“Chase your desired lifestyle, not your desired title. People are blinded by status and labels. Once you release the need for a specific title, there is almost always an easier path to living your preferred lifestyle.”
— James Clear
When I tell people I typically work 4–5 hours a day, they assume I’m lazy. Or out of touch.
That reaction tells me everything I need to know about how we’ve been conditioned to think about work and living a good life.
We’ve been sold the idea that a good life means having everything: the title, the house, the car, the overflowing social schedule, the money, the grind.
But a decade ago, I started choosing differently.
The Life I Chose Instead
I wanted a life that felt calm, focused, and meaningful.
A life where I could:
- Work 4–5 intentional hours a day
- Help people solve real problems
- Have time to read, write, and think
- Go for long walks with my dogs
- Cook dinner for my wife without feeling rushed
- Hit the gym every single day
- Travel somewhere new whenever we feel like it
- Say no to meetings, projects, and opportunities that don’t align
That’s the life I’ve been building.
And when people find out how I live, their responses tend to fall into two camps:
🧠 The Ambitious Group (achievement-driven):
“That’s not the right way to live. You need to work harder. Strive for more.”
😒 The Pessimistic Group (resigned and skeptical):
“Good luck with that. Must be nice. Not everyone has that privilege.”
Similar response. Completely opposite reactions.
Both groups are operating from someone else’s script.
The ambitious see my lifestyle as lazy. The pessimists see it as delusional.
But neither group is actually listening to what I’m saying. They’re too busy defending their own stances to hear me out.
Because if I’m right, the ambitious group might have to face the idea that they’ve been running the wrong race.
And the pessimists are faced with the idea that this life, may in fact, be possible.
Nothing threatens people more than someone who does it differently and seems to be doing okay.
It forces them to confront some uncomfortable truths:
- Maybe they’ve been chasing the wrong version of success
- Maybe their grind isn’t leading where they hoped
- Maybe more isn’t actually better
Five focused hours of meaningful work beats eight hours of busywork every time. My health, my relationships, and following my curiosity are things I’d rather spend the rest of my day on.
Most people work to buy stuff they don’t need because they never figured out what would actually make them happy.
They chase other people’s definitions of success instead of discovering their own. Then they wonder why they feel empty once they get everything that was supposed to fulfill them. When you don’t know what you want, you end up wanting what everyone else wants. And that never ends well.
An Ordinary Perfect Monday
A few years ago, I asked myself a simple but powerful question:
What does my ideal Monday look like?
Here’s what I wrote down:
- 6:00 AM – Great cup of coffee
- 6:30–7:30 – Read something interesting
- 7:30 – Healthy breakfast
- 8:00–9:00 – Write something meaningful
- 9:00–10:30 – Deep work on a project I care about
- 10:30–11:30 – Walk the dogs to the river
- 11:30 – Lunch with my wife
- 12:00–3:00 – Coaching + client work
- 3:00 onward – Hit the gym, relax, or follow my curiosity
That’s a good day. A perfect Monday.
My daily walks often end up here.
Once you know what your ideal ordinary day looks like, you can start building it. You might discover you need less than you’ve been sold. You might find that wanting a good life has nothing to do with wanting everything, but simply wanting the right things.
This is the future of work. Not having more. But choosing better.
👉 I lay out the full model in this article: The Rule of 3 – How To Afford What Matters and Ignore the Rest.
Maybe the good life is knowing exactly what you want. And having the courage to say no to everything else.
Live bravely,
Michael
