Thursday, May 20, 2010

Relax and Grow Rich
How to live a successful, satisfying and sustaining life
by Mike Hutcheson and Claire Wadey

RRP: $34.99 | Harper Collins Publishers

Mike Hutcheson, former managing director of Saatchi and Saatchi, and co-founder of leading advertising agencies, and Claire Wadey, psychologist, former teacher and university lecturer, wrote Relax and Grow Rich to help people be as happy and creative as they can be.

"We want to demystify rather than complicate some fundamental human drives. By tapping into basic truths, we can all reach our potential and be richer for that. This is nothing arcane or mysterious — it’s plain common sense."

In an informative and simple way, Relax and Grow Rich shows how creative minds work, and gives examples and techniques that can be used to help achieve a mental state that will make subsequent success seem like second nature.
Once you know how to relax and pay attention to what relaxes you, when you are faced with challenges or adversity you can return to that relaxed state of mind and reduce stress. From this zone, solutions surface.

Whereas formal education can deter innovating thinking, and drug use and alcohol consumption can hinder your creativity not enhance it, getting ‘in the flow’ can widen your horizons and achievements. While ‘flow’ and being ‘in the zone’ are long acknowledged as significant features in sporting achievement, these same practices can guide our everyday life, both personally and in the workplace.

Relaxation gives our mind the room to stretch out and hook onto creative thinking, so acknowledging and cultivating these mental havens means you can explore and achieve your full potential. From there, the counter-intuitive aspect of relaxation — that is, hard work, focus and skill — is required so you can look and feel relaxed in achieving success.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
MIKE HUTCHESON, AKA HUTCH

Having gained entry into Ilam School of Fine Arts, Mike ended up studying law at university, which he ruefully admits was a mistake, and didn’t finish his law degree. He then discovered advertising by mistake, and went on to win the Trenchard-Smith Trophy for highest marks for Australia and New Zealand in the Advertising Institute Exams and the Reader’s Digest Scholarship as New Zealand’s Most Outstanding Young Advertising Man.
                                                               
He has founded or co-founded a number of companies in New Zealand, including Colenso, and Hutcheson Knowles Marinkovich (HKM). He has run a family building company, his own real estate company, set up Replica Homes, a franchise building chain, and worked on the team that established the first Lifecare Retirement Village in New Zealand.

Mike is the author of three bestselling titles, was formally managing director at Saatchi & Saatchi, and now is the Executive Director of Image Group.
www.mikehutcheson.com.

CLAIRE WADEY
With a Bachelor of Science in Management and Psychology, and a particular interest in group behaviour, Claire has worked with groups both in education and the corporate management sectors as a trainer and facilitator, running workshops to ignite creative thinking, moral and motivational behaviour, fun and participation, and team relations and communication.

Her company Creativity Works has worked on all levels, in all kinds of business — from unskilled manufacturing workers on health and safety issues, to bankers, market research companies, team leaders and not-for-profit organisations. Clients include ANZ National Bank, Colmar Brunton, Consumer Link, Greif New Zealand and One Steel.

Claire is now living a satisfying and sustaining life bringing up her two young children.

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