INTRODUCTION

 

 

Cool Time refers to the art and science of never breaking a sweat, either mentally or physically, as you go about your day. Cool Time is the end result of the state of mind and attitude brought about by the techniques in this book. It’s your investment in excellence.

Working, traveling, and speaking in Cool Time ensures that the highest, most useful faculties of your mind are present and ready. Stress, anger, confusion, and frustration can be controlled by proper planning, anticipation of contingencies, time lines, and constraints, and acknowledging where you are and where you’re supposed to be.

Why is this so important? Quite simply, it’s an edge. Most people just “get by.” You see them running for buses or getting angrier and angrier while stuck in traffic. You see them eating their lunches at their desks. You see them buying headache and stomach remedies to counteract what stress is doing to their bodies. You see them counting down the days until Friday, when they can finally get some rest. These people—your colleagues, clients, and competitors—have the relationship reversed so that stress, anger, confusion, and frustration are front and center on their personal playing field, with clear thought and optimum potential on the sidelines. You will encounter hundreds of examples daily in which people are just hanging on, no longer in control of their own lives. This is no way to exist, and it’s certainly no way to get ahead. Stress pushes away the ladder of success, leaving the key components undisturbed on the top shelf.

You, however, now have the power to change that by living in Cool Time.

As a person working and living in Cool Time, you’ll still have to deal with crises, managers, deadlines, and delays. But it is the manner in which you handle them that will be different. Your calm, competent air will be looked up to, will be interpreted by some as charisma or leadership quality, which some people seem to have and others lack. Your mannerisms and mindset, now able to ride the chaos and confusion of the day, will make themselves obvious to others, with a brighter sparkle in your eyes, with body language and posture that displays confidence and ability, with a voice that conveys credibility and authority, and with decisions, ideas, and actions that demonstrate excellence.