The 4-Hour Workweek...living Heaven on earth

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

The 4-hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss... who's just touching 30 years old.
A friend of mine conjectured, "What does he know?" Well, evidently, a lot think he has something going as he is on the top five on several business book lists.

Many are listening, thinking about and even re-considering lifestyle, making money and having life in a life. Jesus was 30 when he challenged, "Maybe you should reconsider how you do life."

Retirement should be part of your life, throughout your life, and not just a life-long destination proclaims Ferriss. Do you really like working 50 hours a week where you don't really want, wanting to do what you don't get to do, and not really being the person like you really want to be.

Ferriss is living his concept of lifestyle, making money new ways and being more of the person he wants to be.

He introduces the New Rich... "those who abandon the deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyle in the present using the currency of the New Rich:
time and mobility.”

His formula uses two key principles: eliminate and automate.

That's the deal... you can be your life's own deal maker. So be the outline of The 4-hour Workweek. He says he once was a noble, hard working person, loyal to the job, handling its problems, even on the weekends. He was making an honorable $40,000 a year. Then he threw the brakes on, got in another vehicle, and created strategies to make $40,000 a month in a 4-hour work week.

So that's his DEAL.
D... Definition of the fundamentals for a new overall lifestyle recipe.
E... Elimination of the unnecessary so you have ultra-productive use of time using techniques of selective ignorance, low-info diet, and ignoring the unimportant.
A... Automation of income flow using outsourcing, nondecision, geographic advantage.
L... Liberation to live a mobile manifesto, live mini-retirements.

Definition
The New Rich choose options that require less effort and cost by closely monitoring... what you do, when you do it, where you do it, and with whom you do it.

Change your rules... retirement as a final goal is flawed. The New Rich distribute mini-retirements throughout life instead of hording for a great finish... the wishful better days ahead. Working less is not laziness. Activity with little results is foolish. The New Rich focus on being productive instead of busy.

Timing is never right. Start Now! Ask for forgiveness not permission; emphasize strength in your activity, don't wallow in waning weaknesses. Use your strengths and awareness as your best weapons. Don't create excess idle time, but positive use of free time. Money alone is not the answer...it's learning how to get what money buys. Move from distress to eutress... a positive pressure that moves you to what brings you joy, stimulates growth.

If New Rich scares you, write down your nightmares (your horrors of failure), confront the chances of them actually happening. Create a plan for what could, but most are unlikely.Then turn your thoughts to the wonderful benefits of a new lifestyle. If you are insecure, don't fret, so is everyone else. But "unusually large goals create an adrenaline rush."

"Excitement is a more practical synonym for happiness."
Dream your lifestyle. Get specific. Create steps. State "simple, well-defined actions." The key here is the Ferriss "Now" principle. " Do it now. Each should be simple enough to do in 5 minutes. "Set actions for now, tomorrow, and what you can complete before 11 a.m."
Do this day after day.
Make decisions now, start now,
and make this a never stopping habit.
To get used to the new life ahead of you, start by simply initiating an introduction to some one you don't know every day.

Reset your Systems.
The "Dreamline" will help you get going
(note "resources," then "ideal lifestyle costing" example at
www.fourhourworkweek.com).
What would you do if there was no way to do it?
Discover your desired being, convert to doing to get there.
Determine costs and calculate your Target Monthly Income
Determine 3 steps for each of 4 dreams.

Elimination
New rules for time management.... forget all about it. You can only "accomplish more by doing less... it's mandatory." Think in terms of how to do more in less time. Doing what's unimportant and takes a lot of time will not work for you. Find your Pareto 80/20. What 20% of your time gets greater results for your dream goals. Reverse Parkinson's Law that causes us to fill time when given it. Use less time for creating more. But only do what's "highly" important. So use "very short and clear deadlines."

Ask yourself in regards to everything:
"Am I being productive or just active?" "Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important?"
(Ferriss vehemently denounces "busyness" and calls avoidance to do what's important as true laziness.)

Eliminate what you don't really need to know to increase output. You must increase output, and decrease input ... by ignoring or redirecting information, interruptions that are irrelevant, unimportant, unattainable.

You can read faster. In 10 minutes, 4 steps he gets you there.
Do a one-week media fast.
Use this time to do your Dreamline,
and get action now in your life for your desired lifestyle.
You have the right to refuse anything... control your phone and email. Batch same activity by doing all of the same kind of thing at a certain time.

Automation
The world is flat and there are "virtual assistants" everywhere you can tap.
Outsourcing becomes lifestyle.
The New Rich have the critical skills of remote management and communication. You build a system to replace yourself.

Virtual assistants are one answer. You can do many things better than others but the goal is to "free your time to focus on bigger and better things."

Before you delegate, first eliminate.
And when you delegate, delegate the time consuming and well-defined. When you use India/China Virtual Assistants (VA's), the time zones work for you while you sleep. It's better to use VA firms than hiring them directly yourself. Start small, think big.

Find your muse: to create an automated vehicle for generating cash without consuming time. Ferriss likes the term "muse" instead of business. It's about cash flow and time. With the two all things are possible.

Pick an affordable niche market. Starting small and thinking big is becoming the Big Fish in a small pond (in finding a product, creating a product, packing information, etc.).

Ferriss covers how to pick, make, distribute, manufacture products.
For informational products he suggests this:
1. Tailor a skill to your market. Think narrow and deep rather than broad.
2. What skills are you interested in that you and others would pay for.
3. What experts can you interview to make a CD, audio download.
4. Do you have a failure to success story that can be turned intoa how-to product for others?

Become an expert in 4 weeks.
1. Join 2 or 3 related trade organizations
2. Read 3 best selling books on your topic
3. Give free 1-3 hour seminars
4. Write 1 or 2 articles for trade magazines
5. Join Profnet

Test your Muse: Run micro testing after you
select a market (one you know and already have connections), brainstorm your product using libraries as resources. Low-priced products,$50-200, sell the best Ferriss advises.

Your Muse Architecture is important. Automation... from product development to product ordering, processing, delivery, money to your bank ...is the goal.The goal is not about building a business as large as possible, but one that bothers you as little as possible. Ferriss details how to do this. Lots and lots of websites, resources, contacts are in this section.

Liberation
After two chapters on how to escape the office and killing your job, Ferriss takes you through the ideal philosophy of all this... live through your life taking constant mini-retirements, embracing the mobile lifestyle. Don't do travel binges, design your muse so you can actually live places you would like to. Mini-retirements are not sabbaticals--it is recurring lifestyle. Free your life of stress and speed, free from "material addictions, time-famine mindset and the comparative impulses that created it in the first place." Learn to slow down and lost intentionally.

The point... live continually learning and do more service. Service is attitude. Find the cause, vehicle that interests you, and no apologies are needed. Don't do the "New Rich mistakes" of stop dreaming, micromanaging, omitting outsourcing, forgetting 80/20, doing the unimportant. Learn the way of the New Rich. Timothy Ferriss tells you just what to read to help you along the way.
www.fourhourworkweek.com
is loaded with much more to help you become the New Rich.

Heaven is a retirement destination.
Heaven can also be an on-going mini-retirement.
The Heaven's were opened and the Spirit of God descended on Jesus. Matthew(3:16)

The windows of Heaven stand ready to open on us now. We can live in this Heavenly realm right now. We don't have to die first, it can start right now. Heaven is Now!

Matthew, when writing the Gospel of Matthew, used the phrase the Kingdom of Heaven 32 times in sharing his account of Jesus message to us. Matthew quotes John the Baptist as proclaiming that The Kingdom of Heavenis at hand...
the rewards of Heaven are here for us
to experience now in Spirit.

We have the right, privilege to enter the very presence of God. "Through His death on the cross in his own human body. As a result he has brought you into the very presence of God." (Col. 1:22)

This is so significant. Only Moses did that once. He glowed for hours. Jesus did that and the light was so bright around Him that the disciples witnessing it thought they were in Heaven, a most ecstatic place.

Paul the Apostle goes on to reveal what he calls The Great Secret:
"Christ lives in you." (Col.1:27)

This phenomenon, its potential can race the imagination into an ecstasy of incredible thoughts, possibilities... placing one's capabilities right along side Jesus with His power. Just consider all the implications here, what this really means.

Paul continues to express his sole dependence on this power that works inside him.

"I depend on Christ's mighty power that works within me. Let your roots go deep into Spirit's Presence and let your life be built into the Sprit of God. So let Heaven fill your thoughts. Your real life is hidden in this."
(Col. 1:29, 2:7, 3:2)

Your retirement plan is not later or just at the end of this life. It can start now. Fix your mind on things eternal. The other things around you are temporary, will someday go away. But fix your thoughts on this eternal Bliss, in you, that dwells there continually... Heaven in you Now!

Create the most wonderful picture of what the best life could ever be. This life can be your Heaven, your retirement destination, right now.

What is the best, most wonderful picture your imagination can conjure up?
But then even at that, this picture is still immensely lacking what Heaven will really be. We can have the experience of Heaven in our minds, even now. We can take episodes of the Spirit of Heaven in our daily existence.

In His Presence... in our hearts, mind, we enter His Spirit. The biggest stress remedy is doing mental sabbaticals daily, frequently, throughout the day. We can in these moments leave earth in mind and spend time in Heaven... Heaven while on earth.

My daughter was telling me about a really unique church she found in Chicago. On top of a 40-story building they have a prayer Chapel with a clear dome. You can go there doing the week, rest, think, reflect and pray. Literally, you can have a tranquil spot to enter the very presence of God.

She went on to say that she also found a TV channel that features quiet serene scenes with natural sounds… a brook, hills, pastures with cows and clouds floating by accompanied by the sounds of birds chirping, a gentle breeze, trickling of a stream. There is a serenity in this. We can use both… in real life or the surreal of a calming environment captured by media.

Take time to make this connection. Go deep into the soul of Christ in you. This is our retirement presently with us. Each day we can choose to go there.

The rewards of Heaven's retirement package can be and begun on earth. It's here as we go into His Very Presence. Live Heaven while on earth.

In just 4-hours in a week we can enter Heaven's essence. In this hour we can simulate Heaven’s Bliss in our mind and enter it directly in Spirit.

It will refresh, revive, and rejuvenate you. Re-establish an inner locus of control that will remain steady irregardless of external happenings.

Pursue these New Riches.
Become rich in the new Retirement Place.