I thought that with the monumental launch success with his latest book (The 4-Hour Body), that it was time for me to look back over ‘The Four Hour Work Week‘ and share a few thoughts on why I love the concept and how you can put it into action for yourself.

Who Is Tim Ferriss?

Timothy Ferriss is a two time New York Times best-selling author and here is a bio taken straight from his website:

Serial entrepreneur and ultravagabond Timothy Ferriss has been featured by dozens of media, including The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, NBC, and MAXIM. He speaks six languages, runs a multinational firm from wireless locations worldwide, and has been a popular guest lecturer at Princeton University since 2003, where he presents entrepreneurship as a tool for ideal lifestyle design and world change.

I can’t remember exactly how I first came across the Four Hour Workweek (4HWW), but the content resounded with me and I found myself spending a lot of time researching if it was in fact possible and networking with people who were on the same journey as me and those who were already living the 4HWW.

What Is The 4HWW?

I guess with a sub title of: ‘Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich’, there is sure to be a lot of interest in the book, but what exactly does the 4HWW ‘lifestyle’ actually pertain too?

The key points are:

1. DEFINE What You Want
2. ELIMINATE The Unnecessary
3. AUTOMATE Your Income
4. LIBERATE Yourself

Now, it is hard not to get caught up in the sensationalistic claims that Tim makes in the book, starting off with ‘working 4 hours a week’.

The truth is that even after you automate you income, you will still most likely be working a couple of hours each day – but the key here to create a quality of life that allows you to do the things that you want and not be controlled by ‘the man’ so to speak.

Where Has The 4HWW Taken Me?

Now I started reading the 4HWW about 6-12 months ago, and in September I started to look at ways to automate my income. Now I was already creating a nice monthly income from my websites – but the problem was that I had 1,000′s of subscribers expecting me to write new content on a regular basis – and to me, that isn’t passive income!

So I decided to take myself on an 8 month journey, to create a $1,000/month passive income from niche blogs – that once set up, would not require my constant updating.

In the first 3 months, I am about 15% of the way there, and learning a lot along the way.

But the lifestyle changes have been the biggest thing!

Before reading the 4HWW I was working insane hours on both my job and my websites. So much so, that I would barely have time to spend with my wife and daughter – and the time that I did spend with them I was always tired.

So I made the decision to start focusing my effort, working smarter – and being much more specific with my work (Grab my free GEOarbitrage ebook to learn how) – oh and finishing a lot earlier.

This has allowed me to spend a lot more time with my family, and I am loving life. We are also looking at opportunities to move overseas for a while and while the 4HWW can be seen as something that is unrealistic and over the top, it has allowed me to change the way I think – and I think that is what Tim is trying to make people do.