I dismissed reading this book for several years due to unfavorable reviews from friends, as well as those on Amazon. You can find a nay-sayer in every group! While input and opinions can be helpful, in this case I missed out on some great insights that are extremely helpful to those running their own businesses. Don’t disregard the book if you work within an organization. Tim Ferris has dedicated several chapters to help you structure a work life that provides more balance and a life beyond work.
Considering that most of us get a job before we truly get a life, it is no wonder that we feel trapped by what we think is necessary to provide for our lifestyle. In “The 4-Hour Workweek” Tim helps us see how many of the structures and tasks we have built into our work life fail to serve the life we desire to live. Instead we live what Tim calls the “deferred-life plan,” conforming to societal norms of workweeks punctuated by weekend reprieves (if that) and frantic vacations. Frantic vacations are those week-long sojourns that Americans are famous for. They begin with a frantic rush to complete projects before one goes on a vacation. The vacation is then interrupted by daily check-ins to the office and on the smartphone, finally ending with a return to the office requiring days of “catch-up” for all that went on while we were supposedly relaxing. All of this done for many decades of our life to earn the opportunity to “retire” and live the life we have dreamed.
Tim proposes another alternative, that of Lifestyle Design: a life of mini-retirements instead of the deferred life plan; the lifestyle of a millionaire, yet not requiring a million or more in the bank. Once we recognize that what we truly want in our work and life is freedom, which money does not necessarily buy, we can begin developing a life supported by work that provides this freedom.
There are four main sections to the book creating the acronym DEAL:
- D is for Definition and explains the concept of lifestyle design
- E is for Elimination which gets rid of the need for the concept of time management by giving you more time
- A is for Automation of work and income
- L is for Liberation and further explores the concept of mini-retirements and mobility
As with any other book or concept, you may find that not every idea or strategy that Tim outlines in the book works for you. However, simply exploring the possibilities of DEAL will open your mind and your life to new ways of doing things and help you challenge, “That’s the way we have always done things.”
Is that how you would want your life described? Pick up a copy of Tim’s book. Mine is underlined, highlighted and dog-eared and shows the wear of multiple reads.
Happy reading!