Did you ever think there was a better, different way to live? Did you ever think, “Maybe I don’t have to go to a job and work 40+ hours a week, feel exhausted, wish for more time for myself or my family, and wonder when the fun stuff begins?” If so, get ready: your life’s about to change.

When I was a little girl, I woke up every morning with the sun. I opened my eyes, heard birds chirping outside my window, and smiled, thinking about the adventures of the coming day. Fast forward to my last corporate job, when I woke up with the alarm clock, slammed my hand down on the snooze button and laid in bed, a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach, thinking about the eight hours I was about to spend working under fluorescent lights, in a small cubicle, so my boss could take credit for my work and someone else could profit.

Why do we do this to ourselves? When I look back on the time I spent in Corporate America, I realize that I didn’t know any better. Despite the entrepreneurial spirit I’ve felt through my entire life, there was a period of time when it simply didn’t occur to me that my life belonged to me and I didn’t have to live according to the narrow path that had been defined for me.

It took carpal tunnel syndrome and an inflexible corporate environment for me to realize that I desperately needed a change. And that’s what it took to remind me of the philosophy my dad taught me as a little girl, something I’d long forgotten: that work is what makes the rest of your life possible.

From this perspective, “work” takes on substantially less meaning, while “life” takes center stage. I like this because it reminds me where my priorities lie. I’d much rather my tombstone read, “She truly lived,” than “She worked a lot.”

It’s easy to say “work makes the rest of my life possible,” but how does it look in real life, and how do you put this into play in your own life? How it looks in real life:

I wake up each morning, knowing that the day belongs to me. I have a schedule, but I’m not beholden to a boss or supervisor who will dock my pay or fire me if I decide the schedule doesn’t suit my mood that day. One of my priorities is my health and physical well-being, so most mornings I start my day off with a workout at the gym. Since my day is my own, I can work out without rushing, and that allows me to get to know the other members of my gym, which means it’s a social event as well.

Then, depending on the day and what I’ve committed to, I may work with clients, do some writing for my blog, e-zine, the book I’m working on, or the other sites I write for, or read one of the several books I’m into at any given moment. Aside from scheduled meetings with clients and deadlines, I do what suits my mood the best - if I’m struggling for inspiration for my articles, I spend more time reading. If I’m in the mood to bake bread with my husband, I do. And I’ve structured my businesses so that if I want to get on a plane and fly to South America, England, or New Orleans for a weekend or a month, I can do it without a second thought and my income doesn’t change a bit.

The point is, no day is completely consumed by work, it’s all flexible, and everything I do for “work” is something that I enjoy doing. If I don’t enjoy it, I either don’t do it or I find someone who does and I outsource that work to them.

When I speak to groups, I’m often asked, “How many hours a week do you work?” Sure, just like Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, some weeks I only work four hours. But if I’m working on a book or one of my one-on-one clients is launching his/her business, I work at least forty. Those are the extremes: most weeks I stay somewhere in the twenty to twenty five hour range. But I can tell you this: I wake up with the sun and the birds chirping, just like I did when I was a little girl. I always wake up smiling, and I love what I do.

But I’m not that different from you. I’m not overly lucky and nothing that special has happened that made this possible for me. Virtually anyone can do this. So how can you incorporate this into your own life?

The mindset comes first. You have to take responsibility for your life and know that it is yours to live in whatever way that you want. Think this is easy? It’s not. This can be one of the scariest things you’ll ever do. But as Seth Godin recently wrote, “the riskiest thing you can do is play it safe.” So take a risk and believe that your life belongs to you.

Second, figure out your priorities and your goals. What’s most important to you? Are there things you want to do, places you want to see? Maybe you just want more quality time with your family, or want more time to relax- that’s okay. The point is to figure out what’s most important to you.

Third, design a business to suit your lifestyle goals. This is the most challenging aspect of applying this philosophy, because it requires some extra knowledge- what opportunities are out there, how to repurpose what you already know and/or do, how to brand yourself and market your business. There is no one-size-fits-all solution- a business model that works for one person may not be suited to another. Your best bet, the easiest and fastest way to accomplish this, is to work with someone who has successfully made the transition themselves, who knows the opportunities out there, can help you figure out what suits you best, help you put it all together and show you the ropes.

Finally, be prepared to work to get to the point of living the dream. I’m not going to lie to you. It rarely happens overnight. Some of my clients have transitioned into this lifestyle (what I call the “Business in Blue Jeans lifestyle”) within a month or two, while others have taken a bit longer. Some of it depends on the industry you’re in and some depends on what you’re willing to put into it and how focused you are. Because the fact is, even though you aren’t working as much or as hard as before, in this lifestyle, when you are working, you need to be really focused.

Ultimately, the bottom line is that when you’re working for a life that you’ve designed, when you love what you’re doing and when you know that you aren’t just putting in the time, everything changes. Change the way you view work, and you’ll completely change your life.

你是否想過有一種不同的生活方式會讓你過得更好？

你是否想過“也許我不必每周工作40多個小時至不知樂趣何在，還要筋疲力盡地祈求有更多時間給自己和家人”？

如果你想過，那就做好準備吧！你的生活將要被改變。

當我還是個小女孩的時候，每天早晨我都在陽光里醒來，睜開雙眼，聽鳥兒在我窗外啁啾而鳴，邊微笑邊幻想著接下來一天的奇妙旅程。可快進到我最后一段打工時光看看：每天早晨我都在鬧鈴聲中醒來，狠狠地拍停鬧鐘后復又躺回床上，感受著胃孔里的恐懼感覺，盤算著我將在小房間里熒光燈下度過的八小時----讓我獲得老板的良好評價讓別人獲益的八小時。

為何我們要這樣對待自己？當我回望自己在美國企業中度過的時光，我發現我那時其實不知所謂。除去那種貫穿我全部生活的企業家精神，曾有一段時期，我完全感覺不到我的生活是屬于我的，我只覺得我要在別人為我規劃好的狹窄道路上前行。

后來，腕管綜合癥和死氣沉沉的企業環境終于讓我意識到：我迫切需要改變。也是在那時，某個我遺忘了好長一段時間的人生哲理重又浮現在我的腦海里，那是我小時候父親教給我的哲理：工作，不過是一樣滿足你生活其余部分的事情。

從這種角度看來，“工作”不再那么意義重大，“生活”才是重心所在。我欣賞這句話，全因它讓我知道什么才是對我最重要的，我寧愿我的墓碑上寫著“她曾好好活過”，也不要寫著“她勤奮工作過”。

說一句“工作只是滿足我生活其余部分”很容易，可在現實生活中我們該如何看待工作呢？又該如何在自己的生活中實踐這個哲理呢？

在現實生活中該如何看待工作？

現在，每天早晨醒來，我都知道這一天是屬于我的，我會安排好我的工作，但對于我的老板或者主管（在我自認某天的情緒不宜按照安排工作時，他們可是能扣減我的薪水或者把我炒掉的人），我不會感激涕零。對我來說，身體健康是一大要事，所以我的日子大多會始于健身房里的晨練。既然日子都是我的，我可以從容安排每天，得以認識一下健身房里的其他人（這意味著健身也是一項社會活動）。

然后，視乎那天的狀況和我原本的打算，我可能會見顧客，也可能給自己的博客、電子雜志、未完成的書或者其他向我約稿的網站寫點什么，或者隨時翻看一下最近正在看的書。除了預先安排好期限的顧客會議之外，我只做些最吻合當下心情的事：要是我正苦于沒有寫作靈感，我會花多些時間看書；要是我想和我先生一起烤個面包，那我就去烤面包。由于我已經把自己的事情安排好，所以，當我想坐飛機去南非、英國或者新奧爾良度個周末或者住上一個月的時候，我可以不加思索就走，而同時我的收入不受任何影響。

關鍵在于，我沒有一天是全部耗費在工作上的，我靈活安排；而我做的所謂“工作”都是些我喜歡的事情，如果我不喜歡做某些事情，我要么不做，要么就把它們外包給喜歡做這些事情的人。

當我給人們做演講時，我經常會問，“你們每周工作多少小時？”，當然了，像《每周工作4小時》的作者阿添那樣，有時我也會每周工作4小時；可一旦我要寫書，或者我某位需要一對一服務的客戶要推行他的業務時，我每周至少工作40小時。這些都是極端情況，大多數時候，我大約每周工作20到25小時。不過我可以告訴你，一如當年，現在我每天都在陽光鳥語中醒來，總是笑著醒來并且熱愛我所做的一切。

其實你和我并無太多不同。我并非特別幸運，也沒有發生什么特別的事情讓我過上這種生活，事實上，每個人都可以過上這種生活。

如何在自己的生活中實踐這個哲理？

首先，心態最重要。你必須對自己的生活負責，并且明白，過上你想要的生活是你的責任。是不是覺得這很容易？其實不是，這可能是你做過的事情中最令你不安的一件。不過就像塞斯·戈丁最近寫的：保守前行才是最冒險的事。所以呢，冒一下險吧！相信你的生活在你手里吧！

其次，明確事情的優先級、定好你的目標。什么對你最重要？有沒有什么是你想做的？有沒有哪里是你想去的？也許你只是想要多些和家人在一起的美好時光，或者只是想放松一下，都沒問題，關鍵在于，找出對你而言最重要的事情。

再次，設計一種和你的生活目標相配的工作。這是整個實踐中最富挑戰性的一環，因為它需要一些額外的見識----例如你要了解現在有些什么機會、要如何修正已有的知識、要怎樣宣傳推廣你和你的業務。沒有萬能的解決方案，適合這個人的模式未必適合另一個人。你最好的選擇就是找一個已經成功轉變的人來合作，這個人知道機會在哪里、能夠幫你找出最適合你的模式并且能夠從千絲萬縷中理出頭緒，這就是最簡單的捷徑。

最后，準備好為實現夢想而工作。我不會騙你說這能在一夜之間發生。我有些顧客用了一到兩個月時間過上這種“穿牛仔褲工作”的生活方式，有些則用了更長的時間。這既取決于你所在的行業，也取決于你愿意向其投入什么以及你能有多專注。因為事實是，盡管你不必再像從前那樣費力費心工作，在這種生活方式里，當你要工作的時候，你還是要足夠專注的。

歸根結底，當你為自己所設計的生活而工作、熱愛你所做的事情、明白你不是在耗費光陰時，一切都變了！改變你對工作的看法，也就徹底改變了你的生活。