calm Centre

Calm at Work