Tim Ferriss is the guy behind The Four Hour Work Week, a book that gives advice on streamlining your work and making time to do what you want with your life. That’s a total guess because I haven’t actually read the book yet. I really want to but I can’t find the damn thing anywhere and I’m not a fan of audio books. I’ll get to it one of these days. (Hey does anyone know where I can buy the book in PDF format?)
So his book is really popular and he’s become a pretty well known guy. He does lots of talks around the US, he has a popular blog, and it’s pretty obvious that he’s super smart. I’ll admit that there’s something very punchable about him (the photos of him standing on his head or kung-fu fighting on the beach are a bit much, and watching a video of him break dancing made me cringe) but I find him fascinating at the same time.
I don’t admire him for his book, his successful businesses, his blog, his speeches or any of that stuff. I admire the guy because of what he’s accomplished away from the typical world of work. He’s all about freeing up his time to do whatever he wants, and it’s how he chooses to fill his spare time that has me in awe.
He is the most driven and motivated person I’ve ever had the pleasure to not know. The guy is a world champion tango dancer, holds some kind of tango world record, is a martial arts expert, knows a bunch of languages, travels loads, is super fit, raised money for schools in Asia and who knows what else (actually his site is down at the moment so all of this is off the top of my head and I really don’t know what else). He makes time for himself but, more importantly, he uses that time for personal growth in a really diverse number of areas. I make time for myself and then use it to nap. That’s not good.
I feel like I’m in a fantastic position in my life at the moment but the pressure is sort of on not to squander my time away. I’m eager to learn new skills but I always seem to have the attitude of ‘later’ or ‘next year’. I would love to take a page out of Tim’s book (after I read it) and find a way to aim higher, spend my time more wisely and motivate myself to achieve some big things.
Leave a Reply