Page 87 - Talane Miedaner - Coach Yourself to a New Career_ 7 Steps to Reinventing Your Professional Life (2010)

STEP 3: DESIGN YOUR IDEAL LIFE 75

and worked on creating a perfect body, took acting classes, and
even did some commercials. She then self-published a book online
and is now a multimillionaire teaching other business owners how
to be successful.
Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, has set up
his business so that he can work out for a few hours every day and
is free to travel around the world learning
new languages and taking tango lessons
in Brazil. He didn’t start out this way: Never keep up with
at first, he worked every hour of the day the Joneses. Drag them
managing and attending to all the minute down to your level.
details of his business. It was only when It’s cheaper.
he learned to delegate and outsource that
he started making serious money and —QUENTIN CRISP
started having time for his ideal life. His
life is proof that working harder doesn’t
necessarily mean more money. In fact, the less he worked, the
more money he made. Very inspiring! If you start by figuring out
what your ideal life is, you’ll save yourself all the grief that Ferriss
went through when launching his business.
Another client, a chiropractor, hired me because he didn’t
know whether he should expand his current practice. I asked him
how he liked to spend his free time, and he replied that he enjoyed
biking up the local mountain and reading books at the top, as
well as hanging out with his ten-year-old son. Not very expensive
activities. Given that context, he opted to downsize his business,
simplifying his life so he’d have more time with his son and time
on the mountain. Much to our amazement, he ended up clearing
a larger profit with the smaller business and had more time than
ever. Bigger business doesn’t always lead to more profits—in his
case it just led to more hassles!
Melissa Todd, whose “Success Story” is featured in the first
chapter, was working as the HR manager in a law firm, and
although her boss and colleagues valued her highly, her passion
in life has always been dogs. She dreamed about setting up her
own business around working with dogs. While still employed