Leslie runs a property management business, which is a line of work that is inherently stressful and filled with a daily barrage of problems. Even though she does her best to walk through the front door with a positive attitude and intentions to keep going, within an hour or less, a hurricane of issues toppled her patience, and it became overwhelming again.
Leslie tried it all – hiring top-priced talent, organized team-building events, sharpening her management skills, but nothing decreased her stress at work. Migraine headaches were a common occurrence, and they became so bad that she eventually had to be hospitalized. The only thing running through her head at that point other than the skull-splitting pain was that she should sell the business to make all the stress stop and go away.
The only problem with selling it was that it wasn’t feasible. Her husband had already sat down with her to crunch the numbers of selling the business to encourage her to retire, but the results revealed that it would result in a dramatic reduction which would shatter their future big plans. Even with her husband’s pension, social security, and income from the business sales proceeds, their income would have dropped by two hundred thousand dollars a year. Confused but still hopeful, Leslie wasn’t sure what the solution was, let alone know where to begin.
Fortunately, she discovered the Half-Retire System, and it offered the perfect framework for her to create the game plan she needed to decrease her stress, once and for all. As she followed the 6-step process, she started to become aware of her limiting mindset and the real problems she was facing day-to-day at her firm. What she had done in the past was fixing the symptoms but forgetting to address the root causes of the problems.
By taking on a new, holistic approach, she was soon able to efficiently fix any issues, and this reduced her stress dramatically as well as freed up her time to focus on activities that would help her relax and become more resilient to challenges.
One of those activities she was now able to commit to was a Wednesday morning Yoga class. As she began to become hooked on her newly found Half-Retirement lifestyle, she began to refer to those mornings of Yoga as “Yoga Wednesdays.”
Because she was now able to handle business issues so well, she was able to empower her staff to also take responsibility for problems which freed up her time even more. Leslie used the momentum of Yoga Wednesdays to soon schedule a quarterly trip with her husband, which made her enjoy her retirement more than ever and strengthened her marriage. In her own words, Leslie says:
“Every Wednesday is Yoga Wednesday. I always felt like I could not slow down because too many would go wrong. Once I Half-Retired, I take off every Wednesday for Yoga classes. My mental health is so much better, and I feel like my quality of work has improved.”