The great playwright and Nobel laureate George Bernard Shaw once said, “Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get.” Wise words indeed.
The concept of lifestyle design was popularized by Tim Ferriss in his book The 4-Hour Workweek. The idea was to create a system that would generate enough money to meet your living expenses, while requiring only 4 hours a week to maintain it. And then by not having a full time job, you’d have the freedom to do whatever you wanted with your life.
As great as this sounds, the reality is that very few people will be able to make a decent income in only 4 hours a week. Most people will be lucky to work only 40 hours a week in the U.S. But that doesn’t mean that you just have to take what you get. On the contrary, with a busy schedule, it’s even more critical that you make the effort to design your own lifestyle.
Make no mistake, your lifestyle will be designed. The only question is whether it will be designed by thought or by chance. Here are some tips for making sure you get what you like, instead of having to like what you get.
Pick the Right Career
Far too many people pick their career based on money. Money is important, but it’s not everything. If you’re going to spend several decades doing something, don’t you want it to be something you actually like?
I’ve known people who said they would change jobs if they found one that paid an extra $2,000 a year. That’s putting far too much value on money. $2,000 a year is only $166.67 a month. After taxes, it’s maybe $100 a month. Such a small amount of money is insignificant compared to how much you enjoy the job.
It might be hard to pursue a career path that pays far less than your current field, but if you know you’d be happier, you owe it to yourself to consider it.
Give Priority to Your Relationships
A huge chunk of your life satisfaction will come from your relationships, so be sure to give them the attention they deserve. Don’t just leave your relationships to chance and hope it all works out.
First, you want to bring the right people into your life. Don’t date someone you don’t like just to have someone in your life. I know that sounds obvious, but it’s surprising how many people do it. Be honest with yourself about what you want, and don’t stay in a relationship that you know isn’t right.
The same goes for friends. If the people you spend your time with just aren’t a good fit for you, go find people who are. Or if you just need more friends because you don’t know anyone who shares particular interests with you, then bring some more friends on board.
Second, when people are a part of your life, you need to remember that relationships are a two-way street, and you need to keep up your end of things. If you neglect people, or become a burden, they’ll leave you. And since your relationships are a huge part of your lifestyle, that’s probably not a price you’re willing to pay.
Find Fulfilling Hobbies
Everyone needs hobbies. Some are good for blowing off steam, some are good for keeping your mind sharp, and some just make you feel alive.
Up through college, people have enough free time that finding engaging hobbies isn’t very hard. With a job and maybe a family, it’s harder to make time for hobbies. And since your interests might change as you get older, you might find that you no longer enjoy the same hobbies you once did.
To find the right hobbies, think about what you want to get from them. Maybe you want to challenge your mind, maybe you want to spend time outdoors, maybe you want an adrenaline rush. Think about some obvious ways to meet those needs, but also get creative and think about other possibilities that aren’t so obvious.
Many people will take up a new hobby relatively late in life, and find that it’s one of the most important things in the world to them. Maybe it’s writing, or sculpture, or horseback riding, or auto racing, or any number of things you haven’t thought of yet. But find some activities that are hard to tear yourself away from, and you’ll never be bored.
Final thoughts
Lifestyle design isn’t only for people who make their living with passive income. It’s for everyone who wants to have some say in their future. We all need to do what we can to make our life what we want it to be. Be sure to get the life you like, or you’ll be forced to like the life you get.
Hunter Nuttall wants you to stop sucking and live a life of abundance. Visit his site to learn how to improve your life and your income.
Making the most out of your time during the day is probably the most important quality of your day. Without some good personal habits and the will to evolve with new ones, we could not achieve all of the goals we set out for ourselves.
Breaking the bad work habits and making better ones can sometimes be the most difficult, but one they are established, there’s no going back.
I’ll definitely use some of these with what I have now and see where it will take me. Thank you for a great read Hunter.
“Lifestyle Design” is really about taking responsibility and making decisions that create a life that *you* want. This is in contrast to just doing whatever is easiest or what other people want you to do.
Unfortunately, because of a certain bestseller, everyone thinks that lifestyle design is only for internet millionaires, but that isn’t the case at all. It’s for everyone who wants to create an intentional life.
Great comment there about pay. I actually took a pay cut a few months ago, which allowed me to work closer to home. I know have a 5 minute drive (I ride my bike in summer), oppossed to a one hour train commute. Once you factor in the cost of commuting I’m actually coming out ahead of the game and I have 2 hours of my day back.
Money isn’t everything.
Hi
I feel that it has a lot to do with beliefs (I can or can’t do it / have it / be it) – which bring along with them fears (of change or failure or ridicule etc.).
We have such a society of “musts”, you must work x hours, you must work hard, you must etc. It’s often difficult for people to realise that there can be (and is) another way.
I work a three and not five day week (have written bout that on my blog) and I don’t work more than 9 hours a day. Yes, I get paid less, BUT, I have more time and energy to do what I want. I am not too tired to exercise regularly, I get time to “work” on my website, I have a great relationship etc.
It wasn’t always like this. I was very much stuck in the “normal” race. I don’t believe it is always going to be like it is now…I believe it will become even better!
Cheers
Juliet
Hi Hunter,
Having a system where you have other streams of income is the first step to become free from your day job. Take charge of your life to create the passive income to free up your time and enjoy your life.
Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger
There’s great strength to be found in finding and nurturing relationships with people of a similar outlook on life, which I think is important because it can be tough to buck the trend and pro-actively choose a more abundant life. Since making my switch, I’ve struggled to deal with weird guilt trips about not working standard hours. Awareness is the first hurdle, then action is the next, but the third is resolve and that can be the hardest to get right! And then I think I’m a jerk for over-thinking ‘fun’…ahh gotta love the journey.
“Far too many people pick their career based on money. Money is important, but it’s not everything. If you’re going to spend several decades doing something, don’t you want it to be something you actually like?” ~ Hunter Nuttall
I’m a firm believer in the world of “both.” I believe that I can do what I love and earn massive sums of money at the same time. Actually, I think everyone has the inner strength to live in the land of BOTH.
We all have the ability to do it, it’s just a matter of when we decide we will do it.
Nice post, you’ve given me some ideas to add into some of the posts I’m working on. Lifestyle Design should be more about doing what you want to be doing and less about the money. It can be damn hard to separate the two though, I guess as long as things are getting better and you don’t feel like a slave your on the right track.
“Working is meant to be fun. We spend most of our lives working: what a shame it would be if you’re spending that time doing something you hate.” – Sir Richard Branson
I was never any good at the cubicle thing. I made several lifestyle adjustments a while back in order to build the life I always wanted.
Building that life is hard work, but I am happier and healthier – and I am better for it.
Excellent post. Life is what YOU make it. Money doesn’t equal personal happiness. Look at people who have the money but no time to enjoy life or are unhappy. Life should be full of abundance and it’s up to you to create it.
[...] Pick the Brain – Lifestyle Design for the Rest of Us [...]
And be sure to get out and have some fun. When you only concentrate on your job and making money, you miss out on being alive. You only get one shot at this! Great post.
[...] Lifestyle Design [...]
It is so heartening to read a post by someone who “gets it”. Tim Ferriss’ book, as compelling and inspiring as it is, misses the boat in a number of significant ways, most important of which is that happiness and quality of life is more about relationship and attitude than financial freedom. It also heavily promotes the idea of financial independence through an internet business, which is a pipe-dream for most people, and I find him a bit obsessive on the time-management issue. In all fairness, Ferriss does talk about the need to establish one’s priorities and lifestyle vision and THEN figuring out how to finance it, but the kind of lifestyle he promotes seems to be more about exotic international travel and competitive hobbies (wrestling, tango dancing) than about contribution and love. But hey, the guy was 28 years old when he wrote it. The main value of the book – and I think it’s a fabulous book if one reads it with a critical eye – is that it promotes thinking on the topic. So many of us go through life doing the things we were told to do and the things that we feel we “must” do and never seriously sit down and consciously create our lives. I give credit to Tim for breaking this pattern and writing about it. I could do without some of the hype but if it weren’t for that I may never have heard about the book. I actually have a whole website dedicated to the topic of lifestyle design (http://lifestyledesignschool.com) if you want to read more of my thoughts on this topic (and it’s a fascinating topic, and Ferriss is not by any means the first person to have thought about it).
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