Recently, I heard a great interview on NPR with Chris Rock (the straight-talking, tell-it-like-it-is comedian). He was pretty funny, even for the fairly serious NPR format. At least, he was funny until the interviewer brought up a comment he made about being in comedy for 30 years. The interviewer pondered, “At this point in his life, what does he consider success?”
His answer blew me away. Chris said, “What is success? Success is just hanging out with my kids. I mean, I always say if you have options, you’re rich. To me, success is the fact that hey, I just did a movie and maybe I’ll do some stand up, maybe I’ll will write a book or maybe I will do a play. Like, I literally don’t know what I’m going to do next. That’s successful. And just having time, you know, I’ve got – this whole upheaval in late-night – late-night and day-time – so I got a few job offers – And they work all the time. Like, work all the time when you do one of these shows. And I always said, you know, my dad worked every day. I didn’t get into show business to work every day. So the fact that most days I get to like, spend really good time with my kids – that’s what success is to me.”
In essence – having time is what he considers as a measure of his success.
And I have to agree with him.
Two of my friends, Kim and Brian SoManyPlaces.com, sold everything they owned and have spent the last three years traveling the world.
Their greatest gift and lesson: having TIME.
Whenever I ask people what they wish they had more of, they either say money (so they could travel more) or time (so they could travel more).
I think the 8-hour workday is stupid. I think the 5-day workweek is stupid. And for Americans, I think working 50 weeks a year is killing us (and many people don’t take any vacation at all). Jeez.
I recently heard Danielle Laporte say she was going to start a movement for a 4-day workweek. She and her staff instituted a 4-day workweek. She’s thrilled because her folks come back to work rested and full of new insights and ideas after their 3-day weekend.
Part of my work is helping people whittle down what they do to focus on what they do best. To do less, well (not more, better).
How about you? What would more free time do for your business? For your life? What would change?
And what would have to change in order for you to adopt a 4-day workweek?
Would you need to get more organized? More focused? Drop some things? Change things?
I believe you can do it.
And my upcoming “Make Some Room 8-week Challenge” will help you.
Details tomorrow. And a quiz! A very revealing quiz – and you don’t have to show anyone your results. It’s for your eyes alone.
Make Some Room,
Angie
P.S. Details tomorrow about the “Make Some Room 8-week Challenge.” Are you excited? I am!