Dreamlining: The Four Hour Work Week and Living Jet Set

I’m a huge fan of the Four Hour Work Week and particularly of the dreamlining process. What is the dreamlining process you ask? Only the best way to live the life of your dreams-that’s all! The best way to get the DL on this is to get the book and read the chapter on dreamlining. For now the simplest way to describe it- is a place to record everything you want to have, be or do over the next 6 to 12 month

Here’s the catch. This is NOT the place for all your business goals or your new years eve resolutions. This IS the spot for you to record what you would actually do day to day with your life if you had 100 million in the bank.  In other words, if you woke up tomorrow morning, checked your ATM and it said “you’re rich go have fun”- what would you do? Tim Ferriss: “Dreamlining focuses on activities that will fill the vacuum created when work is removed. Living like a millionaire requires doing interesting things and not just owning enviable things.”

I promise you it’s way easier to set goals like make a million bucks, loose 10 pounds or spend more time with the family. You need to dig way deeper. When you first do this (and I really do hope you’ll give it a shot) you’ll likely say to yourself,  “If I actually had the 100 million dollars I would know exactly what I would do.” But chances are, once you have the pen in hand, you’ll draw a blank. So sit, with a glass of wine and a clear head and answer this question: “If I had 100 million dollars in the bank right now what would I want to do, be or have over the next 12 months?

I have lots of rich friends and this question wound up pissing them off. Really. It’s happened. There’s nothing worse for them than to work their ass off around the clock, get a few bucks in the bank and realize that they’re living boring ass lives, just chasing the almighty dollar so that someday they can ________. Problem was, they didn’t actually know what to fill that _______ (blank) with. If you can’t actually define what you’ll do with your life when you achieve X -the mark just keeps moving and you slip into hell (working for work sake). And, in Tim speak you wind up being the fat guy in the BMW.

Here’s the part of this whole thing that will blow your mind. This worksheet that you can get here (brilliantly put together by Jared from Technotheory which, BTW is an outstanding blog that I read all the time) actually quantifies your dreams with dollar amounts in a well put together and easy to use Excel spread sheet.

You’ll be shocked by two things. Many of the items on your list won’t cost much at all (learn a foreign language, try rock climbing, become an author, etc.) and it will cost way less then you think to live the entire Dreamline. In fact most people find that somewhere around $7,500 per month can do the trick (although mine happens to be about $20,000). The game then becomes finding a four hour per week muse to create the money you need to live out the Dreamline (that’s a subject for another day and another blog). The HARDEST part is coming up with what to put in those little boxes (that cursor will be blinking a long time if this is done in earnest). I know it’s sound crazy but just try it -you’ll see what I mean.

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Ok-  I know people are going to have a tough time with this and need some references to look at. So, if you think you got this nailed please send me an email with your dreamline (the excel spread sheet) to heyjetset@gmail.com and if it makes the cut I’ll post it.