Timothy Ferriss - The 4-Hour Workweek - Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich - Expanded and Updated

But where to go and what to do? There is no one right answer to either. Use the following questions and resources to brainstorm:

What makes you most angry about the state of the world?

What are you most afraid of for the next generation, whether you have children or not?

What makes you happiest in your life? How can you help others have the same?

There is no need to limit yourself to one location. Remember Robin, who traveled through South America for a year with her husband and seven-year-old son? The three of them spent one to two months doing volunteer work in each location, including building wheelchairs in Banos, Ecuador, rehabilitating exotic animals in the Bolivian rain forest, and shepherding leather-back sea turtles in Suriname.

How about doing archaeological excavation in Jordan or tsunami relief on the islands of Thailand? These are just two of the dozens of foreign relocation and volunteering case studies in each issue of Verge Magazine (www.vergemagazine.com). Reader-tested resources include:

Hands on Disaster Response: www.hodr.org

Project Hope: www.projecthope.org

Relief International: www.ri.org

International Relief Teams: www.irteams.org

Airline Ambassadors International: www.airlineamb.org

Ambassadors for Children:

www.ambassadorsforchildren.org

Relief Riders International:

www.reliefridersinternational.com

Habitat for Humanity Global Village Program:

www.habitat.org

Planeta: Global Listings for Practical Ecotourism:

www.planeta.com

4. Revisit and reset dreamlines.

Following the mini-retirement, revisit the dreamlines set in Definitionand reset them as needed. The following questions will help:

What are you good at?

What could you be the best at?

What makes you happy?

What excites you?

What makes you feel accomplished and good about yourself?

What are you most proud of having accomplished in your life? Can you repeat this or further develop it?

What do you enjoy sharing or experiencing with other people?

5. Based on the outcomes of steps 1–4, consider testing new part- or full-time vocations.

Full-time work isn’t bad if it’s what you’d rather be doing. This is where we distinguish “work” from a “vocation.”

If you have created a muse or cut your hours down to next to nothing, consider testing a part-time or full-time vocation: a true calling or dream occupation. This is what I did with this book. I can now tell people I’m a writer rather than giving them the two-hour drug dealer explanation. What did you dream of being when you were a kid? Perhaps it’s time to sign up for Space Camp or intern as an assistant to a marine biologist.

Recapturing the excitement of childhood isn’t impossible. In fact, it’s required. There are no more chains—or excuses—to hold you back.

81. Abraham Maslow, the American psychologist famous for proposing “Mas-low’s Hierarchy of Needs,” would term this goal a “peak experience.”

82. There is a place for koans and rhetorical meditative questions, but these tools are optional and outside the scope of this book. Most questions without answers are just poorly worded.

83. Ellen Bialystok and Kenji Hakuta, In Other Words: The Science and Psychology of Second-Language Acquisition (Basic Books, 1995).

Mistake are the name of the game in lifestyle design. It requires fighting impulse after impulse from the old world of retirement-based life deferral. Here are the slipups you will make. Don’t get frustrated. It’s all part of the process.

1. Losing sight of dreams and falling into work for work’s sake (W4W)Please reread the introduction and next chapter of this book whenever you feel yourself falling into this trap. Everyone does it, but many get stuck and never get out.

2. Micromanaging and e-mailing to fill timeSet the responsibilities, problem scenarios and rules, and limits of autonomous decision-making—then stop, for the sanity of everyone involved.

3. Handling problems your outsourcers or co-workers can handle

4. Helping outsourcers or co-workers with the same problem more than once, or with noncrisis problemsGive them if-then rules for solving all but the largest problems. Give them the freedom to act without your input, set the limits in writing, and then emphasize in writing that you will not respond to help with problems that are covered by these rules. In my particular case, all outsourcers have at their discretion the ability to fix any problem that will cost less than $400. At the end of each month or quarter, depending on the outsourcer, I review how their decisions have affected profit and adjust the rules accordingly, often adding new rules based on their good decisions and creative solutions.

5. Chasing customers, particularly unqualified or international prospects, when you have sufficient cash flow to finance your nonfinancial pursuits

6. Answering e-mail that will not result in a sale or that can be answered by a FAQ or auto-responderFor a good example of an auto-responder that directs people to the appropriate information and outsourcers, e-mailinfo@fourhourworkweek.com.

7. Working where you live, sleep, or should relaxSeparate your environments—designate a single space for work and solely work—or you will never be able to escape it. 84

8. Not performing a thorough 80/20 analysis every two to four weeks for your business and personal life

9. Striving for endless perfection rather than great or simply good enough, whether in your personal or professional lifeRecognize that this is often just another W4W excuse. Most endeavors are like learning to speak a foreign language: to be correct 95% of the time requires six months of concentrated effort, whereas to be correct 98% of the time requires 20–30 years. Focus on great for a few things and good enough for the rest. Perfection is a good ideal and direction to have, but recognize it for what it is: an impossible destination.

10. Blowing minutiae and small problems out of proportion as an excuse to work

11. Making non-time-sensitive issues urgent in order to justify workHow many times do I have to say it? Focus on life outside of your bank accounts, as scary as that void can be in the initial stages. If you cannot find meaning in your life, it is your responsibility as a human being to create it, whether that is fulfilling dreams or finding work that gives you purpose and self-worth—ideally a combination of both.

12. Viewing one product, job, or project as the end-all and be-all of your existenceLife is too short to waste, but it is also too long to be a pessimist or nihilist. Whatever you’re doing now is just a stepping-stone to the next project or adventure. Any rut you get into is one you can get yourself out of. Doubts are no more than a signal for action of some type. When in doubt or overwhelmed, take a break and 80/20 both business and personal activities and relationships.

13. Ignoring the social rewards of lifeSurround yourself with smiling, positive people who have absolutely nothing to do with work. Create your muses alone if you must, but do not live your life alone. Happiness shared in the form of friendships and love is happiness multiplied.