Success secrets, in and out of the office – smart tactics to transform your work and personal life

Life In The Office

Beat The Monday Morning Blues

... and make every work day feel like the weekend

It’s Monday morning and the thought of going back to work after the weekend is putting you off your breakfast. Getting out of bed was an effort on a par with scaling Everest. And trying to find the spark of motivation is like trying to strike a match while scuba diving.

It isn’t that you don’t like your job. It’s just that you had a great time at the weekend and it’s hard to knuckle down again.

You are not alone. We all get the Monday morning blues at one time or another (some of us get it every Monday). But there are ways to zap it altogether and make every day of the week feel like the weekend.

Look at it this way: If you have to work, and let’s face it most of us do, it makes sense to make the most of it and find ways to enjoy every second of it. This is a lot easier to do than you might think.

The fact is, from the point-of-view of the mind, the difference between the weekend and work is a matter of what internal pictures and voices you are running through your head. When you are relaxing or having fun at the weekend, your internal voice will be saying something like: “Wow! This is great. I’m having a wonderful time.” And your inner pictures will be bright, like a summer’s day.

On Monday mornings it will usually be a different story. Your inner voice will likely groan: “Oh no, Monday morning again, back to the grindstone…” And your inner pictures will be dull and lack-lustre, like a rainy Sunday afternoon.

With an internal world like this, is it any surprise that going back to work on a Monday morning feels more like a visit to the dentist?

The secret to feeling good in any situation is to change your inner world. You literally brighten up your internal experience.

Try the following:

When you wake up on a Monday morning, say to yourself (in a BIG voice) something like: “Oh yeah! Back to work today. And it’s gonna be fun, fun, fun!!! I can’t wait. Let me at it!!!”

To really add some gusto, bring in a gospel choir to back up your internal dialogue. And, while you’re at it, why not add a rock band, complete with bass and drums? Make it LOUD.

It’s also worth paying attention to your inner pictures. If they are dull and grey, turn up the brightness and colour like you do on a TV. You could also make the sun shine into your office, bathing the desks and computers – and even your boss – in golden, welcoming light.

Change your inner experience in this way and you’ll be out of bed and raring to get to your office every day of the week. What’s more, because your internal world is full of enthusiasm and gusto, you’ll find people will respond better to you. And if you’re after a raise or promotion, you’ll be far more likely to get it!

Life Out Of The Office

Mental Workouts: All Gain & No Pain

Get fit and beef up your biceps with virtual exercises

It’s pretty much accepted these days that the mind has a profound influence on the body. Worrying, for example, will set your heart pounding in no time; while mentally replaying a pleasurable holiday will relax you.

But proof beyond all doubt of the mind’s effect on the body came in a recent study showing how visualising exercise has a measurable effect on muscle density. Amazingly, scientists discovered that simply imagining exercising can significantly increase muscle strength. Ten volunteers, who took part in mental workouts five times a week, imagined lifting heavy weights and increased their biceps’ strength by 13.5 percent on average.

Not only that, but the gain in strength lasted for three months after they stopped the mental exercise regime.

The study was conducted by Guang Yue, an exercise psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio. He believes his discovery could help patients too weak to start recuperating from stroke or other injuries.

So how does it work?

Dr Yue said mentally envisaging exercise increased the strength of the command signal sent by the brain to the appropriate muscle. Muscles are prompted to move by impulses from nearby motor neurons, and the firing of those nerve fibres depends on the strength of electrical impulses sent by the brain.

“This suggests you can increase muscle strength solely by sending a larger signal to motor neurons from the brain,” he said.

Weight lifting without weights

There are some interesting implications to this study. For one thing, it suggests that certain mental techniques used in Oriental martial arts might have a basis in science. Practitioners of Kung Fu, Aikido, and Tai Chi, for example, are taught to focus their minds on the parts of the body they are using during the various movements they perform.

Harry Wong, a martial arts master who also teaches a body-building and fitness programme called Dynamic Strength which doesn’t use weights, very much advocates using mind in conscious conjunction with physical movement. His system of exercises involves imagining you are pulling weights whilst doing the actions and tensing the muscles.

“To enhance the effects of the exercises, focus on the part of the body for which the exercise is intended,” advises Wong. “When you are doing curls, for example, concentrate on the muscles of your wrists, forearms, biceps, and shoulders. Visualise them working and growing stronger.”

The mental approach recommended by Wong isn’t new. It dates back hundreds, if not thousands of years. Sceptics often dismiss this aspect of Oriental martial arts. But Dr Yue’s study gives these ancient arts scientific credence.

Harry Wong’s book Dynamic Strength is hard to find, but well worth getting if you want to get fit and tone up your muscles, while at the same time gaining the therapeutic effects found in Tai Chi. If you’re willing to persist, copies can often be found at Amazon: Dynamic Strength

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