#836: The 4-Hour Workweek Principles — 13 Mistakes to Avoid, The Art of Mini-Retirements, and Navigating the Dizziness of Freedom

Transcript from https://podmenti.com/t/4dc12041c9f5b3ce

Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferris. Welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferris Show. This time around, we have a different experimental format.
Featuring the book that started it all for me, the four hour work week.
And even though it was published in 2007, it was one of Amazon's top ten most highlighted books of all time. Last I checked around 2017. So
This is a bit of a foreshadowing of a point I want to make.
A lot of people, readers and listeners ask me what I would change or update in the four-hour work week or in other books, but especially the four hour work week. An equally interesting question, I think a very compelling question is what wouldn't I change? What stands the test of time and hasn't lost any potency? What would I absolutely not touch?
And perhaps there are a few
Minor tweaks here and there, but by and large, what has stood the test of time for almost twenty years. This episode features three timeless chapters from the audiobook of the four hour work week. A chapter on taking mini retirements, which challenges everything about the deferred life plan, the
slave save retire approach and shows you how to distribute adventure and retirement throughout life instead of saving it all for the end. The chapter titled Filling the Void, which addresses navigating the dizziness of freedom and
Handling unexpected emotional and philosophical challenges.
that you can run into, not just after reading the four hour work week, but if you're an entrepreneur of any type, really, but especially one following the tenets of lifestyle design. And last but not least, the thirteen mistakes of the new rich, where I outline the most common pitfalls I've seen in people
Encounter, stumble over when implementing the books principles. These are all narrated by the great voice actor Ray Porter, and if you are interested in checking out the rest of the audiobook, which is produced and copyrighted by Blackspun Publishing, you can find it on Audible, Apple, Google, Spotify, Downpour dot com, or wherever you find your favorite audiobooks.
Until the next long form interview.
Please.
Enjoy.
Optimal minimal.
At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Can I ask you a personal question?
Now we're seeing the time.
cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal endoskeleton.
Three
No
fourteen.
Mini retirements.
Embracing the mobile lifestyle.
Before the development of tourism.
Travel was conceived to be like study.
and its fruits were considered to be the adornment of the mind
And the formation.
of the judgment.
Paul Fossil.
Abroad.
The simple willingness to improvise is more vital in the long run.
Then research.
Rolf Potts.
Vagabonding.
If you've gone through the previous steps,
Eliminating.
Automating.
And severing the leashes that bind you to one location,
It's time to indulge in some fantasies.
and explore the world.
Even if you have no ache for extended travel or think it's impossible.
Whether due to marriage or mortgage,
Or those little things known as children.
This chapter is still the next step.
There are fundamental changes I and most others put off until absence and
or preparation for it.
forces them.
This chapter
Is your final exam?
In Muse design.
The transformation begins.
In a small Mexican village.
In a parable that's been shared in various forms around the world.
Fables.
and fortune hunters.
An American businessman took a vacation to a small coastal Mexican village on doctor's orders.
Unable to sleep.
After an urgent phone call from the office the first morning,
He walked out to the pier.
to clear his head.
A small boat with just one fisherman had docked.
And inside the boat were several large yellow fin tuna.
The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.
How long did it take you to catch them? the American asked.
Only a little while.
The Mexican replied.
Why don't you stay out longer and catch more fish?
The American then asked.
I have enough to support my family and give a few to friends.
The Mexican said as he unloaded them into a basket.
But
What do you do with the rest of your time?
The Mexican looked up and smiled, but
I sleep late.
Fish a little.
Play with my children.
Take a siesta with my wife, Julia.
and stroll into the village each evening.
Where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos.
I have a full and busy life, Seneor.
The American laughed and stood tall.
Sir, I'm a Harvard MBA, and can help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. In no time you could buy several boats with the increased hull. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats.
He continued.
Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village, of course, and move to Mexico City,
Then to Los Angeles and eventually New York City.
Where you could run your expanding enterprise with proper management.
The Mexican fisherman asked.
But
Senor
How long will all this take?
To which the American replied.
Fifteen, twenty years, twenty five tops.
But what then, Seneor?
The American laughed and said
That's the best part. When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company's stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions.
Millions, senor?
Then what?
Then you would retire.
and move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late
Fish a little.
Play with your kids.
Take a siesta with your wife.
And stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.
I recently had lunch in San Francisco with a good friend.
And former college roommate.
He will soon graduate from a top business school and return to investment banking.
He hates coming home from the office at midnight, but explained to me that if he works eighty hour weeks for nine years,
He could become a managing director and make a cool three to ten million dollars per year.
Then
He would be successful.
Dude, what on earth would you do with three to ten million dollars per year?
I asked.
His answer?
I would take a long trip to Thailand.
That just about sums up one of the biggest self-deceptions of our modern age.
Extended world travel as the domain of the ultra rich.
I've also heard the following.
I'll just work in the firm for 15 years, then I'll be partner and I can cut back on hours.
Once I have a million or two in the bank, I'll put it in something safe like bonds.
Take eighty thousand dollars a year in interest and retire to sale in the Caribbean.
I'll only work in consulting until I'm thirty five, then retire and ride a motorcycle across China.
If your dream
The pot of gold at the end of the career rainbow.
Is to live large in Thailand.
Sail around the Caribbean or ride a motorcycle across China?
Guess what?
All of them can be done for less than three thousand dollars.
I've done all three.
Here are just two examples of how far a little can go.
The dollar figures in this chapter are all from a period immediately following President Bush's re election in two thousand four.
Which correlated to the worst dollar exchange rates of the last twenty years.
Two hundred fifty dollars US
Five days on a private Smithsonian tropical research island with three local fishermen.

And also took me on tours of the best hidden dive spots in Panama.
One hundred fifty dollars US.
Three days of chartering a private plane in Mendoza wine country in Argentina.
and flying over the most beautiful vineyards around the snow capped Andes.
With a personal guide.
Question.
What did you spend your last four hundred dollars on?
It's two or three weekends of nonsense and thoraway forget the work week behavior in most US cities.
four hundred dollars is nothing for a full eight days of life changing experiences.
But eight days.
isn't what I'm recommending at all.
Those were just interludes in a much larger production. I'm proposing much, much more.
The birth of many retirements.
and the death of vacations.
There is more to life than increasing its speed.
Mohandas Gandhi.
In February of two thousand four I was
Miserable.
And overworked.
My travel fantasy was
began as a plan to visit Costa Rica in March two thousand four
For four weeks of Spanish and relaxation.

I needed a recharge, and four weeks seemed reasonable by
whatever made up benchmark you can use for such a thing.
A friend familiar with Central America dutifully pointed out that it would never work, as Costa Rica was about to enter its rainy season, and
Torrential downpours weren't the uplifting jolt I needed, so I shifted my focus to four weeks in Spain.
It's a long trip over the Atlantic, though, and Spain was close to other countries I'd always wanted to visit.
I lost
reasonable somewhere shortly thereafter, and decided that I deserved a full three months to explore my roots in Scandinavia,
After four weeks in Spain.
If there were any real time bombs or pending disasters, they would certainly crop up in the first four weeks, so
There really wasn't any additional risk in extending my trip to three months.
Three months?
Would be great.
Those three months turned into fifteen.
And I started to ask myself.
Why not take the usual twenty to thirty year retirement and redistribute it throughout life?
Instead of saving it all for the end,
The alternative to binge traveling.
Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast.
Without seeing anything.
Charles Kiralt.
CBS News reporter.
If you are accustomed to working fifty weeks per year,
The tendency
Even after creating the mobility to take extended trips,
Will be to go nuts and see ten countries in fourteen days and end up a wreck.
It's like taking a starving dog to an all you can eat buffet.
It will eat itself to death.
I did this three months into my fifteen month vision quest and
Visiting seven countries.
and going through at least twenty check ins and check outs with a friend who had negotiated three weeks off.
The trip was an adrenaline packed blast.
But like watching life on Fast Forward.
It was hard for us to remember what had happened in which countries, but
Except.
Amsterdam.
I refer, of course, to the amazing bike riding opportunities and famous pastries.
We were both sick most of the time.
Then we were upset to have to leave some places simply because our pre purchased flights made it so.
I recommend doing the exact
Opposite.
The alternative to binge travel is
The mini retirement.
Entails.
Relocating to one place for one to six months is
Before going home.
or moving to another locale.
It is the anti-vacation in the most
Positive sense.
Though it can be relaxing, but
The mini retirement is not an escape from your life.
but a re examination of it.
The creation of a blank slate
Following elimination and automation,
What would you be escaping from?
Rather than seeking to see the world through photo ops between foreign but familiar hotels,
We aim.
To experience it.
At a speed that lets it change us.
This is also different from a sabbatical.
Sabbaticals are often viewed much like retirement.
As a one time event.
Savor it now while you can.
The mini retirement
is defined as recurring.
It is
A lifestyle.
I currently take three or four mini retirements per year, and know dozens who do the same.
Sometimes these sojourns take me around the world, and
Oftentimes they take me around the corner.
Yosemite.
Tahoe.
Carmel.
But to a different world.
Psychologically.
Where meetings, email and phone calls.
Don't exist for a set period of time.
Yeah.
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Purging the demons.
Emotional freedom.
This is the very perfection of a man.
to find out his own imperfection.
Saint Augustine.
three fifty four AD to four hundred thirty AD.
Tru freedom is much more than having enough income.
And time to do what you want.
It is quite possible.
Actually the rule rather than the exception.
To have financial and time freedom.
But still be caught in the throes of the rat race.
One cannot be free.
From the stresses of a speed and size obsessed culture.
Until you are free from the materialistic addictions of
Time, famine, mindset.
And comparative impulses that created it in the first place.
This takes time.
The effect is not cumulative, and no number of too weak.
Also called T O O W E A K, coined by Joel Stein of the LA Times.
Sightseeing trips can replace one good walkabout.
By all means go ahead and take a post office celebratory trip and go nuts for a few weeks.
I know I did.
Rock on.
Ebiza and glow sticks, here I come.
Have some absinthe and drink lots of water.
Following that.
Sit down and plan an introspective mini retirement.
In the experience of those I've interviewed.
It takes two to three months just to unplug from obsolete routines and
and become aware of just how much we distract ourselves with constant motion.
Can you have a two hour dinner with Spanish friends without getting anxious?
Can you get accustomed to a small town?
Where all businesses take a siesta for two hours in the afternoon.
And then close at four o'clock PM?
If not.
You need to ask.
Why?
Learn.
To slow down.
Get lost intentionally.
Observe how you judg yourself and those around you.
Chances are that it's been a while.
Take at least two months to disincorporate old habits and rediscover yourself.
Without the reminder of a looming return flight.
The financial realities.
It just gets better.
The economic argument for many retirements is the icing on the cake.
Four days in a decent hotel or a week for two at a nice hostel.
Costs the same.
As a month in a nice posh apartment.
If you relocate,
The expenses abroad also begin to replace, often at much lower cost, the
Bills you can then cancel stateside.
Here are some actual monthly figures from recent travels.
Highlights from both South America and Europe are shown.
Side by side.
To prove that luxury is limited by your creativity and familiarity with the locale, not gross currency devaluation in developing countries.
It will be obvious that I did not survive on bread and begging, but
I lived like a rock star.
And both experiences could be done for less than fifty percent of what I spent.
My goal was enjoyment and not austere survival.
Airfare.
Free.
Courtesy of Amex Gold Card and Chase Continental Airlines Mastercard.
Muses are low maintenance, but often expensive in one or both of two tactical areas manufacturing and advertising.
Shop for providers of both that are willing to accept credit cards as payment, and negotiate this upfront if necessary by saying
Rather than trying to negotiate you down on pricing, I just ask that you accept payment by credit card. If you can do that
We'll choose you over competitor X.
This is yet another example of a firm offer and not a question that puts you in a stronger negotiating position.
For a detailed explanation of how I multiply points for traveling using concepts like
piggybacking and recycling.
Sear for both terms on fourhourblog.com.
Housing.
Penthouse apartment on the equivalent of New York's Fifth Avenue in Buenos Aires is
Including house cleaners, personal security guards, phone, energy, and high speed internet.
five hundred and fifty dollars US.
her month.
Enormous apartment in the trendy Soho like Prenzlauerberg district of Berlin, including phone and energy.
$300 US
Per month.
Meals.
Four or five star restaurant meals twice daily in Buenos Aires are
Ten dollars.
US
three hundred dollars US per month.
Berlin.
eighteen dollars US.
Five hundred forty dollars US.
Per month.
Entertainment.
VIP table and unlimited champagne for eight people at the hottest club.
Opera Bay in Buenos Aires.
One hundred fifty dollars US
eighteen dollars seventy five cents US per person times four visits per month.
equals seventy five dollars US per month.
Per person.
Cover, drinks, and dancing at the hottest clubs in West Berlin.
twenty dollars US per person per night times four is
Equals
eighty dollars US per month.
Education.
Two hours daily of private Spanish lessons in Buenos Aires five times per week.
Five dollars US per hour.
Times forty hours per month.
equals two hundred dollars US per month.
Two hours daily of private tango lessons with two world class professional dancers.
eight dollars thirty three cents US per hour.
Times forty hours per month.
equals three hundred thirty three dollars twenty cents US.
Per month.
Four hours daily of top tier German language instruction in Nolendorf Platz, Berlin was
one hundred seventy five dollars US per month.
Which would have paid for itself even if I had not attended classes.
As the student ID card entitled me to over forty percent discounts, I
On all transportation.
Six hours per week of mixed martial arts MMA training.
at the top Berlin Academy.
Free.
In exchange for tutoring in English.
Two hours per week.
Transportation.
Monthly subway pass and daily cab rides to and from Tango Lessons in Buenos Aires are
Seventy five dollars US per month.
Monthly subway, tram and bus pass in Berlin.
With student discount.
eighty five dollars US per month.
Four week total for luxury living.
Buenos Aires.
one thousand five hundred thirty three dollars twenty cents, including round trip airfare from JFK.
With a one month stopover in Panama.
Nearly one third of this total.
is from the daily one on one instruction from world class teachers in Spanish and Tango.
Berlin.
One thousand one hundred eighty dollars.
Including round trip airfare from JFK and a one week stop over in London.
How do these numbers compare to your current domestic monthly expenses, including rent,
Car insurance, utilities, weekend expenditures, partying,
Public transportation, gas, memberships.
Subscriptions, food, and all the rest?
Add it all up and you may well realize, like I did, that
That traveling around the world.
And having the time of your life can save you serious money.
Fear factors.
Overcoming excuses.
Not to travel.
Traveling is the ruin of all happiness.
There's no looking at a building here after seeing Italy.
Fanny Burney.
Seventeen fifty two to eighteen forty.
English novelist.
But I have a house and kids I can't travel.
What about health insurance?
What if something happens?
Isn't travel dangerous?
What if I get kidnapped or mugged?
But I'm a woman. Traveling alone would be dangerous.
Most excuses not to travel are exactly that.
Excuses.
I've been there.
So this isn't a holier than thou sermon. I know too well that it's easier to live with ourselves if we cite an external reason for inaction.
I've since met paraplegics and the deaf.
Senior citizens and single mothers.
Homeowners and the poor
All of whom have sought and found
Excellent life changing reasons.
For extended travel.
instead of dwelling on the million small reasons against it.
Most of the concerns above are addressed in the QA, but one in particular requires a bit of preemptive nerve calming.
It's ten o'clock PM.
Do you know where your children are?
The prime fear of all parents prior to their first international trip
is somehow losing a child.
In the shuffle.
The good news is
That if you are comfortable taking your kids to New York
San Francisco, Washington, D C, or London.
You will have even less to worry about in the starting cities I recommend in the QA.
There were fewer guns and violent crimes in all of them compared to most large US cities.
The likelihood of problems is decreased further when travel is less airport and hotel hopping among strangers and
and more relocation to a second home.
A mini retirement.
But still.
What?
If
Jen Erico.
A single mother who took her two children on a five month world tour
had a more acute fear than most.
One that often woke her at two o'clock AM in a cold sweat.
What if something happens?
To me.
She wanted to prime her kids for worst case scenario, and
but didn't want to scare them to death. So
Like all good mothers,
She made it a game.
Who can best memorize the itineraries, hotel addresses, and mom's phone number?
She had emergency contacts in each country whose numbers were loaded into the speed dial of her cell phone.
Which had global roaming.
In the end.
Nothing happened.
Now she's planning to move to a ski chalet in Europe.
And send her kids to school in multilingual France.
Success.
Begets success.
She was most afraid in Singapore, but
And in retrospect, it was where she had the least reason to be worried that
She took her kids to South Africa, among other places.
She was scared because it was the first stop, and she was unaccustomed to traveling with her kids.
It was perception.
Not reality.
Robin Melinsky Rummel.
who spent a year traveling through South America with her husband and seven year old son
was warned by friends and family not to visit Argentina
After their devaluation riots in two thousand one.
She did her homework.
Decided that the fear of the

And proceeded to have the time of her life in Patagonia.
When she told locals that she was originally from New York,
Their eyes widened, and jaws dropped.
I saw those buildings blow up on TV. I would never go to such a dangerous place.
Don't assume that places abroad are more dangerous than your hometown. Most
Aren't you
Robin is convinced.
As are other N R parents.
That people use children as an excuse to stay in their comfort zones.
It's an easy excuse not to do something adventurous, but
How to overcome the fear?
Robin recommends.
Two things.
One.
Before embarking on a long international trip with your children for the first time,
Take a trial run for a few weeks.
Two.
For each stop, arrange a week of language classes that begin upon arrival and
And take advantage of transportation from the airport if available.
The school staff will often handle apartment rentals for you and
And you will be able to make friends and learn the area before setting off on your own.
But what if your concern isn't so much
losing your children.
But losing your mind because
of your children.
Several families interview for this audiobook recommended the oldest persuasive tool known to man.
Bribery.
Each child is given some amount of virtual cash.
twenty five to fifty cents for each hour of good behavior.
The same amount is subtracted from their accounts for breaking the rules.
All purchases for fun, whether souvenirs, ice cream, or otherwise are
Come out of their own individual accounts.
No balance.
No goodies.
This often requires more self control on the part of the parents.
than the children.
When more
Is less.
Cutting.
The clutter.
Human beings have the capacity to learn to want almost any conceivable material object.
Given then the emergence of a modern industrial culture capable of producing almost anything, the
The time is ripe for opening the storehouse of infinite need.
It is the modern Pandora's box.
And its plagues are loose upon the world.
Jules Henry.
To be free.
To be happy and fruitful.
Can only be attained through sacrifice of many common
But overestimated things.
Robert.
Henry.
I know the son of one Deca millionaire.
A personal friend of Bill Gates.
who now manages private investments and ranches.
He has accumulated an assortment of beautiful homes over the last decade.
Each with full time cooks, servants, cleaners, and support staff.
How does he feel about having a home in each time zone?
It's a pain in the ass.
He feels like he's working for his staff who spend more time in his homes than he does.
Extended travel is the perfect excuse
To reverse the damage of years of consuming as much as you can afford.
It's time to get rid of clutter disguised as necessities and
Before you drag a five piece Samsonite set around the world.
That
Is hell on earth.
I'm not going to tell you to walk around in a robe and sandals scowling at people who have televisions. I hate that coshy crunching holier than thou stuff.
Turning you into a possessionless scribe is not my intention.
Let's face it though.
There are tons of things in your home and life that you don't use.
Need
Or even particularly want.
They just
Came into your life as impulsive flotsum and jetsum and never found a good exit.
Whether you're aware of it or not.
This clutter creates indecision and distractions.
Consuming attention and making unfettered happiness a real
Sure.
It is impossible to realize how distracting all the crap is
Whether porcelain dolls, sports cars, or ragged T shirts.
until you get rid of it.
Prior to my fifteen month trip.
I was stressed about how to fit all of my belongings and
into a fourteen by ten foot rental storage space.
Then I realized a few things.
I would never reread the business magazines I'd saved.
I wore the same five shirts and four pairs pants ninety percent of the time and
It was about time for new furniture, and I never used the outdoor grill or lawn furniture.
Even getting rid of things I never
Used.
proved to be like a capitalist short circuit.
It was hard to toss things I had once thought were valuable enough to spend money on.
The first ten minutes of sorting through clothing was
was like choosing which child of mine should live or die.
I hadn't exercised my throwing out muscles in some time, but
It was a struggle to put nice Christmas clothing on
I'd never worn.
into the go pile and just as hard to separate myself from worn and ragged clothing
I had for sentimental reasons that
Once I'd passed through the first few tough decisions, though the momentum had been built, and
And it was a breeze.
I donated all of the seldom worn clothing to goodwill, and
The furniture took less than ten hours to offload using Craig's List, and
And though I was paid less than fifty percent of the retail prices for some and nothing for others,
Who cared?
I'd used and abused them for five years and would get a new set when I landed back in the US.
I gave the grill and lawn furniture to my friend who lit up like a kid at Christmas.
I had made his month.
It felt wonderful, and I had an extra three hundred dollars in pocket change to cover at least a few weeks of rent abroad.
I created forty percent more space in my apartment and hadn't even grazed it.
The surface.
It wasn't the extra physical space that I felt most, it was the extra mental space.
It was as if I had twenty mental applications running simultaneously before and now I
I had just one or two.
My thinking was clearer and I was much, much
Happier.
I asked every vagabond interviewee in this audiobook what their one recommendation would be to
For first time extended travelers.
The answer
was unanimous.
Take
Less.
with you.
The overpacking impulse is hard to resist.
The solution is to set what I call a settling fund.
Rather than pack for all contingencies, I bring the
Absolute minimum.
and allocate one hundred to three hundred dollars for purchasing things after I arrive.
And as I travel.
I no longer take toiletries or more than a week's worth of clothing.
It's a blast.
Finding shaving cream or a dress shirt overseas can produce an adventure in and of itself.
Pack as if you were coming back in one week.
Here are the bare essentials of
Listed in order of importance.
One.
One
Week of clothing appropriate to the season, including one semi formal shirt and
and a pair of pants or skirt for customs.
Think
T shirts, one pair of shorts.
And a multi purpose pair of jeans.
Two.
Backup photocopies or scanned copies of all important documents.
Health insurance.
Passport visa.
Credit cards, debit cards, etc.
Three.
Debit cards?
credit cards and two hundred dollars worth of small bills.
In local currency.
Travelers checks are not accepted in most places and are a hassle.
Four.
Small cable bike locked.
for securing luggage while in transit or in hostels.
A small padlock for lockers, if needed.
Five.
Electronic dictionaries for target languages.
Book versions are too slow to be of use in conversation.
And small grammar guides or texts.
Six.
One
Broad Strokes Travel Guide.
That's it.

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No.
Back to the episode.

The Bora Bora Deal Maker.
Baffin Island.
Nunavut.
Josh Steinitz.
founder of NileProject.com.
Stood at the edge of the world.
and stared in amazement.
He dug his boots into the six feet of sea ice.
and the unicorns danced.
Ten.
Narwals.
Rare cousins of the Baluga.

And pointed their six foot.
Plus spiral tusks.
Toward the heavens.
The pod of three thousand pound whales.
then fell into the depths once again.
The Narwals are deep divers.
More than three thousand feet.
In some cases.
So Josh had at least twenty minutes until their reappearance.
It seemed appropriate.
That he was with the Narwals.
Their name came from Old Norse.
and referred to their mottled white and blue skin.
Noveler.
Corpse man.
He smiled.
As he had done often in the last few years, and
Josh himself.
was a dead man walking.
One year after graduating from college,
Josh found out that he had oral squamis carcinoma.
Cancer.
He had plans to be a management consultant.

Lots of things.
Suddenly none of it mattered.
Less than half of those who suffered from this particular type of cancer survived.
The reaper didn't discriminate.
And came without warning.
It became clear that the biggest risk in life wasn't making mistakes.
But
Regret.
Missing out on things.
He could never go back and recapture years spent doing something he disliked.
Two years later and cancer free, the
Josh set off on an indefinite global walkabout.
Covering expenses as a freelance writer.
He later became the co founder of a website that provides customized itineraries.
to would be vagabonds.
His executive status didn't lessen his mobile addiction, but
He was as comfortable cutting deals from the overwater bungalows of Bora Bora as
as he was in the log cabins of the Swiss Alps.
He once took a call from a client while at Camp Muir on Mount Rainier.
The client needed to confirm some sales numbers and
And asked Josh about all the wind in the background.
Josh's answer.
I'm standing at ten thousand feet on a glacier and this afternoon the wind is whipping us down the mountain.
The client said he'd let Josh get back to what he was doing.
Another client called Josh while he was leaving a Balinese temple who
and heard the gongs in the background.
The client asked Josh if he was in church.
Josh wasn't quite sure what to say.
All that came out was
Yes.
Back among the narwhals.
Josh had a few minutes before heading to base camp to avoid polar bears.
Twenty four hour daylight meant that he had much to share with his friends back in the land of cubicles.
He sat down on the ice.
and produced his satellite phone and laptop from a waterproof bag.
He began his email in the usual way.
I know you're all sick of seeing me have so much fun.
But guess where I am?
Q and A.
Questions.
and actions.
It is fatal.
To know too much at the outcome.
Bordom comes as quickly to the traveller who knows his route as to the novelist who is over certain
of his plot.
Paul Thareux.
To the ends of the earth.
If this is your first time considering a commitment to the mobile lifestyle,
and long term adventuring.
I envy you.
Making the jump.
And entering the new worlds that await is like upgrading your role in life from passenger.

The bulk of this QA will focus on the precise steps that you should take.
And the countdown timeline you can use.
When preparing for your first mini retirement.
Most steps can be eliminated or condensed once you get one trip under your belt.
Some of the steps are one time events.
After which subsequent mini retirements will require a maximum of
of two to three weeks of preparation.
It now takes me.
three afternoons.
Grab a pencil and paper.
This will be fun.
One.
Take an asset and cash flow snapshot.
Set two sheets of paper on a table.
Use one to record all assets and corresponding values.
including bank accounts, retirement accounts, stocks, bonds
Home and so forth.
On the second
Draw a line down the middle.
and write down all incoming cash flow.
Salary, Muse income, investment income, etc.
and outgoing expenses.
Mortgage, rent, car payments, etc.
What can you eliminate that is either seldom used or
Or that creates stress or distraction without adding a lot of value.
Two.
Fear said a one year mini retirement in a dream location.
In Europe.
Use the questions from chapter three to evaluate your worst case.

And evaluate the real potential.
Consequences.
Except in rare cases most will be avoidable and the rest.
Will be reversible.
Three.
Choose a location for your actual mini retirement.
Where to start?
This is the big question.
There are two options that I advocate.
A
Choose a starting point and then wander until you find your second home.
This is what I did with a one way ticket to London.
Vagabonding throughout Europe until I fell in love with Berlin.
Where I remained.
For three months.
B.
Scout a region.
and then settle in your favorite spot.
This is what I did with a tour of Central and South America.
Where I spent one to four weeks in each of several cities.
After which I returned to my favourite.
Buenos Aires.
For six months.
It is possible to take a mini retirement in your own country.
But the transformative effect is hampered
If you are surrounded by people who carry the same socially reinforced baggage.
I recommend choosing an overseas location that will seem foreign, but that isn't dangerous.
I box, race motorcycles, and do all sorts of macho things, but I draw the line at Favelis.
Brazilian shadow towns.
See the movie City of God, Cidad de Dios.
To get a taste of how fun these are.
Civilians with machine guns, pedestrians with machetes, and social strife.
Cheap is good.
But bullet holes are bad.
Check the U.S. Department of State for travel warnings before booking tickets.
Travel dot state dot gov
Here are just a few of my favorite starting points.
Feel free to choose other locations.
The most lifestyle for the dollar.
Is stressed.
Argentina.
Buenos Aires.
Cordova
China.
Shanghai.
Hong Kong Taipei
Japan
Tokyo, Osaka.
England
London
Ireland.
Galway
Thailand.
Bangkok.
Chiang Mai.
Germany.
Berlin.
Munich
Norway.
Oslo.
Australia, Sydney.
New Zealand?
Questown.
Italy.
Rome, Milan, Florence.
Spain.
Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla.
And Holland.
Amsterdam.
In all of these places
It is possible to live well.
While spending little.
I spend less in Tokyo than in California because I know it well.
Hip recently gentrified artist areas.
Not unlike the Brooklyn of ten years ago can be found in almost all cities.
The one place I can't seem to find a decent lunch for less than twenty dollars US is
London
Here are a few exotic places I don't recommend for vagabonding virgins.
Though veterans can make them all work.
All countries in Africa.
The Middle East or Central and South America.
Excepting Costa Rica and Argentina.
Mexico City and Mexican border areas are also a bit too kidnap happy.
To make it onto my favorite's list.
Four.
Prepare for your trip.
Here's the countdown.
Three months out.
Eliminate.
Get used to minimalism before the departure.
Here are the questions to ask and act upon.
Even if you never plan to leave.
What is the twenty percent of my belongings that I use eighty percent of the time?
Eliminate the other eighty percent in clothing, magazines, books, and all else.
Be ruthless.
You can always repurchase things you can't live without.
Which belongings create stress in my life.
This could relate to maintenance costs, money and energy.
Insurance, monthly expenses, time consumption,
Or simple distraction.
Eliminate, eliminate, eliminate.
If you sell even a few expensive items, it could finance a good portion of your mini retirement.
Don't rule out the car and home.
It's always possible to purchase either upon your return, often losing no money in the process.
Check current health insurance coverage for extended overseas travel.
Get the wheels in motion to rent, swap, or sell your home.
Renting out is most recommended by serial vagabonds but
or end your apartment lease and move all belongings into storage.
In all cases where doubts crop up.
Ask yourself, if I had a gun to my head and had to do it.
How would I do it?
It's not as hard as you think.
Two months out.
Automate
After eliminating the excess, contact companies, including suppliers, to
that bill you regularly and set up auto payment with credit cards that have reward points.
Telling them that you will be traveling the world for a year often persuades them to accept credit cards rather than chase you around the planet like Carmen San Diego.
For the credit card companies themselves and others that refuse.
Arrange automatic debit from your checking account.
Set up online banking and bill payment.
Set up all companies that won't take credit cards or automatic debit as online payees.
Set these scheduled checks for 15 to 20 dollars more than expected when dealing with utilities and other variable expenses.
This will cover miscellaneous fees, prevent time consuming billing problems.
And a crew as a credit.
Cancel paper bank and credit card statement delivery.
Get bank issued.
credit cards for all checking accounts.
Generally one for business and one for personal, and set the cash advances to zero dollars and
To minimize abuse potential.
Leave these cards at home.
as they are just for emergency overdraft protection.
Give a trusted member of your family and or your accountant a
Power of Attorney.
Which gives that person authority to sign documents, tax filings, and checks, for example, in your name.
This is a serious step and should not be taken with those you do not trust.
In this case it helps because your accountant can then sign tax documents or checks in your name and
Instead of consuming hours and days of your time with faxes scanners and expensive international Fed Xing,

Nothing screws up foreign fund faster than having to sign original documents when faces are unacceptable.
One month out.
Speak to the manager of your local post office and have all mail forwarded to a friend.
Family member.
Or personal assistant.
who will be paid one hundred to two hundred dollars per month
to email you brief descriptions of all non junk mail each Monday.
There are also services like earthclassmail.com.
Which will receive, scan, and email all of your non junk mail to you as PDFs.
Get all required and recommended immunizations and vaccinations.
For your target region.
Check the centers for disease control and prevention cdc.gov forward slash travel.
Note that proof of immunizations is sometimes required in
to pass through foreign customs.
Set up a trial account with GoToMyPC or similar remote access software.
and take a dry run to ensure that there are no technological glitches.
This would be used if you leave your computer at home.
Or in someone else's home while traveling.
This step can be skipped if you bring your computer to
But that is like a recovering heroin addict bringing a bag of opium to rehab.
Don't tempt yourself to kill time instead of rediscovering it.
If resellers
Or distributors still send you checks.
The fulfillment house should handle customer checks at this point, but
Do one of three things.
Give the resellers direct bank deposit information.
Ideal.
Have the fulfillment house handle these checks.
Second choice.
Or have the resellers pay via PayPal or mail checks to one of the people you are trusting
With power of attorney.
Far.

In the last case, give the person with power of attorney deposit slips so he or she can sign or stamp and mail in the checks.
It is convenient to become a member of a large bank.
Bank of America, Wells Fargo.
Washington Mutual
City bank, et cetera.
With branches near the person assisting you so that they can drop off the deposits.
While running other errands.
No need to move all accounts to this bank if you don't want to. Just open a single new account
that is used solely for these deposits.
Two weeks out.
Scan all identification, health insurance.
And credit debit cards into a computer.
from which you can print multiple copies.
Several to be left with family members and several to be taken with you in separate bags.
Email the scanned file to yourself so that you can access it while abroad and
If you lose the paper copies.
If you are an entrepreneur
Downgrade your cell phone to the cheapest plan and set up a voicemail greeting that states.
I am currently overseas on business. Please do not leave a voice mail as I will not be checking it while gone.
Please send me an email at blank at blank.com if the matter is important.
Thank you for your understanding.
Then set up email autoresponders.
That indicate responses could take up to seven days.
Or whatever you decide for frequency, and
Due to international business travel.
Find an apartment for your ultimate mini retirement destination or
Reserve a hostel or hotel at your starting point for three to four days.
Reserving an apartment before you arrive is riskier and will be much more expensive than
than using the latter three to four days to find.
An apartment.
I recommend hostels for the starting point if possible.
Not for cost considerations, but because the staff and fellow travelers have
are more knowledgeable and helpful with relocations.
Get foreign medical evacuation insurance if needed for peace of mind and
This tends to be redundant if you are in a developed country and can buy local insurance to augment your own, but
Which I do.
And it is useless if you are a ten hour flight from civilization.
I had evacuation insurance in Panama, as it's a two hour flight from Miami, but
But I didn't bother elsewhere.
Don't freak out about this.
It's just as true if you're in the middle of nowhere.
In the middle of the US.
One week out.
Decide on a schedule for routine batched tasks such as email, online banking, et cetera.
To eliminate excuses for senseless pseudo work procrasturbating.
I suggest Monday mornings for checking email and online banking.
The first and third Mondays of the month can be used for checking credit cards.
and making other online payments, such as affiliates.
These promises to yourself will be the hardest to keep.
So make a commitment now and expect serious withdrawal cravings.
Save important documents, including the scan of your identification, insurance, and credit debit cards.
To a small

That plugs into a computer USB port.
Move all things out of your home or apartment into storage.
Pack a single small backpack and carry on bag for the adventure.
and move in briefly with a family member or friend.
Two days out.
Put remaining automobiles into storage or a friend's garage.
Put fuel stabilizer like Stabil in the gas tanks, disconnect the negative leads from batteries to prevent drain.
and put the vehicles on jack stands to prevent tire and shock damage.
Cancel all auto insurance except for theft coverage.
Upon arrival.
Assuming you have not booked in advance.
First morning and afternoon after check in.
Take a hop on hop off bus tour of the city.
Followed by a bike tour of potential apartment neighborhoods.
First.
Late afternoon or evening.
Purchase an unlocked cell phone with a SIM card that can be recharged with simple prepaid cards.
Unlocked means that it is recharged with prepaid cards instead of being on a monthly payment plan.
With a single carrier such as O two or Vodafone.
This also means that the same phone can be used with carriers in other countries.
Assuming the frequency is the same,
With a simple switch of the SIM memory card for
ten dollars to thirty dollars US in most cases.
Some US compatible quad band phones can use SIM cards.
Email apartment owners or brokers on Craigslist.com and online versions of local newspapers for viewings over the next two days.
Second and third days.
Find and book an apartment for one month.
Don't commit to more than one month until you've slept there.
I once prepaid two months only to find that the busiest bus stop downtown
was on the other side of my bedroom wall.
Move in day.
Get settled.
and purchase local health insurance.
Ask hostile owners and other locals what insurance they use and
Resolve not to buy souvenirs or other take home items until two weeks prior to departure.
One week later.
Eliminate all the extra crap you brought but won't use often.
Either give it to someone who needs it more
Mail it back to the US?
Or throw it out.
Fifteen.
Filling the void.
Adding life after subtracting work.
To be engrossed by something outside ourselves is a powerful antidote.
for the rational mind.
The mind that so frequently has its head up its own ass.
Anne Lamotte
Bird by bird.
There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do.
Bill Watterson.
Creator of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip.
King's Cross, London.
I stumbled into the deli across the cobblestone street and ordered a prosciutto sandwich.
It was ten thirty AM now.
The fifth time I'd checked the time, and the twentieth time I'd asked myself how
What the bleep am I going to do today?
The best answer I had come up with so far was
Get a sandwich.
Thirty minutes earlier.
I had woken up without an alarm clock for the first time in four years.
Fresh off arriving from JFK the night before.
I had so been looking forward to it.
Awakening to musical bird song outside.
Sitting up in bed with a smile.
Smelling the aroma of freshly brewed coffee.
And stretching out overhead.
Like a cat in the shade of a Spanish villa.
Magnificent.
It turned out more like this.
Bolt upright as if blasted with a fog horn, grab clock, curse, jump out of bed in underwear to check email, remember that I was forbidden to do so, curse again,
Look for my host and former classmate, realize that he was off to work like the rest of the world, and proceed to have a panic attack.
I spent the rest of the day in a haze.
Wandering from museum to botanical garden to museum.
As if on rinse and repeat.
Avoiding internet cafes with some vague sense of guilt.
I needed a to do list to feel productive and so put down things like
Eat dinner.
This was going to be a lot harder than I had thought.
Postpartum depression.
It's normal.
Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
Annatal France.
Author of The Crime of Sylvester Bonard.
I've got more money and time.
than I ever dreamed possible.
Why am I depressed?
It's a good question.
With a good answer.
Just be glad you're figuring this out now and not at the end of life.
The retired and ultra rich are often unfulfilled and neurotic for the same reason.
Too much idle time.
But wait a second.
Isn't more time what we're after? Isn't that what this book is all about?
No.
Not at all.
Too much free time is no more than fertilizer for self doubt and assorted mental tail chasing.
Subtracting the bad does not create the good.
It leaves a vacuum.
Decreasing income driven work isn't
The end goal.
living more and becoming more.
Is.
In the beginning, the external fantasies will be enough.
And there is nothing wrong with this.
I cannot overemphasize the importance of this period.
Go nuts and live your dreams.
This is not superficial or selfish.
It is critical to stop repressing yourself and get out of the postponement habit.
Let's suppose you decide to dip your toe in dreams like relocating to the Caribbean for island hopping.
Or taking a safari in the Serengeti.
It will be wonderful.
And unforgettable.
And you should do it.
There will come a time, however, when
Be it three weeks or three years later.
when you won't be able to drink another pina colada or photograph another damn red assed baboon.
Self criticism and existential panic attacks start around this time.
But this is what I always wanted. How can I be bored?
Don't freak out and fuel the fire.
This is normal among all high performers who downshift after working hard for a long time, but
The smarter and more goal oriented you are,
The tougher these growing pains will be.
Learning to replace the perception of time famine
With appreciation of time abundance.
Is like going from triple espresso to Dcaf.
But there's more.
Retirees get depressed for a second reason and you will too.
Social isolation.
Offices are good for some things, but
Free bad coffee and complaining thereof.
Gossip and commiserating.
Stupid video clips via email with even stupider comments.
And meetings that accomplish nothing but kill a few hours with a few laughs.
The job itself might be a dead end, but
but it's the web of human interactions.
The social environment.
That keeps us there.
Once liberated.
This automatic tribal unit disappears and
Which makes the voices in your head louder.
Don't be afraid of the existential or social challenges.
Freedom.
Is like a new sport.
In the beginning, the sheer newness of it is exciting enough to keep things interesting at all times, but
Once you have learned the basics though
It becomes clear that to be even a half decent player.
requires some serious practice.
Don't fret.
The greatest rewards are to come, and
And your ten feet.
From the finish line.
Frustrations and doubts.
You're not alone.
People say that what we are seeking is a meaning for life.
I don't think this is what we're really seeking.
I think what we're seeking
is an experience of being alive.
Joseph Campbell.
The power of myth.
Once you eliminate the nine to five and the rubber hits the road,
It's not all roses and white sand bliss, though much of it can be, but
Without the distraction of deadlines and co workers,
The big questions.
Such as what does it all mean?
become harder to fend off for a later time.
In a sea of infinite options.
Decisions also become harder.
What the hell should I do with my life?
It's like senior year in college all over again.
Like all innovators ahead of the curve, you will have frightening moments of doubt.
Once past the kid in a candy store phase, the comparative impulse will creep in.
The rest of the world will continue with its nine to five grind, but
And you'll begin to question your decision to step off the treadmill.
Common doubts and self flagellation include the following.
One.
Am I really doing this to be more free and lead a better life? Or am I just lazy?
Two.
Did I quit the rat race because it's bad?
Or just because I couldn't hack it.
Did I just cop out?
Three.
Is this as good as it gets?
Perhaps I was better off when I was following orders and ignorant of the possibilities, but
It was easier, at least.
Four.
Am I really successful?
Or just kidding myself.
Five.
Have I lowered my standards to make myself a winner?
Are my friends who are now making twice as much as three years ago really on the right track?
Six.
Why am I not happy?
I can do anything and I'm still not happy. Do I even deserve it?
Most of this can be overcome as soon as we recognize it for what it is.
Outdated comparisons using the more is better and money as success mindsets are
That got us into trouble to begin with.
Even so
There is a more profound observation to be made.
These doub the mind when nothing else fills it.
Think of a time when you felt 100% alive and undistracted.
In the zone.
Chan that it was when you were completely focused in the moment on something external.
Someone or something else.
Sports and sex are two great examples.
Lacking an external focus, the mind turns inward on itself and creates problems to solve, but
Even if the problems are undefined or unimportant.
If you find a focus, an ambitious goal that seems impossible,
And forces you to grow.
These doubts disappear.
Abraham Maslow, the American psychologist famous for proposing Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
would term this goal a
Peak experience.
In the process of searching for new focus.
It is almost inevitable that the big
Questions will creep in.
There is pressure from pseudo philosophers everywhere to cast aside the impertinent and answer the eternal and
Two popular examples are
What is the meaning of life?
And
What is the point of it all?
There are many more, ranging from the introspective to the ontological and
But I have one answer for almost all of them.
I don't answer them at all.
I'm no nihilist, in fact.
I've spent more than a decade investigating the mind and concept of meaning.
A quest that has taken me from the neuroscience laboratories of top universities to

The conclusion after it all is surprising.
I am one hundred percent convinced
that most big questions we feel compelled to face
Handed down through centuries of overthinking and mistranslation.
Use terms so undefined
as to make attempting to answer them a complete waste of time.
There is a place for cones and rhetorical meditative questions, but
But these tools are optional and outside the scope of this audiobook.
Most questions without answers.
Are just poorly worded.
This isn't depressing.
It's liberating.
Consider the question of questions.
What is the meaning?
Of life.
If pressed, I have but one response.
It is the characteristic state or condition of a living organism.
But that's just a definition, the questioner will retort.
That's not what I mean at all.
What do you mean then?
Until the question is clear.
Each term in it defined.
There is no point.
In answering it.
The meaning of life question is unanswerable.
Without further elaboration.
Before spending time on a stress inducing question,
Big or otherwise.
Ensure that the answer is yes to the following two questions.
One.
Have I decided on a single meaning for each term in this question?
Two.
Can the answer to this question be acted upon to improve things?
What is the meaning of life?
Fails the first and thus the second.
Questions about things beyond your sphere of influence like
What if the train is late tomorrow and
Fail the second and should thus be ignored.
These are not worthwhile questions.
If you can't define it or act upon it,
Forget it.
If you take just this point from this audiobook, it will put you in the top one percent of performers in the world and keep most philosophical distress out of your life.
Sharpening your logical and practical mental toolbox is not being an atheist or
Or unspiritual.
It's not being crass and it's not being superficial.
It's being smart.
And putting your effort where it can make the biggest difference for yourself.
And others.
The point of it all.
Drum roll please.
What man actually needs is not a tensionless state
But rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal.
A freely chosen.
Task
Victor E. Frankel.
Holocaust survivor.
Author of Man's Search for Meaning.
I believe that life exists to be enjoyed and that the most important thing is to feel good about yourself.
Each person will have his or her own vehicles for both.
And those vehicles will change over time.
For some the answer will be working with orphans.
And for others, it will be composing music.
I have a personal answer to both.
To love
Be loved and never stop learning.
But I don't expect that to be universal.
Some criticize a focus on self love and enjoyment as selfish or hedonistic.
But it's neither.
Enjoying life.
And helping others.
Or feeling good about yourself and increasing the greater good.
are no more mutually exclusive than being agnostic and leading a moral life.
One does not preclude the other.
Let's assume we agree on this.
It still leaves the question.
What can I do with my time to enjoy life and feel good about myself?
I can't offer a single answer that will fit all people, but
Based on the dozens of fulfilled NR I've interviewed,
There are two components that are fundamental.
Continual learning.
And service.
Learning unlimited.
Sharpening the saw

Despite all the progress that has been made in the last thirty years, the
Many foreign people
still speak in foreign languages.
Dave Barry.
To live.
Is to learn. I see no other option.
This is why I felt compelled to quit or be fired from jobs within the first six months or so.
The learning curve flattens out and I get bored.
Though you can upgrade your brain domestically.
Traveling and relocating provides unique conditions that make progress much
Faster.
The different surroundings act as a counterpoint and mirror for your own prejudices and
Making weaknesses that much easier to fix.
I rarely travel somewhere without deciding first how I'll obsess on a specific skill.
Here are a few examples.
Connemara, Ireland
Gaelic Irish.
Irish flute and hurling.
The fastest field sport in the world.
Imagine a mix of lacrosse and rugby.
Played with ax handles.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Brazilian Portuguese and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Berlin, Germany.
German.
And locking.
A form of upright break dancing.
I tend to focus on language acquisition and one kinesthetic skill.
Sometimes finding the latter after landing overseas, but
The most successful serial vagabond tend to blend the mental and the physical
Notice that I often transport a skill I practice domestically, but
Martial arts to other countries.
Where they are also practiced.
Instant social life and camaraderie.
It need not be a competitive sport, but
It could be hiking.
Chess.
Or almost anything that keeps your nose out of a textbook and you out of your apartment.
Sports just happen to be excellent for avoiding foreign language stage fright and
And developing lasting friendships.
While still sounding like Tarzan.
Language learning deserves special mention. It is
Bar none.
The best

to hone clear thinking.
Quite aside from the fact that it is impossible to understand a culture.
Without understanding its language.
Acquiring a new language makes you aware of your own language.
Your own thoughts.
The benefits of becoming fluent in a foreign tongue are as underestimated as the difficulty is overestimated.
Thousands of theoretical linguists will disagree, but I know from research and personal experimentation with more than a dozen languages that
That one
Adults can learn languages.
much faster than children when constant nine to five work is removed.
And that two
It is possible to become conversationally fluent in
Any language.
In six months or less.
At four hours per day, six months can be whittled down to less than three months, but
It is beyond the scope of this audio book to explain applied linguistics and the eighty twenty of language learning.
But resources and complete how to guides can be found under language.
at fourhourblog.com
I learned six languages after failing Spanish in high school.
And you can do the same with the right tools.
Gain a language and you gain a second lens through which to question and understand the world.
Cursing at people when you go home is fun too.
Don't miss the chance to double your life experience.
Service.
For the right reasons.
To save the whales.
or kill them and feed the children.
Morality is simply the attitude we adopt people we personally dislike.
Oscar Wilde.
One would expect me to mention service in this chapter.
And here it is.
Like all before it?
The twist is a bit different.
Service to me is simple.
Doing something that improves life besides your own.
This is not the same as philanthropy.
Philanthropy is the altruistic concern for the well being of mankind.
Human life.
Human life has long been focused on the exclusion of the environment and the rest of the food chain.
Hence our current race to imminent extinction.
Serves us right.
The world does not exist solely for the betterment and multiplication of mankind.
Before I start chaining myself to trees and saving the dart frogs, though, I should take my own advice.
Do not become a cause snob.
How can you help starving children in Africa when there are starving children in Los Angeles?
How can you save the whales when homeless people are freezing to death?
How does doing volunteer research on coral destruction help those people who need
Help.
Now.
Children, please.
Everything out there needs help, so don't get baited into my cause can beat up your cause arguments with no right answer.
There are no qualitative or quantitative comparisons that make sense.
The truth is this.
Those thousands of lives you save
could contribute to a famine that kills millions.
Or that one bush in Bolivia that you protect.
Could hold the cure for cancer.
The downstream effects are unknown.
Do your best.
And hope for the best.
If you're improving the world, however you define that
Consider your job well done.
Service isn't limited to saving lives or the environment either, but
It can also improve life.
If you are a musician and put a smile on the faces of thousands, you
Or millions.
I view that as service.
If you are a mentor and change the life of one child for the better.
The world has been improved.
Improving the quality of life in the world is in no fashion to any
Adding more lives.
Service.
Is an attitude.
Find the cause or vehicle that interests you most.
And make no apologies.
Q and A.
Questions.
And actions.
Adults are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up because they are looking for ideas.
Paula Poundstone.
The miracle is not to walk on water.
The miracle is to walk on the green earth.
Dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.
Take not Han.
But I can't just travel, learn languages, or fight for one cause for the rest of my life.
Of course you can't.
That's not my suggestion at all.
These are just good life hubs.
Starting points that lead to opportunities and experiences that otherwise wouldn't be found.
There is no right answer to the question
What should I do with my life?
Forget
Should be.
All together.
The next step, and that's all it is.
is pursuing
Something.
It matters little what.
That seems fun or rewarding.
Don't be in a rush to jump into a full time long-term commitment.
Take time to find something that calls to you.
Not just the first acceptable form of surrogate work.
That calling will, in turn,
lead you to something else.
Here is a good sequence for getting started that dozens of NR have used with success.
One.
Revisit ground zero.
Do
Nothing.
Before we can escape the goblins of the mind, we need to face them.
Principle among them is speed addiction.
It is hard to recalibrate your internal clock without taking a break from constant over stimulation.
Travel.
And the impulse to see a million things can exacerbate this.
Slowing down doesn't mean accomplishing less.
It means cutting out counterproductive distractions and the
Perception.
Of being rushed.
Consider attending a short silence retreat of three to seven days and
During which all media and speaking
Is prohibited.
Learn to turn down the static of the mind.
So you can appreciate more before doing more.
The Art of Living Foundation.
Course two
International.
Art of Living. org
Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California.
Spirit Rock. org
Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts.
Kripaloo.org
Sky Lake Lodge in New York.
Sky Lake.
Dot org.
Two.
Make an anonymous donation to the service organization of your choice.
This helps to get the juices flowing and disassociate feeling good about service.
With getting credit.
For it.
It feels even better when it's pure.
Here are some good sights to get started.
Charity Navigator
CharityNavigator.org
This independent service ranks more than five thousand charities using criteria you select.
Create a personalized page of favorites and compare them side by side.
Uh
Free of charge.
First giving.
Firstgiving.com
Firstgiving.com
Allows you to create an online fundraising page.
Donations can be made through your personal URL.
I have used first giving in coordination with a non profit called Room to Read.
To build schools in both Nepal and Vietnam.
With more countries pending.
If you specifically want to help animals, for example,
You can click on a related link and access websites for hundreds of different animal charities.
and then decide which one you want to donate to.
The UK version of the website is
Just giving dot com.
Three.
Take a learning mini retirement in combination with local volunteering.
Take a mini retirement.
Six months or more, if possible.
to focus on learning and serving.
The longer duration will permit a language focus which in turn enables more meaningful interaction and contribution through volunteering.
For the duration of this trip, the
Note self criticisms and negative self talk in a journal.
Whenever upset or anxious, ask or
Why at least three times.
And put the answers down on paper.
Describing these doubts in writing reduces their impact twofold.
First.
It's often the ambiguous nature of self doubt.
That hurts most.
Defining and exploring it in writing.
Just as with forcing colleagues to email.
demands clarity of thought.
After which most concerns are found to be baseless.
Second
Recording these concerns seems to somehow
Remove them from your head.
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, but
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 Rainforest.
and shepherding leatherback 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.
Reader tested resources include
Hands on disaster response.
HODR. org.
Project Hope.
Project Hope.
Dot org.
Relief.
International.
R.
International relief teams.
IRTeams. org
Airline Ambassadors International.
AirlineAMB dot org.
Ambassadors for children
Ambassadors for children dot org
Relief Riders International.
Relief Riders International dot com
Habitat for Humanity Global Village Program
Habitat.org
Planeta
Global listings for practical ecotourism.
Planeta.com
Four.
Revisit and reset dreamlines.
Following the mini retirement, revisit the Dreamlines set in definition.
and reset them as needed.
The following questions will help.
What are you good at?
What could you be the best?
Mm.
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?
Five.
Based on the outcomes of steps one through four,
Consider testing new part or full time vocations and
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 is
This is what I did with this audiobook.
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.
Sixteen.
The top thirteen new rich mistakes.
If you don't make mistakes.
You're not working on hard enough problems.
And that's
A big mistake.
Frank Will Check.
Two thousand four Nobel Prize winner in physics.
Ho imparato c'è niente e impossibile.
Piance c'è quasi niente facile.
I've learned that nothing is impossible and that almost nothing
Is easy.
Article thirty one.
Italian rap group.
Un Orlo.
Mistakes 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 slip ups you will make.
Don't get frustrated.
It's all part of the process.
One.
Losing sight of dreams and falling into work for work's sake.
W four W
Please re-listen to the introduction and next chapter of this audiobook whenever you feel yourself falling into this trap.
Everyone does it.
But many get stuck and never get out.
Two.
Micromanaging and emailing
To fill time.
Set the responsibilities, problem scenarios, and rules.
and limits of autonomous decision making.
Then stop.
for the sanity of everyone involved.
Three.
Handling problems your outsourcers or co-workers can handle.
Four.
Helping out sourcers or co workers with the same problem more than once.
Or with non crisis problems.
Give them
If then rules for solving all but the largest problems are
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 a
The ability to fix any problem that will cost less than four hundred dollars.
At the end of each month, or quarter, depending on the outsourcer,
I review how their decisions have affected profit and
and adjust the rules accordingly.
Often adding new rules based on their good decisions and creative solutions.
Five.
Chasing customers, particularly unqualified or international prospects.
When you have sufficient cash flow to finance your non financial pursuits.
Six.
Answering email that will not result in a sale.
Or that can be answered by a FAC or auto responder.
Seven.
Working where you live.
Sleep.
Or should relax.
Separate your environments.
Designate a single space for work and solely
Work.
Or you will never be able to escape it.
Eight.
Not performing a thorough eighty twenty analysis every two to four weeks for your business and personal life.
Nine.
striving for endless perfection rather than great or simply good enough.
Whether in your personal
or professional life.
Recognize that this is often just another W four W excuse.
Most endeavors are like learning to speak a foreign language.
To be correct, ninety five percent of the time.
Requires six months of concentrated effort.
Whereas to be correct ninety eight percent of the time requires twenty to thirty years.
Focus on great for a few things, and good enough for the rest.
Perfection is a good ideal and direction to have, but
But recognize it for what it is.
An impossible destination.
Ten.
Blowing minutia and small problems out of proportion as an excuse for
To work.
Eleven.
Making non time sensitive issues urgent.
In order to justify work.
How 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
To create it.
Whether that is fulfilling dreams.
or finding work that gives you purpose and self worth.
Ideally?
A combination of both.
twelve
View one product.
Job or project.
As the end all and be all of your existence.
Life 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 eighty twenty both business and personal activities and relationships.
13
Ignoring the social rewards of life.
Surround yourself with smiling.
Positive people.

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.
Hey guys, this is Tim again, just one more thing before you take off, and that is Five Bullet Friday. Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little fun before the weekend? Between one and a half and two million people subscribe to my free newsletter, my super short newsletter called Five Bullet Friday. Easy to sign up, easy to cancel.
It is basically a half page that I send out every Friday to share the coolest things I've found or discovered or have started exploring over that week. It's kinda like my diary of cool things. It often includes articles I'm reading, books I'm reading.
albums perhaps, gadgets, gizmas, all sorts of tech tricks and so on that get sent to me by my friends, including a lot of podcast guests. And these strange esoteric things end up in my field and then I test them and then I share them with you. So if that sounds fun again it's very short.
a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend, something to think about. If you'd like to try it out, just go to Tim.blog slash Friday. Type that into your browser, Tim dot blog slash.
Friday, drop in your email and you'll get the very next one.
Thanks for listening.
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