Review: "The 4-Hour Workweek"

                I inhaled The 4-Hour Workweek:  Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss – and I have put his other books on my wish list.

            To look at the title, you might think it pure fancy or illegal, but it’s not.

            Ferriss argues that it is much more important to do what is meaningful to you than to fill a seat from nine to five.  That sounds reasonable to me.

            The sections of the book spell D-E-A-L.

            Definition:  what do you really want to do?  What is meaningful to you?  What would you want to do if you had no restrictions or limitations on you?  (Legal things, of course.)  You must have a solid idea of what you want and how to get there fulfilling the meaning you seek.

            Elimination:  what don’t you need?  What takes you away from is meaningful?  Excess stuff – excess nuances – anything that is not necessary in achieving what is meaningful for you should be eliminated – whether people, clothes, or your current job.

            Automation:  in the long run – and even in the short run – paying someone else to do what you don’t want or need to do will increase your ability to achieve what is meaningful for you.  Spend your time and effort only on what you enjoy doing on the way to your meaningful goal.

            Liberation:  go.  Work from home, from another country, take min-retirements.

            Ferriss includes many examples and websites to check out.  The book concludes with a selection of his best blog posts and testimonials of those who followed through with what he explains.

            Now, you may love your job.  I do.  But there are things you wish you didn’t have to do, right?  I know there are for me.  See if someone else will do them to allow you to fulfill your call.  Set short term goals and get to them now.

            I am also setting long term goals which begin now, certainly, but things I want to achieve.  I love my job, but there are other things I would like to achieve as well.  And, though I don’t have much interest in going to other countries, I would like to take more vacations at different times of the year to be in the place that I find most beneficial to my achieving meaning.

            Even if you don’t follow everything he says – he is not in favor of reading a lot – I disagree – taking time to figure out what is meaningful and what things would be better out of your life or handled by someone else is a worthwhile activity.

            [This review appears on my blog, Amazon.com, and Goodreads.com.]