Zen Zoomie’s Place: Chronicles of a (Wannabe) Pro Blogger

I’ve mentioned before that I think Tim Ferris’ book titled The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich is a great read despite the kooky title. First off, let me say that I’m not a believer in a 4-hour work week by any means (I work 10+ hours/day in my ‘normal’ military job and then another 3-5 in this one)—and there are other significant points that I disagree with Tim significantly on—but many of the principles that Tim drives home in his book really hit home for me. In fact, they’re the reason this blog exists at all. I actually listened to the audio-book version of Tim’s book twice on my way to my current deployment. And then I bought the hard-copy version when I got here. So if I disagree with the overall premise of a 4-hour work week, what is it about this book that’s so spot-on??

There are a few basic principles that Tim espouses in his book that really made me stop and think about how I spend my time and what I want to do for the rest of my life.

1. When you work, are you working toward making the few really important goals in your life / job a reality? As far as that goes, have you even spent the time defining what the really important goals you should be working toward are???? Tim professes that most people use unimportant tasks, e-mail, phone calls, chit-chat, or whatever other distractions they find convenient to avoid doing those few important things that really matter. Many people will even make up new unimportant tasks to keep from having to do the important stuff—probably because it’s uncomfortable or difficult to do. The key is—those really important tasks, no matter how uncomfortable or difficult, are where we should really focus our efforts!

The #1 thing I took away from Tim’s book is the concept of defining the 2-3 most important things you need to do in a day, and working on those things until they are done. Easier said than done—especially in the military when you work for a chain of command that expects their orders to be followed (no matter how absurd, inefficient, or brainless)—but I couldn’t agree more.

2. Are you looking forward to retirement? Those dream years when you no longer answer to anyone, you can do whatever you want, when you want, where you want. Well guess what? It’ll never happen according to Tim! He bases his argument on two compelling points:

First, why should you wait until retirement to do the things you really want to do in life? Do those things now—while you’re young and can truly enjoy them! I don’t even know if I’ll live to see retirement—do you? I want to have time to take my son camping and fishing. I want to be able to take my wife on a Cruise of the Mediterranean. I want to Scuba dive at the 10 top dive sites in the world, and I don’t want to wait until I’m 50, 60, or even 42 (when my military retirement would kick in) to do it! That doesn’t mean I want to stop working and just scuba dive, but I want to have the freedom and flexibility to be able to do those types of things without worrying about the effect on my career or my livelihood.

Second, if you’re the type of person that will put in 12 hour days to achieve that fantasy retirement in the first place, will you really be happy not having a job? Probably not.

So Tim’s point is…set yourself up to spread your retirement activities…the things you really want to do in life…across your life. Instead of waiting until you’re too old to enjoy them! Here here.

3. How do you do it? Assuming you desire to own & run a business or businesses, you have to plan them out in such a way that they don’t revolve around you. So that if you disappear for a day, week, month, or year…they’ll keep running on autopilot and keep your livelihood in-tact.

There were also quite a few significant points in Tim’s book that I disagree with, and I’ll just touch on a couple of the main ones. First the title, which I don’t believe reflects Tim’s true philosophy or work ethic at all. He worked solid 90-hour weeks for years to get to the point he’s at now in the first place. And since the release of his book, I doubt it’s been much less. Second, he recommends an intentional “low-information” diet. Very few books (4-Hour Work Week being an exception of course), no news, virtually zero email and voicemail, etc. I’m a firm believer in the value of reading, and I won’t stop that. Tim’s point is: quit reading about all the things you can do and how to do them—AND START PUTTING THOSE IDEAS INTO PRACTICE!

Overall, The 4-Hour Work Week is a great read and I highly recommend it to anyone that’s ever thought there must be a better way to get what you want out of life. I’ll go into more detail in the future about how I’m personally applying Tim’s principles in my life and with this blog. Until then, check out Tim’s blog and his recent interview on the Today show. Pay close attention, look past their individual definitions of what their individual goals are, and you may find that Tim Ferris and Donny Deutsch don’t have such different views after all. Read it with an open mind and discard the portions that don’t fit with your personal views, ethics, or philosophies (a pretty significant portion for me). This book may just be that flash you need to stop thinking about all your dreams and start implementing them today.

Until next time,