There are three books which completely shifted my perspective on what's possible in life. 

Particularly when it comes to working life.

The first?

Wayne Dyer’s 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace. I wrote about this book a couple of weeks ago so I won’t harp on about it today.

The second?

Tim Ferriss’s 4 Hour Work Week.

The fuddy-duddies who take everything literally will never get close to this book. They’re put off by the provocative, sensationalised title.

(the very definition of judging a book by its cover)

What a shame.

In every other way, 4HWW is a paradigm shifter.

I found the book as I doubted if 10 hour days in banking for 40+ years was really the horse I wanted to keep backing.

But it was a fascinating, very NON work-related story on page 28 which gave me an inkling of what the book had in store and what might be possible for my working life.

Tim was talking about his experience winning a gold medal at the Chinese National Kickboxing Championships, even though he couldn’t kick or punch to save his life.

(two skills you’d think are kind of important when taking part in a kickboxing competition)

In his own words, Tim also had a “watermelon head – it’s a big target”.

So how did Tim win gold?

Well, he found a couple of loopholes in the rules.

Before his weigh-in the day before the competition. Tim used dehydration techniques to lose 28 pounds in 18 hours. Then he “hyperhydrated” this weight back on. 

As a result, Tim was paired with fighters three weight classes below him.

Tim also spotted some small print in the rules:

If a competitor fell out of the elevated ring three times, they lost.

Tim decided to use this as his main weapon. When the fights began, Tim would literally push his opponents out of the ring.

He ended up winning all his matches by Technical Knock-Out.

Now, you might question the ethics of all this.

(interestingly Tim goes on to say that dehydration and push-outs are now standard kickboxing strategies – make of that what you will)

But what I heard was this:

There are other ways to play the game of work. There are other ways to play the game of life too.

In the rest of the book, Tim gives lots of examples, strategies and ideas for anyone who wants to play a freer, more fulfilling work game vs the game they’re currently playing.

All good ideas and food for the noggin.

But when I got to the end of the book, it wasn’t Tim’s strategies which had left a mark.

It was simply the idea that there might be a way out of the maze I was stuck in. It felt like the universe had handed me a permission slip to dream bolder and live bigger.

This is the same feeling I’ve had time & time again when taking part in one of Michael Neill’s programs. 

It’s also the same feeling I’ve had while being coached 1 on 1.

That feeling? That jolt of electricity?

It’s the feeling of insight.

If you’d like to see work and life from a whole new angle, start playing by your own rules and feel that same jot of insight for yourself, here’s where it begins:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com

p.s. at the top of the email I said there were three lightbulb moment books for me.

I’ll be writing about the third book tomorrow.