reassembled to be faster. It is possible to become conversationally fluent in any language in 3–6 months.
LiveMocha (www.livemocha.com),
EduFire (www.edufire.com), and
Smart.fm (http://smart.fm/)
I particularly like their BrainSpeed learning game.
About.com (www.about.com)
Some of the more popular languages have excellent tutorials on About.com:
http://italian.about.com
http://spanish.about.com
http://german.about.com
http://french.about.com
68. The dollar figures in this chapter are all from a period immediately following President Bush’s reelection in 2004, which correlated to the worst dollar exchange rates of the last 20 years.
69. I refer, of course, to the amazing bike-riding opportunities and famous pastries.
70. Coined by Joel Stein of the
71. By all means, go ahead and take a post-office celebratory trip and go nuts for a few weeks. I know I did. Rock on. Ibiza and glow sticks here I come. Have some absinthe and drink lots of water. Following that, sit down and plan an introspective mini-retirement.
72. Muses are low maintenance but often expensive in one or both of two tactical areas: manufacturing and advertising. Shop for providers of both that are willing to accept credit cards as payment, and negotiate this up front if necessary by saying, “Rather than trying to negotiate you down on pricing, I just ask that you accept payment by credit card. If you can do that, we’ll choose you over Competitor X.” This is yet another example of a “firm offer,” and not a question, that puts you in a stronger negotiating position. For a detailed explanation of how I multiply points for travel using concepts like “piggybacking” and “recycling,” search for both terms on www.fourhourblog.com.
73. To see a video of how I pack to travel the world with less than 10 pounds, click on “travel” at www.fourhourblog.com.
74. Founder of www.nileproject.com.
75. http://www.usc.edu/hsc/dental/opfs/SC/indexSC.html.
76. Brazilian shantytowns. See the movie
77. This is a serious step and should not be taken with those you do not trust. In this case, it helps because your accountant can then sign tax documents or checks in your name instead of consuming hours and days of your time with faxes, scanners, and expensive international FedEx’ing of documents.
78. There are also services like www.earthclassmail.com, which will receive, scan, and e-mail all of your non-junk mail to you as PDFs.
79. This would be used if you leave your computer at home or in someone else’s home while traveling. This step can be skipped if you bring your computer, but that is like a recovering heroin addict bringing a bag of opium to rehab. Don’t tempt yourself to kill time instead of rediscovering it.
80. “Unlocked” means that it is recharged with prepaid cards instead of being on a monthly payment plan with a single carrier such as O2 or Vodafone. This also means that the same phone can be used with carriers in other countries (assuming the frequency is the same) with a simple switch of the SIM memory card for $10–30 U.S. in most cases. Some U.S.-compatible quad-band phones can use SIM cards.
15. Filling the Void.
ADDING LIFE AFTER SUBTRACTING WORK
To be engrossed by something outside ourselves is a powerful antidote for the rational mind, the mind that so frequently has its head up its own ass.
—ANNE LAMOTT, Bird by Bird
There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do.
—BILL WATTERSON, creator of the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip
KING’S CROSS, LONDON
I stumbled into the deli across the cobblestone street and ordered a prosciutto sandwich. It was 10:33 A.M. now, the fifth time I’d checked the time, and the twentieth time I’d asked myself, “What the &%$# am I going to do today?”
The best answer I had come up with so far was: get a sandwich.
Thirty minutes earlier, I had woken up without an alarm clock for the first time in four years, fresh off arriving from JFK the night before. I had soooo been looking forward to it: awakening to musical birdsong outside, sitting up in bed with a smile, smelling the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, and stretching out overhead like a cat in the shade of a Spanish villa. Magnificent. It turned out more like this: bolt upright as if blasted with a foghorn, grab clock, curse, jump out of bed in underwear to check e-mail, remember that I was forbidden to do so, curse again, look for my host and former classmate, realize that he was off to work like the rest of the world, and proceed to have a panic attack.
I spent the rest of the day in a haze, wandering from museum to botanical garden to museum as if on rinse and repeat, avoiding Internet cafes with some vague sense of guilt. I needed a to-do list to feel productive and so put down things like “eat dinner.”
This was going to be a lot harder than I had thought.
Postpartum Depression: It’s Normal
Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
—ANATOLE FRANCE, author of
I’ve Got More Money and Time Than I Ever Dreamed Possible … Why Am I Depressed?
It’s a good question with a good answer. Just be glad you’re figuring this out now and not at the end of life! The retired and ultrarich are often unfulfilled and neurotic for the same reason: too much idle time.
But wait a second … Isn’t more time what we’re after? Isn’t that what this book is all about? No, not at all. Too much free time is no more than fertilizer for self-doubt and assorted mental tail-chasing. Subtracting the bad does not create the good. It leaves a vacuum. Decreasing income-driven work isn’t the end goal. Living more—and becoming more—is.
In the beginning, the external fantasies will be enough, and there is nothing wrong with this. I cannot overemphasize the importance of this period. Go nuts and live your dreams. This is not superficial or selfish. It is critical to stop repressing yourself and get out of the postponement habit.
Let’s suppose you decide to dip your toe in dreams like relocating to the Caribbean for island-hopping or taking a safari in the Serengeti. It will be wonderful and unforgettable, and you should do it. There will come a time, however—be it three weeks or three years later—when you won’t be able to drink another pina colada or photograph another damn red-assed baboon. Self-criticism and existential panic attacks start around this time.
