An Elegant Sufficiency

Due to the rather inelegant combination of overwork and one too many Bellinis at the Cinnamon Club this evening, this edition of I Am Fab is going for the pared-down look – less is more is our philosophy du jour.

So here it is, the statement that I hope will hit you right between the eyes …
”Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty”.

Ouch, isn’t that a zinger? Don’t you just know there’s definitely somewhere in your life you’re doing exactly that?

The author of that particularly scary thought is Timothy Ferriss, author of The Four-Hour Workweek, which is not – as you might imagine from the title – just another smartass tome on how to optimise efficiency nine-to-five. It’s actually a manifesto for living life on your own terms, doing what excites you and bypassing the concept of delayed gratification entirely.
Most people structure their lives around the concept of working hard for the money until retirement rolls around and they can begin to enjoy themselves. But why wait that long to enjoy yourself? For most of us, what stands in the way is simply fear of the unknown or the uncertain, rather than genuine obstacles.

One of the first solutions he proposes to shake up your mindset and move you out of fear is to “define your nightmare”, by detailing your worst-case scenario of taking the leap you fear and matching it up to the real cost (financially, emotionally and physically) of staying stuck where you are. When you face your fears realistically, they’re often not as daunting (or as irrevocable) as you’d first imagined.

When you’ve cleared the fog of fear a little, you can assess the outcomes or benefits (temporary and permanent) of the most probable scenarios and look at what you’re putting off simply out of fear. Which brings me neatly to another of his classic insights …

“What we fear doing most is what we most need to do.”

The man’s a genius. You can find out more about him at www.fourhourworkweek.com.
There’s no need for guidance this week. You know what to do – it’s time to confront why you’re not doing it.

Click through to the Coach Fabulous advice column by using the link in the Favourite Sites section on the right or by going to http://coachfabulous.blogspot.com. For alert emails on new postings, email subscribe@iamfabulous.co.uk. To contact me, email coachfabulous@iamfabulous.co.uk. All material © 2007 Alison Porter. No article may be reproduced in full or in part without the express permission of the author. (Originally posted 11 Jun 07)