Warning: Reading this post can make you pay $9.99 for a book.

Reading this book can make you do dramatic changes in your life and turn you into an escape artist.

Proceed reading at your own risk.

Did that sound interesting enough?

You might already have noticed a small banner at the top of my blog main page and at the end of my RSS feed advertising a book called Escape 101. It’s a really good book that deserves more attention than just a small banner so I decided to spend this one post to tell you more about it.

Have you ever considered taking a long break?

I don’t mean a summer vacation.

Sure, four weeks feels long when all you’re used to is a two-day long breaks once every week. But now we’re talking about something bigger: three months, six months, or even a year away from your everyday surroundings.

According to Dan Clements and Tara Gignac, the authors of Escape 101, more than half the employees of small and mid-size companies say they long for a sabbatical. So I’m not far off if I guess the thought has crossed your mind at least once during your career. But still, only a few really take action and make their dream come true.

Making big things happen isn’t easy.

Since finishing the four-hour workweek, I have been playing with the following question: What would happen if everyone would go on to pursue the lifestyle presented in the book?

The thought kept bothering me for a while, until I started reading Escape 101 and realized that there is no way everyone would do what these books recommend. And yet, it’s not because the actual doing would be difficult. Clements will tell you that technically it really is quite easy and doesn’t require a lot of education or a lot of money.

The roadblock is inside our heads.

It’s those little voices we have learned to listen to that say things like:

What would others think of me?

Normal people wouldn’t do this!

What if I fail and lose everything I’ve worked so hard to reach?

I have to work hard and earn more money – then I can do whatever I want.

I’ll do it when I retire. It’s just 30 years, right?

You get the picture. And I’m sure that just like me, you can come up with a list of excuses far longer than it makes sense to reprint in a blog post.

It could be something we learn through our education. Or maybe it’s just natural for us to be scared of everything new and different.

That really doesn’t matter. What matters is what you do about your fears.

It’s more than just sabbaticals

Escape 101 is a book about overcoming those mental roadblocks and actually making the dream come true.

It takes a practical step by step approach to all things standing between you and your escape plan: money, time, your job, your business, your kids, and shows that none of them really are the show stoppers we make them sound like. Then it goes to share ideas on how to get the most out of your time away, and even on how to get back home once the sabbatical is over.

Reading the book got my mind flying and I was able to easily see myself spending a year looking at the world with my wife and kids a few years from now: a few months is a small village somewhere on the Japanese coast, some time seeing the world down under, and finally going to the United States to meet all the great people from the blogosphere.

But right now, that’s not one of the things on my priority list. I have other dreams to pursue first.

Taking this into account, the most surprising thing to me was that the book not only inspired me to think about the possibility of taking a sabbatical but also gave me ideas that I can use in pursuing my current dreams. Ideas on building my business, ideas on using money wisely, but most importantly ideas on looking at impossible plans and not seeing them as impossible at all!

Get the book and see for yourself

Escape 101 is available as an e-book for just $9.99, a price well worth paying if you’re considering a long escape from your current work, or if like me, you are working on making some other impossible sounding dreams come true.

If you want to spend a bit more and buy a book that you can touch and feel in your hands, you can also get the book from Amazon for $13.57 plus shipping and handling.

Check out the book yourself and see what happens!

This marketing message is part of my participation in Mark Hayward’s Make Money Online Challenge. But rest assured: although this post is full of affiliate links, it follows my strict, non-compromising ad policy: I will never recommend you something I don’t believe in personally. No ad on the blog will ever promote products I wouldn’t buy myself.

Related posts:

1. Find Better Dreams
2. The Second Year
3. It’s The Journey, Stupid

© Jarkko Laine, 2008. | Permalink | 11 comments

During the last few months I have written a few posts about the importance of family and how taking care of your children always has to come before your work. I think that a rewarding career should be one that includes both work and family in good proportions.

So you might imagine my excitement when I found out that that’s exactly what Mike from Stay at Home Dad, Geek Style is doing.

Mike is a young dad and he has lots of things going on: At 21 he is the father of a beautiful baby girl called Alex. He is a new business owner, web designer and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) expert. And recently he decided that it makes the most sense for him to stay at home with his daughter.

To me that sounds almost like a dream come true.

In his blog Mike talks about the everyday life of a stay at home dad trying to combine work and family, but also lets the reader get close and personal: Mike tells about his ambitions, going to rock concerts and having to decide between right and wrong.

After reading the blog for only a week or so (actually, the blog hasn’t been around for much longer than that yet) I already feel I know this guy better than some of my real life acquaintances. I really hope that Mike will be able to keep up with blogging and sharing his experiences and thus inspiring the rest of us geek dads.

To put it short, Stay at Home Dad, Geek Style is an interesting read for any geek dad out there (and based on the comments, many moms are reading it too). If you haven’t seen it yet, go check it out now. And while you are at Mike’s blog, don’t forget to check out his Stay At Home Dad Digital Camera Give-Away, in which Mike is giving away a brand new Canon PowerShot SD750: All you have to do is make a post like this one!

Related posts:

1. Joining The Make Money Online Challenge To Stay at Home
2. How to Stay Motivated Working on an Idea From Last Year

© Jarkko Laine, 2007. | Permalink | No comments