Lifestyle Design and the Tim Ferriss Way

Have you stumbled across the popular Tim Ferriss lifestyle design books yet? With titles like “4-Hour Workweek,” it would have been hard to pass it by on a bookshelf without giving pause and perhaps backtracking for a quicker look.

Before scoffing and assuming it's another “new-age millennial get-rich-quick dream-scheme,” let me admit, I expected so, too. But in picking the book, I am finding it to be motivating and thought-provoking. It's truly got me hooked, thinking more about the foundations of lifestyle design.

As a Gen Y member (yes, I feel the need to differentiate) I grew up in a classic Baby Boomer family. Both of my parents worked hard in traditional jobs, for companies they stayed loyal to for decades. The mentality was engrained in me to work hard and save up for retirement. We had a great life, full of little luxuries and never wanted for anything. But we seldom traveled, aside from perhaps an annual drive up the coast from South Florida to Pennsylvania to spend a piece of summer vacation with family.

As I got older, I was bemused meeting friends who had been to the west coast, explored a national park, or even taken a flight overseas.

Picking up this 4 Hour Workweek book brought me back to those emotions, and put into works all of the feelings I couldn't express the right way. Tim Ferris recognizes and explicitly establishes that we shouldn't be “working for retirement” – we should be working to create a lifestyle we want. We have the options and capacity to take “mini-retirements” now, while we have our health.

Since I work in a corporate finance day-job, there are certainly features in the book what would be too whimsical to attempt applying in my current career. However, some of the psychology and even just the energizing prose makes it a good read if you're starting to feel trapped in the hamster wheel.

As I pick up the book to re-read a second time, I am looking forward to highlighting key takeaways from specific chapters here in my new blog outlet. I can't wait to hear from others and start a conversation. Have you read the book yet? What sections caught your attention most? Let me know in the comments below!