Men’s Health Australia — September 2017

5 THINGS ON MY RADAR

WHAT TIM FERRISS FINDS

SUPER USEFUL RIGHT NOW

STORIES OF YOUR

LIFE AND OTHERS

Author Ted Chiang is the

equivalent of Martin Scorsese

or Wayne Gretzky in science

fiction. He’s just that good at

the craft.

SQUARE

This water bottle unscrews on

both ends for easy cleaning,

doesn’t roll if you drop it and

won’t leave a metallic taste.

$15, cleanbottle.com

THE EAGLE HUNTRESS

This documentary follows

Aisholpan, a Kazakh girl, as she

trains to be the first female

eagle hunter in 12 generations.

RUBZ

Think of it as a golf ball that

won’t shoot across the floor

when you step on it. Roll it

under your feet or on hand

muscles. $7, rubzmassage.com

QUOTE I’M REFLECTING ON

“The best way to complain is to

make things” – James Murphy

TACTICS

Turn Fear Into Fuel

Tim Ferriss, author of Tools of Titans and host

of The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, helps you

find the power to push your limits

IN 2004, I was doing better than ever
financially and my company, BrainQuicken,
was distributed in a dozen or so countries.
The problem? I was running on caffeine,
working 15-hour days and on the verge of
meltdown. I realised I had to restructure the
business or shut it down – it was killing me
and my sense of adventure.
That’s when I began journalling on a few
questions: “What would I want to do, have
and be if I had $10 million in the bank?” and
“What’s my real target monthly income?” For
the latter, that meant how much would my
dream life really cost if I made payments
towards it on a monthly basis? After running
the numbers, I found most of my fantasies
were more affordable than I’d expected.
Perhaps I needed more time and mobility,
not more income.
Life, as the cliche goes, is an adventure.
What you choose doesn’t matter. What
matters is approach. Reinvention comes
down to asking better questions about
yourself, your direction and your objectives.
When I interviewed Arnold
Schwarzenegger, I mentioned a photo of him
taken before he won his first big competition, ILLUSTRATION

BY

MAX

TEMESCU

Junior Mr Europe. I said, “Your face was so

confident compared to every other

competitor’s. Where did that confidence

come from?” His answer: “My confidence

came from my vision... I wasn’t there to

compete. I was there to win.”

In my talk with Stanley McChrystal, the

retired US Army general said, “Do you push

yourself harder than you believe you’re

capable of? Do you put yourself in groups that

share difficulties and discomfort? Do you

create some fear and then overcome it?”

It’s the last part – the fear – that holds most

people back from adventure. To overcome

self-doubt, do a fear-setting exercise. On

the top of a page, write whatever quandary

you’re facing, then create three columns. In

the first column, spell out the worst-case

scenario preventing you from taking action. In

the second, list the things you could do to

minimise the likelihood of damage.

Finally, write down the things that could

repair the situation if it goes badly. More

often than not you realise that your worst

fears really aren’t that bad. When that

happens, you can embrace adventure and

tackle your goals and ambitions.

Don’t mind the gap:

face roadblocks to

adventure head on.