Hi Andrew, and others who asked about he Filling The Void section,mans what to do after creating a muse and freeing up time.
I believe that I have some of the answers to this. I’m a relatively late adopter of the 4HWW and I’m still in the process of creating my muse product, but essentially I have been filling the void of traditional work and study for many years.
I’ve never lived in my home country in my adult life, except for one period of about 11 months a couple of years ago, and have mostly been in Southeast Asia and China. I’ve worked as a journalist, an English as a Second Language teacher, a writer for conservation organizations, and several other things. I speak one language to very much above native level (Bahasa Indonesia – one of the largest languages in the world) and was on the way to having another one above native speaker level, Japanese. (My Japanese is largely dormant now as I have not used it since university, where I majored in both of these languages – but it could be easily reactivated, and more importantly, I memorized the process that I used to learn it to a level competitive with native speakers in many areas, and vastly above all but the smallest percentage of second-language learners.)
I believe that there are two main aspects that will help to fill the void in a very meaningful way and enrich almost any activity, goal and achievement that can be achieved in a productive lifestyle after freeing oneself from work constraints. Essentially, I think that these answers can help people achieve the 4HWW more fully. (Personally, I cannot praise the book and Tim enough for what he has achieved with this – freedom of mind for so many people.)
The first answer I would give is that you can, and should, learn languages to a level that is above most native speakers. What I mean by this is that using certain techniques, primarily focusing on high-importance words and phrases and avoiding attempts to become idiomatic in a second language, you can learn to express your own ideas in a way that is simple and yet sophisticated. Being from another culture, many of your ideas will be new and surprisingly valuable to people who may not have heard them before – and certainly haven’t heard them from you. A good language learning process will also make you assess those ideas as you learn how to speak in your own words and to express your own thoughts, which will help you reflect on how they sound to other people, and improve and strengthen them, adding further value to your thoughts. This could be about anything: my work looks at how to break language down into your major objectives for learning it, which could be business-related, social, or other types related to personal interests, hobbies, skills or dreams and desires. Focusing on what you want out of it, and becoming very strong in your own niche, will also help you to add value to your interactions with others in a new language. The language learning process is very simple when you throw away the assumptions that are made about it, and I show people how to do this extremely effectively.
The second point that I would like to make is that learning anything as if you planned to teach it will make it feel more worthwhile – and enrich the value that you get out of anything that you do, making it more effective at helping to fill the void. I look at how you should aim to teach for free, to people who are as different from you as possible, and how much of teaching is actually listening.
Between these two answers there is a third: Tim mentions in the 4HWW that you should do what excites you. I believe that this is true. During the times that you aren’t doing this, I believe that there is another way of remaining excited: learning a skill with the aim of teaching it to people of other cultures, age groups, or anybody else who is different to you will keep your mind motivated to deconstruct, process and rebuild skills that you have acquired. It works in both directions. Teaching to – and learning from – people of other cultures and with other differences to yourself will also allow you to gain truly valuable insights that can be passed on to people who are likely to be more similar to you: family, friends, colleagues, and others.
This is not to say that people should become linguists or teachers – except in an amateur sense. Tim recommends in the Learning Unlimited section that he focuses on a language and a kinesthetic skill. Learning to pass your own ideas on in a new language – bringing your thoughts to a culture where it’s almost certain that nothing like them exists yet – gives others huge insights into yourself and helps you realize how valuable you really are. Keeping in mind that you should take any opportunity you have to teach new skills that you learn (including muse creation) to others, and that you will gain more valuable insights by this to share with the people closest to you, is another powerful way to enrich any skill or new thing you may learn. Both of these approaches also make acquisition of languages and skills easier. These aren’t ‘things to do’ to fill the void, as those are your own choices: but they are principles that apply to how you do those new (or old) things that I think have value. I hope this helps – and please let me know if any of it is unclear, and I will explain it in more detail. Thank you for your time 🙂
