“I also have in mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus forged their own golden or silver fetters.” – Henry David Thoreau
A few years ago Timothy Ferriss wrote a silly-sounding book called “The 4-Hour Workweek“ that was dismissed by many as some sort of Gen-Y gimmick. Most boomers sneered from behind their Wall Street Journals at this naive young Princeton grad who they saw as encouraging the very sort of fairyland, entitlement behavior they believed to be so rampant among 20-somethings joining the workforce. They didn’t read the book.
But other people, including yours truly, did and were challenged by the well-crafted manifesto Ferriss had laid out which took direct aim at the conventional work/life progression.
The essence of book revolves around questioning why we do what we do when it comes to our work/life mix or timeline, a.k.a. work for 40+ years then retire. Ferriss explains the source of many ideas for the book came about after being asked to speak, alongside other millionaire entrepreneurs and CEO’s, to students at Princeton University about his business adventures. He explains his dilemma,
“Over the ensuing days, however, I realized that everyone seemed to be discussing how to build large and successful companies, sell out, and live the good life. Fair enough. The questions no one really seemed to be asking or answering was, Why do it all in the first place? What is the pot of gold that justifies spending the best years of your life hoping for happiness in the last?
The lectures I ultimately developed, titled “Drug Dealing for Fun and Profit,” (Tim had started a sports supplement company) began with a simple premise: Test the most basic assumptions of the work-life equation.
- How do your decisions change if retirement isn’t an option?
- What if you could use a mini-retirement to sample your deferred-life plan reward before working 40 years for it?
- Is it really necessary to work like a slave to live like a millionaire?” (pg. 8,9)
The Sabbatical Year
“For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.” – Exodus 23:10-11, NIV
According to Jewish tradition the Shmita, or Sabbatical year, “is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah for the Land of Israel.” Why would God mandate this year of rest for the Israelites? From our perspective it seems so wasteful, inefficient, even…lazy. Was the Creator trying to send a subtle message to the created?
College and twenty-something pastor Aaron Stern wrote the following concerning this phenomena,
Rhythms in life are so important. In the first chapter of the first book of the Bible God establishes rhythm. He creates and works for six days and on the seventh he rests. The amazing thing is that God didn’t have to rest…he can’t tire. So He his communicating something much bigger than a six day work week. He is setting a pattern we are to mimic. Leviticus 25 highlights the seventh year as a year for fields to rest and rejuvenate. God is saying that rhythm and rest provided the needed time to produce again.
Few people follow this mandate today, but might it be a worthwhile exercise to ask why? What would our lives look like if we decided to follow the Shmita, taking one year off every seven?
New York-based designer Stefan Sagmeister decided to do just that and the results have been quite surprising. In the following TED talk he shows how his life has been molded by incorporating a sabbatical year every seven. Watch and comment – is this feasible? Why or why not?
(h/t Aaron Stern for the TED talk and his general awesomeness)
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Cameron,
You know I’ve always been a fan of 4HWW, having read it when it came out in 2007 and applied its principles in leaving my job to consult on my own and have mini-sabbaticals in India and across the nation visiting friends and family.
I’m now back in the work world again and it’s a very odd feeling. Working a strict 9-5 is harder than the “eat what you kill” model of knowing what you choose to do directly results in gain, whether monetary, educational or character-building.
Part of me came back to subsidize my future projects and another to develop expertise as Cal Newport points out is so necessary to “live in the mountains” or however you like.
Bottomline, developing a mindset of survivorship and resiliency (as John Robb promotes) will be the next wave, especially with the economy that graduates are coming into right now. They’ll soon realize their skills are based in asymmetry of knowledge about “2.0″ ventures; Gov2.0, Ed2.0, Health2.0 and so on.
You and I work on the side to keep up and I feel I’m still very much behind the curve. Mainly, I don’t want to get lost out in the status quo 10 years from now. Whether the motivation is mini-sabbaticals or a location-independent life, we’re all caught in a transition phase of having to think about “living” from our individual perspective, not ones passed down to us. The sooner we do, the better prepared we’ll all be for changes to come.
Cameron,
You make an interesting connection between Tim Ferriss and the Bible. I’ve read a lot of Tim’s blog; I find him inspiring and extremely interesting. However, much of his life philosophy seems undeniably selfish. He may have tapped into something bigger than he even knows with the mini-retirement thing–a lifestyle promoted by God Himself! He might get a good laugh out of that… So what is the purpose of this lifestyle? I would say it is to keep us focused and energized to fufill God’s calling, and to enjoy Him and His goodness along the way.
The difficult question is how do we do this in the military…I would say one way is to make every effort to use all of our leave. I know it’s impossible sometimes, but are we really trying? It seems like everyone ends up with 60 days of leave on their balance eventually…maybe inevitable?
Have you considered how we can apply this rythym in the military?
Collin