I have been on this journey of trying to find a better way to live for a while now. Somehow, I came across this book about 10 years ago that reshaped my way of thinking about how to make a living. Previously, I thought it was a pipe dream to be able to live on my own schedule. Surely, a teacher with a family, a mortgage, and a car payment can’t live free from the confines of a full-time job. I read this book twice and listened to it a half a dozen times on my drive to work and it started to sink in. Unfortunately, I let the day-to-day demands push the idea aside of finding a way to be free from the day to day that created the desired freedom to begin with.

That is my mission with this website; to find a way for myself (and help you) find a better way to live. Enter Tim Ferris and his book “The Four-Hour Workweek.” As I said before, this book transformed my thinking and that is why I am dedicating my first blog entry all about it. The main premise is that he was an overworked entrepreneur that created a very successful business that made him quite a bit of money, however he was a slave to that business, and it drove him to burnout. I see this much like teaching, minus the money part. We teach all day only to turn around and plan, prep, email etc. in the evenings and weekends.

But We Get Summers Off!

I don’t know about you, but I work all summer as do many teachers. It may be time off from teaching, but not time to sit at the pool drinking Pina Coladas. Most teachers can’t afford to join their local pool anyway! I work as many as six different side gigs throughout the year to make extra cash, but the problem is that I am still trading time for money. That is what Tim was doing and it was killing him. So, he decides that he needs to step away or it will kill him. Then he details how he went about restructuring his business to operate without him. This change is what has allowed him to become independent and do whatever he wants and that is what we all should strive for. And if you want to keep teaching, keep teaching; but now you have the power to step away from a bad situation and not be ruined financially.

This is one of those books that you need to read to change your thinking. We are locked into a mindset that requires us to work a ton and there is another way. Keep in mind that when you read this book, Tim created and sold a physical product, but I recommend going strictly digital. I don’t want you to create another situation where you are trading time for money, but where money comes in despite your time. That is ultimately where I want to be and where I want you to be.

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