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

84. To avoid the living room and coffee shop as offices, consider using a social “co-working” space on occasion: http://coworking.pbwiki.com.

If you’re confused about life, you’re not alone. There are almost seven billion of us. This isn’t a problem, of course, once you realize that life is neither a problem to be solved nor a game to be won.

If you are too intent on making the pieces of a nonexistent puzzle fit, you miss out on all the real fun. The heaviness of success-chasing can be replaced with a serendipitous lightness when you recognize that the only rules and limits are those we set for ourselves.

So be bold and don’t worry about what people think. They don’t do it that often anyway.

Two years ago, I was forwarded the following poem—originally written by child psychologist David L. Weatherford—by a close friend. He quit his own deferred-life plan after reading it, and I hope you will do the same. Here it is.

SLOW DANCE

Have you ever watched kids

On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to the rain

Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?

Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down.

Don’t dance so fast .

Time is short .

The music won’t last .

Do you run through each day

On the fly?

When you ask: How are you?

Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done,

do you lie in your bed

With the next hundred chores

Running through your head?

You’d better slow down.

Don’t dance so fast .

Time is short .

The music won’t last .

Ever told your child,

We’ll do it tomorrow?

And in your haste,

Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch ,

Let a good friendship die

Cause you never had time

To call and say, “Hi”?

You’d better slow down.

Don’t dance so fast .

Time is short .

The music won’t last .

When you run so fast to get somewhere

You miss half the fun of getting there .

When you worry and hurry through your day,

It is like an unopened gift thrown away .

Life is not a race.

Do take it slower .

Hear the music

Before the song is over .

85. http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html.

[AFTER 3 WEEKS OFF OF THE BLOG]

Long time no see! I just landed back in California from a long overdue mini-retirement through London, Scotland, Sardinia, the Slovak Republic, Austria, Amsterdam, and Japan. Some unpleasant surprises awaited me when I checked in on the evil e-mail inbox. Why? I let them happen.

I always do.

Here are just a few of the goodies that awaited me this time:

One of our fulfillment companies had been shut down due to the CEO’s death, causing a 20%+ loss in monthly orders and requiring an emergency shift of all web design and order processing

Missed radio and magazine appearances and upset would-be interviewers

More than a dozen lost joint-venture partnership opportunities

It’s not that I go out of my way to irritate people—not at all—but I recognize one critical fact: Oftentimes, in order to do the big things, you have to let the small bad things happen. This is a skill we want to cultivate.

What did I get in exchange for temporarily putting on blinders and taking a few glancing blows?

I followed the Rugby World Cup in Europe and watched the New Zealand All Blacks live, a dream I’ve had for the last five years.

I shot every gun I’ve ever dreamed of firing since brainwashing myself with Commando . Bless the Slovak Republic and their paramilitaries.

I filmed a television series pilot in Japan, a lifelong dream and the most fun I’ve had in months, if not years.

I met with my Japanese publisher, Seishisha, and had media interviews in Tokyo, where the 4HWW is now #1 in several of the largest chains.

I took a complete 10-day media fast and felt like I’d had a two-year vacation from computers.

I attended the Tokyo International Film Festival and hung out with one of my heroes, the producer of the Planet Earth television series.

Once you realize that you can turn off the noise without the world ending, you’re liberated in a way that few people ever know.

Just remember: If you don’t have attention, you don’t have time. Did I have time to check e-mail and voicemail? Sure. It might take 10 minutes. Did I have the attention to risk fishing for crises in those 10 minutes? Not at all.

As tempting as it is to “just check e-mail for one minute,” I didn’t do it. I know from experience that any problem found in the inbox will linger in the brain for hours or days after you shut down the computer, rendering “free time” useless with preoccupation. It’s the worst of states, where you experience neither relaxation nor productivity. Be focused on work or focused on something else, never in-between.

Time without attention is worthless, so value attention over time.

Here are a few questions that can help you pop on the productivity blinders and put things in perspective. Even when you’re not traveling the world, develop the habit of letting small bad things happen. If you don’t, you’ll never find time for the life-changing big things, whether important tasks or true peak experiences. If you do force the time but puncture it with distractions, you won’t have the attention to appreciate it.

What is the one goal, if completed, that could change everything?

What is the most urgent thing right now that you feel you “must” or “should” do?

Can you let the urgent “fail”—even for a day—to get to the next milestone for your potential life-changing tasks?

What’s been on your to-do list the longest? Start it first thing in the morning and don’t allow interruptions or lunch until you finish.

Will “bad” things happen? Small problems will crop up, yes. A few people will complain and quickly get over it. BUT, the bigger picture items you complete will let you see these for what they are—minutiae and repairable hiccups.

Make this trade a habit. Let the small bad things happen and make the big good things happen. —OCTOBER 25, 2007