There is incredible power in nonachievement. Keep a hobby that delights you.
Great business books by thought leaders share the why, the how and the what’s next. You as reader supply the when.
Michael Hyatt is a thought leader that I follow. If you want to attract high-paying clients, then his books like Platform are a must. His latest book, a father-daughter effort to help achievers, Win At Work and Succeed At Life, should be added to your reading list as soon as possible. The main message of the book is now is the time to free yourself from the cult of overwork.
Michael Hyatt and Megan Hyatt Miller know we can do better because the five principles in this book have revolutionized their professional achievements while supporting personal lives rich in meaning, relationships and vitality.
“What concerns us most is the widely held assumption that you must abandon balance and sacrifice your personal wellness, family life, self-enrichment, emotional health, and spiritual wholeness just to be and stay competitive,” they write in their book.
Backed by insights from psychology and organizational science and illustrated with eye-opening success stories from across the business spectrum and their own coaching clients, Win at Work and Succeed at Life is their manifesto on how you can achieve work-life balance and success.
Michael Hyatt is the founder and chairman of Michael Hyatt & Company. He has scaled multiple companies over the years, including a $250 million publishing company with 700-plus employees and his own leadership development company that has grown over 60 percent year over year for the last four years.
Megan Hyatt Miller is the president and chief executive officer of Michael Hyatt & Company. Cohost of the popular business podcast Lead to Win, she is also Michael's oldest daughter.
Most business book authors write a long book because they don’t take the time to write a short one. At under 200 pages, this book is a quick read, and can be digested in chunks. One of the positive attributes of this book is that it doesn’t bite off too much for the reader to chew.
The authors want us to rethink a handful of ideas about work and productivity. The five principles covered in the book are:
Principle 1. Work is only one of many ways to orient your life. The book explores the idea of a double win: a perspective that sees work and life in partnership, not opposition. The authors admit it is never easy to draw new boundaries and renegotiate old deals, but it is necessary.
Principle 2. Constraints foster productivity, creativity and freedom. The authors advise you to constrain your workday. My advice is to have barriers and boundaries. You are the boss of you. I admit to being a recovering workaholic. One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons that I have framed in my office is a bar for workaholics, and the bartender is cutting somebody off by saying: “No more work for you buddy.”
Principle 3. Work-life balance is truly possible. Schedule what matters to you. One of the best practices I advocate is a profile of your ideal week. Every week is not ideal, but you should have a plan.
Principle 4. There is incredible power in nonachievement. Keep a hobby that delights you. This is something Gretchen Rubin also talked about in her landmark book The Happiness Project. For me it is vintage baseball; I have visited 44 major league baseball ball parks and I have two to go before I touch them all. What is your hobby that delights you?
Principle 5. Rest is the foundation of meaningful, productive work. The authors ask us to rethink sleep. The authors say “habitually shortchanging your sleep to meet deadlines, clear your inbox or complete a project” is a shortsighted approach. Work and life is a marathon, not a sprint, and self-care is the investment that makes high achievement possible.
The bottom line: As Michael Hyatt and Megan Hyatt Miller state: “The cult of overwork is a powerful tide that can pull you far from shore if you’re not aware of its force.” Or to quote the closing line of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, “And so we beat on, boats against the current…”
