The most dangerous way to lose time is not to spend it having fun, but to spend it doing fake work. http://www.paulgraham.com/selfindulgence.html
“How long do you work every week now? 5 hours? Or even less?”
I was asked by a colleague the other day, and my immediate response was
“Come on, what’s the point of…”
I was hesitated to acknowledge a fact that was thrown at my face; the fact that I was working less than 5 hours a week in a 40 hours full-time job. It’s clear that I wasn’t proud of the fact, hence my hesitation to admit it.
What’s unclear to me is why I’m feeling this way. Do I feel morally wrong because it violates what people call as the work ethic? If yes, where is the sense of work ethic coming from, from myself or from others?
The answer is that I don’t know yet. However, with a moment of introspection, I was surprised to find that I achieved, or perhaps faked, the 4-Hour Workweek in an unexpected way. And it spurred a dose of joy in the weirdest manner I could ever imagine.
But it felt great. A new lifestyle it is. It’s the freedom unlocked by ruthless elimination of unwanted obligations.
Tim Ferriss pioneered the concept of lifestyle design in his great book The 4-Hour Workweek. It blows my mind. It’s a breath of fresh air in the restless corporate world. It puts a stop sign in front of me where down the road awaits a lot of emptiness, busyness and even miseries.
Apart from elimination mentioned in the book, did I automate anything? Not that I can think of.
How about delegations? I’m not good at it at all.
What’s next then? Once again, I don’t know, I’m far from what Tim did and achieved in his book.
However, one thing I am certain of is I earn to live, not vice versa. While looking around, many people are heads down doing the opposite. They are busy working but not living. They seek to eliminate boredom by killing time with distractions. They act as if time, same as money, is renewable.
It’s ironically true that often times in life the best strategy to “win” a game is not playing it at all. Without realizing this, we fall into the trap of rat race. And it’s the definition of insanity of doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.
There’s still a long way to go, and the path ahead becomes more pathless than ever, but that’s the joy of life to me; to explore and to grow.
Cheers, the 5-hour workweek.
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