Willpower: The Secrets of Self-Discipline by Kerry Johnson

Author:Kerry Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: G&D Media
Published: 2019-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

What levels of stress on the SUDS scale do you experience during an average day? What are your lowest and highest levels? If your SUDS level is generally higher than 45, it’s too high, and you may suffer symptoms of burnout. If your SUDS level drops below 30, it’s too low and you may experience “rustout.” The chart will give you a good idea of the symptoms you may experience. If you can keep yourself between 30 and 45, you will stay in a peak performance range. Everything will flow, you’ll lose track of time, and you’ll do your best work.

When I play tennis, my SUDS level is always between 30 and 45, and two hours feel like five minutes. When I’m prospecting for new business, I enter this range when I start to enjoy the telephone calls. But if I let my discomfort rise above 45, I will perform more poorly in selling situations. The same is true if I decrease my discomfort below 30.

Progressive Relaxation

One extremely effective technique for decreasing your SUDS level is progressive relaxation. Nearly everybody who successfully copes with stress uses some form of relaxation technique. Many salespeople pay enormous amounts of money to be hooked up to a biofeedback machine in order to relax. The simple technique I’m about to explain serves equally well for relieving symptoms and producing relaxation.

Make sure you are comfortably seated. Then tense and relax your muscles as you inhale and exhale, mentally moving through every general area of your body, starting with your ankles and feet and slowly moving all the way up to the muscles in your head. As you pause in each area, tense for a period of three seconds while you inhale and exhale, then relax the muscles and release.

After you’ve completed this step, imagine yourself at the top of a staircase with ten steps. Feel yourself inhaling and exhaling slowly with each step as you start from step one and descend all the way down to step ten, becoming more relaxed with every step. When you get to the bottom of the staircase, imagine yourself beneath an oak tree in a grassy meadow. Hear the birds chirping in the tree and the wind blowing softly through the leaves. Leave yourself under the tree for five or ten minutes. In this state, you may actually fall asleep for a short time. When you are really relaxed, you will experience a slight feeling of floating and muscle relaxation.

To come out of this state, see yourself at the bottom of the staircase again, this time going up three steps. With every step, take a breath in and let a breath out. With every breath, you will become more aware of the things around you. After the third step, open your eyes. You should be very alert, very aware, and very comfortable.

If you do this every day for the next six or seven days, you will be able to bring your body down to a fully relaxed, stress-free state.

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