Learn to control money but do not allow it to control you

Memory_Girl

Kisses from he boys and I young lady.

Knew you'd knock 'em dead

MG

Karmacat

Thats great, FW - I'm really glad it was so positive.

Mothering Sunday - it doesn't sound like its defeating you - you've negotiated doing it on a different day, thats all. From what I've seen recently, I'd say a defeat would be ignoring it - you've already renegotiated, this stuff happens.

Enjoy the rest of the trip!

Firewalker

Memory_Girl wrote: »

Kisses from he boys and I young lady.

Knew you'd knock 'em dead

MG

Ahhh, thank you and hope for real ones soon. Feeling really exhausted and started getting ill. And nowhere even close to have finished with the trip.

FW

Firewalker

I do love Sweden! Have many Swedish friends and have always worked well with and for Swedish people. Just had a really pleasant evening with my colleague here (she is not Swedish but she has been here for a long time) and her husband. We talked and joked, and laughed...and the pizza was rather nice as well. On the down side I’ll be working tomorrow as well, although even God rested for one day, preparing the presentation for the seminar on Monday. And this is it with the 4 Hour Workweek – it is official I am an overworking, self-exploiting under-achiever.
Today, I would like to get back to Tim Ferriss. It is very well cracking jokes about reducing the hours I work but it is important. If you remember I did do the definition exercises; I also have a mind map of the chapter on definitions and changing one’s notions about the relationship between ‘work’ and ‘play’. In fact, I just realised that the whole idea of the 4 Hour Workweek is to redress a matter that is being extensively discussed in the media recently; the matter of work – life balance. For many people balancing work and life is becoming a problem. For another group of people – the group where I fit – this is not an issue because work is becoming our life. What Tim is saying is that it should not be an issue because life can become one’s work.

Now I have a problem to solve. The problem is how one gets from ‘work is my life’ (which let face it is pretty sad life) to ‘life is my work’. I will be thinking about this one but what do you reckon?

On a more practical note I will do some of the elimination exercises – will answer at least two of the questions (if I had a heart attack and had to work only two hours per day, what would I do; and if I had a gun to my head and had to stop doing 4/5 of different time consuming activities what would I remove).
And will write another item for the blog which I have been neglecting because of extreme preoccupation with this workshop, the paper for it, the presentation etc. It was not ‘displacing’, honest...
Taka care and have a nice evening.
Firewalker

savingwannabe

I think because you have your LB you are embracing the 'life is my work' idea fully. I dont know whether anyone is happy with their worklife balance but i know you will give it a damn good shot and inspire so many of us to try in the process. I hope you are able to travel a bit and see, experience Sweden too. Bless you dear Firewalker.

Firewalker

Happy Mother's Day to the ladies reading and make sure the women in you life have fun to the gents. I am not having breakfast in bed today - given that I am in a hotel I could have done but didn't think about it in time. So having just woken up (it is an hour ahead) I will go down, have breakfast and then use the day to have a nice walk, work on myself and work on the presentation. And of course the next blog post that is desparately trying to come out but is stuck somewhere in the machinary of my mind.

Firewalker

Memory_Girl

Happy Mothers Day hon - I know he is doubly precious

MG

savingwannabe

Hooray you will be celebrating it soon with your dear son and family. Have a good day today. Try to rest a bit too.

Karmacat

"Life is my work". Lovely! You've taken it to a whole other level with that! But I think the way forward in immediate terms might be actually doing some of the easy stuff - like, chucking stuff out that gets in the way, or batching the post, or letting the answerphone take calls past a certain hour, something like that.

The Definition part is lovely, and shows us what we want to be aiming for, but truthfully, we're not 20something or 30something hyperactive American men, so we've actually thought about this stuff before. The key practical elements Tim's advocating seems to be setting up a business that runs without you; and getting the space in our lives to do that by eliminating the dross, and then automating what's left. I've eliminated a lot of physical dross, by physical decluttering, tho I still have quite a bit more to do (I let my stuff get really out of control in the last house, because it was so big, and now I've downsized I'm still working on fitting everything in pleasantly). Decluttering in terms of what comes into my email box is important, and tho it doesn't take long, its kind of symbolic of what I'm doing.

My post also - this is where I've had the most success in eliminating in Tim's terms - by batching days together - I don't do the post every day, at the moment I have 3 days worth waiting to be dealt with. Nearly all my bills are automated, as most people's are these days, and the only one that isn't, my credit card, is paid in full midmonth, so there's nothing that *has* to be dealt with right now. Tim reckoned that for his post - to open it and deal with it immediately - saved maybe an hour a week, because its easier to keep going, get in the zone, if you're doing a lot - its opening the post, putting the rubbish into recycling, throwing the plastic, filing stuff right away, writing letters straight away and then posting - I often make a special trip out to the postbox, but thats because I always work from home, and I always try to have 15 minutes at least walking, even if I'm also doing stuff in the garden.

I can't outsource the way he describes, because it costs money. He does make the point that we have to pay for services to get the time to do the stuff that will bring in the big bucks, but I'm not currently reaching my breakeven point, and it would be insane to put more costs onto my declining income. But I could possibly automate more. Once my second income is up and running securely, I will see about automating my French bills.

I'm re-reading 4HWW really carefully, after being so blown away the first time, and what strikes me about the process of **becoming** a person who lives like that, even to a degree, is that it takes time. It takes time to Eliminate, it takes time to research and start up a business, it even takes time to institute automation. At first, it means more work, not less, sadly. Such is the way of the world. But it is most definitely work with a focus - to free up time. Will this help me free up time in the immediate future, the medium term future? Will this help me create a positive business that will help me do those things?

He says, I remember, that he's not a big fan of working harder - but it seems to me in the intermediate stage, when we're setting this stuff up, that its hard to do it any other way, I can't really see how else to do it! Don't know what you think ....

And, of course, the thing he doesn't address, is this a relationship I want to nurture, even though it started in the workplace? Like your pizza in Sweden! Thats important! Its a whole other stage of the book, let alone a chapter.

Well! I didn't mean to write quite so much. But you write such thought provoking things, and I *want* this new life that we can see! Here's to it

MrsMoo2U

I will say Happy Mothers day to you and all the Mothers on here. However I have a problem with Mothering Sunday because, in my view, it is a wholly commercial invention. Being a Mother is a very special thing and so children and others should celebrate their Mums all of the time. To feel bad about not being there is another example of people feeling the pressure of a consumer society. So FW well done on agreeing to make a special day for you to celebrate being LBs Mum in your own time.

Now how to make life your work rather than work your life? Well, I haven't read Tim Ferris yet but I remember my friend once telling me that you should follow your passion not your pension. She did and is truly happy. As far as I can tell, if you are working at something that you truly love to do then is it really work or just an extension of living your passion? yes there will be things that NEED to be done to be able to carry on doing your passions as your job. For example, you seem to love being with people and presenting workshops so is that your life becoming your work? you find the preparing difficult sometimes so is that part of the 4 hour work? Or am I oversimplyfing things?