My thoughts pertaining to the rat race, the 9 to 5, or the choice we make to spend our lives working in a cubicle are simple. It’s dead wrong.

My feelings towards spending 40+years doing something we dislike brings out some of the strongest emotions I have:

  • Anger
  • Fear
  • Desperation
  • Bitterness
  • Anguish

The thought of working my life away in an unfulfilling job is something that’s constantly on my mind. What if I can’t get out of my job? What if I don’t have what it takes to break free? What if I’m 65 and still working a miserable job?

These questions strike fear into the very center of my heart.

A Call To Action

Last week, I went to the library and checked our The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. Now, I realize that I may be the last person in America to have read this, but it has really shaken me up.

I had purposely been avoiding reading this due to all the hype. Everything I had heard about this book talked about how revolutionary it was. I prefer not to get sucked into that stuff, because it’s often just marketing hype and bullshit.

I can see now that it lives up the rave reviews.

Right now, it’s 11:30pm and I am beyond tired. I was laying in bed reading the book and was overcome with emotion. I actually got myself so worked up that I couldn’t go to sleep, although my body was begging me to.

My mind is racing with thoughts of breaking free from the 40 year employee trap. There are so many thought provoking points in this book that get my heart racing and my mind moving into overdrive, that I find that I have a hard time unwinding after reading it.

The Flood Gates Open

Now, I’ve read many self-help books in my life. Books like Think and Grow Rich, Unlimited Power, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and Crush it.

While these are all incredibly powerful books, none of them have had such an impact on how I look at life as The 4-Hour Workweek has.

As a side note; As inspirational as this book is, I can’t honestly say that I am on board with everything he teaches here. It’s the “don’t waste your life” message that really reaches me.

As I read through the book, a few things really stood out and screamed “WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE”!!!

“Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty”.

Think about it. How many of us are afraid to leave a “secure” job? How many of us will choose to play it “safe” by working for someone else our entire lives?

We are in essence enrolling ourselves in a lifetime subscription to mediocraty.

Do we want to enjoy our lives right now while we’re young enough to enjoy it or do we want to spend 90,000 hours of the best years of our lives working an unfulfilling, meaningless job?

“He had always been terrified of plane turbulence, as if he might die with the best inside of him”

Do you have this feeling? It doesn’t have to be related to a plane crash, but rather the feeling in general. Does the thought of death scare the shit out of you, not because of the pain you might suffer through, but rather because you haven’t lived enough?

Me too! There is no worse feeling than feeling like we are missing out on life-just watching it pass us by.

I hate flying, more specifically being in turbulence. It’s not the fear of crashing and dying a fiery death but rather that I will be missing out on life. I haven’t lived enough yet!

What is the post of gold that justifies spending the best years of your life hoping for happiness in the last”?

This hits the nail on the head. We all think that we are going to work hard, save a bunch of money for retirement, and then retire and enjoy the good life. Well, for me, the good life is NOW, not when I’m too old to fully enjoy it. It’s completely backwards.

Why are we spending the best years of our lives working miserable jobs just to “enjoy” our golden years? It’s fucking idiotic!

What’s even scarier is that there is a fair chance that our health will be too poor to allow us to enjoy our retirement or that we will be dead. Talk about getting screwed!

You spend your entire life busting your ass and waiting for retirement and you die before you get there. FAIL!

“The worst case scenario is living a tolerable and comfortable existence doing something unfulfilling”.

How true is this! 95% of are doing something unfulfilling. Why? Because we have to pay the bills. Why can’t we do something we love AND pay the bills? We can, but we aren’t. I know I’m not…not yet anyway.

There is no rule that says we can’t love our jobs, love our life, and make enough money to never have to worry about money.

Most who avoid quitting their jobs entertain the thought that their course will improve in time or increase in income”.

Are you guilty of this? 4 years ago, I thought I would be doing something else. I thought I would be working in a field I love, making plenty of money and enjoying my life.

Strike 1!

10 years ago, I thought I would be sitting atop the world of high finance, driving a black BMW M3, living in a luxurious home, and living the good life.

Strike 2!

15 years ago, I thought I would be an experienced world traveller, living day to day, enjoying nature, climbing mountains, and having a peaceful existence.

Strike 3!

I’ve got news for you, if we don’t make it happen for ourselves, it will NEVER happen. You will become a corpse sitting in a cubicle. Get out now!

“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”.

How often can you honestly say that you truly feel alive? I can’t remember the last time I felt it. It’s heartbreaking that we don’t feel it more often (or at all). We all feel temporary motivation or inspiration, but that’s different.

We are all so caught up in life’s everyday grind, that we never take the time to experience life, let alone live it to the fullest.

“A deferrer is someone who saves it all for the end only to find that life has passed them by”.

Are YOU a deferrer? What are you waiting for? “Someday” will never come and you will be gravely sorry that you waited to enjoy life. Incredibly sad. I am 100% guilty of this cardinal sin.

At almost 40, I have not enjoyed my life even 10% of what I could have. This is something I cannot change, but what I can change is the future. So can you.

“If tolerating a punishing work environment is a prerequisite for promotion, could it be you’re in a game not worth winning”.

This is brilliant. Many of us will deal with shitty bosses, office politics, back stabbing, and other office bullshit just to get a 3% raise each year. It’s insanity to me. The 9-5 prison sentence is NOT a game worth winning.

There is no winning. How can working for someone else, building their business, and making them rich be a winning solution? It’s not.

Retirement as a goal is flawed because it is predicated on the assumption that you dislike what you are doing during the most physically capable years of your life. Nothing can justify that sacrifice”.

Think about this for a moment. We think of retirement as an escape from our working lives. If we need an escape, clearly we are not passionate about what we’re doing. People working meaningful jobs, jobs they love, don’t need to look forward retirement.

Why should we be any different?

“The opposite of happiness is boredom”.

I love this quote. As Tim says “Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness, and it is precisely what you should strive to chase. It is the cure-all”.

When is the last time you thought about what excited you? Probably a long time ago, if ever. We all think about what would make us happy, but what does that really mean? It’s far too vague.

Think about what gets your heart racing with anticipation, what shoots you out of bed without an alarm each day, what inspires you to do what you do.

Therein lies your answer. Now go do it!

“Our culture tends to reward personal sacrifice instead of personal productivity”.

How many times have you heard “he’s such a hard worker” or “he needs to man up and get a real job”? This is how we think-most of us anyway. I think it’s a complete crock of horseshit.

Why are we sacrificing our happiness for anything?

I love my family more than anything in this world and feel like I have sacrificed a great deal, but there is no need to. Why can’t we ALL be happy? Why does one have to suffer in order to provide a better life for the rest? Makes no sense.

Open Your Eyes Up People!

eyes_wide_open

As you can see, I have extremely strong feelings on this matter. It consumes my thoughts each day.

My goal is to get you to open your eyes and ask yourself these same questions. Maybe then, you will take action and make a change.

Statistically, less than 1% of people will take the wisdom of a book like The 4-Hour Workweek and apply it. Why? Because it’s hard. It requires getting WAY out of your comfort zone and doing things that you never thought you were capable of.

So what! Don’t you think the payoff will be worth it?Are YOU worth it?

If you don’t do it now, you probably will never do it. Seriously, do not waste another minute of your life being miserable.

Now ask yourself these 3 questions:

  1. Do I want to work hard, scrape by, save as much as I can, and retire at 65? Or do I want to build something for myself right now, love what I am doing, and enjoy my freedom?
  2. Do I want to be the richest person in my nursing home or do I want to create wealth now and enjoy it while I can.
  3. Can I make a change in my life right now that will help lead me to what I want out of  life?

WTF Are You Going To Do Now?

Are you going to finish reading this post, maybe leave a comment, and then go find another “helpful” article? Yes, you probably are.

What you should do, and I cannot urge this strongly enough, is to take time for deep self reflection. What are you getting out of life right now? What do you really want? Most of us cannot answer these questions truthfully.

If you aren’t happy, WTF are you going to do about it???

It kills me to see people every day that clearly hate their jobs and/or lives. WHY? There is no reason at all that we can’t live our dream life. Will it happen overnight? Of course not. But it will NEVER happen if you don’t make it happen.

Now get up off your ass and go create your best possible life!

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