4 Lessons I Learned From Author-Podcaster Tim Ferris

There will never be a better time than now

I’ve been a fan of Tim Ferris since his first book, The 4-hour Workweek. It changed how I think.

Many of the principles in Tim Ferris's first book seem like common sense. What he understood is you have to value self-discipline, but create systems that make it next to impossible to misbehave than self-control. He knows self-discipline is — more reliable than self-control. What people love about Ferris is his ability to break down a subject in a simple and clever way and show how to take action with maximum efficiency — across countless different activities — is practically unrivalled.

Ferriss doesn’t just work hard — he works smart, very smart. Combined with his love of helping others, it’s not surprising he’s amassed such a following around the world.

“I value self-discipline, but creating systems that make it next to impossible to misbehave is more reliable than self-control.” — Tim Ferriss

I’ve learned a lot from Ferriss over the years, but a few lessons stand out more than any others. I consider these four lessons nothing short of life-changing.

1. Investing in your process gives huge dividends

We all know the saying, “work smarter, not harder.” It’s not really that simple and accurate.

Smarts are used to create an optimum system, then hard work is used to make the system. However — it does make an important topic. It’s important to work hard but work smarter too. Tim Ferriss’ work revolves almost entirely around optimising process. It’s more important to focus on the process more than anything. Process refers to how you do what do — from reading faster to investing more effectively and with less time and effort.

Generating creativity more seamlessly, collaborating with others more effectively, being more productive.

Tim Ferris taught me time and time again that there’s almost a better way of doing things.

But we’re talking about small improvements. If you invest the time in mastering that process, you’ll often be several factors more productive than you were before, which can make all the difference.

2. There will never be a better time than now

We are all guilty of waiting for the perfect time to do what they love or improve our lives.

We like to convince ourselves that, someday, the stars will align and it will be the perfect moment for us to take action on that passion project or business idea. However, the truth is, this is dead wrong.

It fact, it often an excuse for not wanting to take action hidden under the veil or rational thinking. For example:

• Afraid of failure, rejection or embarrassment

• Fall victim to others opinions

• Lack of self-confidence and belief

• Wait for the opportunities to come to them

“For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time… ‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you.” — Tim Ferriss

There will never be a better time than now, so take action on your dreams and rid yourself of the disease of “someday.”

3. Focus on building personal assets

One of the most significant lessons Tim Ferriss teaches can be summed up in his own words:

“Even if this fails, are there skills and relationships that I can develop that will carry over into other things?” — Tim Ferriss

“Failure isn’t a failure if you can gain new skills and develop relationships for future advancement,” Ferriss says. You can learn from every experience that happens to you, good or bad. Whether it’s a new skill or professional relationships — is an invaluable perspective because it makes sure that nothing you ever do is a waste of time.

Every venture contributes to your long-term progress, whether that’s in acquiring a new skill, developing an existing one, or acquiring new relationships.

Focus on this and you’ll ensure consistent growth.

4. Power only exaggerates your true self

Many of us like to think that money will make all of our problems go away; that fame will make us confident; that power will make us feel better about ourselves.

However, Ferriss says that just isn’t true. “If you’re neurotic, add 100 million to that, you’ll be super neurotic!” he says. In fact, most famous people echo the same idea, Warren Buffett included.

Not money, fame, nor power changes who we are, it just magnifies it. If you lack confidence, work on building your self-worth, not getting rich. Often — and assuming our basic needs are being met — what we want isn’t, money, it’s the intangible things like improved self-confidence and self-belief.

However, we misbelieve that power, fame, or money will fix these things, if anything, they’ll only make them worse.

Conclusion 

Every level of your life will demand a different version of you.

You can always learn from every experience in life, good or bad. Nothing is ever a waste of time.

At the end of the day, what matters most is how you react to everything life throws at you. Or, as Marcus Aurelius says, “You don’t control what happens, you control how you respond.”