4-Hour Workweek Pt. 1

 Slack has read The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss and has been bugging asking me to read this. After last week deciding I need to realign my goals and desires, I figured I should at least open the book and see what it has to offer to me, a stay-at-home mom with no current business established. The 4-Hour Workweek has been not only an interesting read, it has further fueled my need to be economically self-sufficient so I can truly obtain what I want in life. I am really truly excited about the rest of my life!

These are the parts of the book that have stuck with me personally thus far. Reading the book yourself might give you better insights and certainly different ones to ponder and execute.

 The 80/20 principle by economist Vilfredo Pareto.

Which 20% of sources are causing 80% of my problems and unhappiness?

Which 20% of sources are resulting in 80% of my desired outcomes and happiness?*

Right away I applied this to my current job and personal relationships. Okay…

My job took up a low percentage of my actual time but it sapped over 80% of my energy. Now, my job was certainly far from a terrible experience but the payoff was so little in retrospect. All the time I put into it from stressing about it to actually doing the job itself received such little payoff it is laughable.

Applying this to family relationships was obvious as well. For those of you who do not know, both of my parents are mentally ill. Not like, Oh those crazy eccentric goofs! More like, Wow, they are so truly disabled by their personal demons they cannot be parents in any real way. Yeah good times. I could write a series on them alone that would make your jaw drop and you might not believe it all anyways. I digress . Looking at these particular personal relationships and how much time and effort I put into them (which is far less than I have ever done previous), I see that I get, at best, 1-2% positive outcomes from 98% of my resources. Yikes.

I also thought of all of my close friends who I have constructed into my true family. Sadly, I spend 20% of my time with all of them due to circumstance, distance, etc. But during that time I do spend with them, I easily get an 80% positive return. That is just awesome .

This is my example of the Reversing Repression Exercise* that is in the book. Basically you write down what you would like to have, do, and be without any limitations:

What do I want to have?

Beautiful house in the mountains and 2 new cars.

What do I want to be?

Baker

Gardener

Vegan cook

Operate my bakery, move, let it self-operate and manage from wherever I live or travel to.

What do I want to do?

Travel Travel Travel Europe, Iceland especially.

Living Green

This exercise is quite difficult for me as I had to really think about what I really want. That is, think without restrictions,  and write down what I think is impossible bordering on ridiculous. Odds are for me, though, if you look at the percentage of people who attempt the impossible and win. That makes the impossible or far-fetched seem almost  doable. The book further explains how to calculate how much it would cost to live this way and how much $$ I would need to bring in each day to achieve these goals. When you break it down to a day by day it is not near as impossible as you would think.  That is what I have taken from this book thus far. I am enjoying the read and if all I get out of it is thinking about what I truly want then I think this book is a success for me .

 

*Ferriss, Timothy, 2007, The 4-Hour Workweek, pp. 54-59, pp.68-71.