Peter Taylor - The Lazy Winner

Well actually I mean stop reading this book at the end of this chapter and then follow the instructions explicitly before you continue. Trust me on this one, I'm an author, and it really is in your best interests. Clear? Good!

So let's start with a simple summary of what lies ahead of you in this book and then take a quick test to see if it is worth your while investing your time (and money) further.

The lazy winner is for anyone who simply wants to do more with less effort and succeed in their work and personal life without rushing around like a headless chicken or putting in100 hour weeks. We are all too good to put our personal life and careers and worklife balance at risk by working too hard! Equally we can't head off in the opposite direction and ignore the work part of the equation while focusing our time and effort solely on the life part. That is not a worklife balance at all and, unless you are already wealthy enough to go for just a lifelife balance then you do need to come up with a real balance that applies to you.

You are just too good to fail at what you do and I want to help you get even better at succeeding in what you do in the future.

The lazy winner builds on the concept of productive laziness which encourages people to apply more thought before leaping into action and throwing effort at a problem or task. There are much better ways to progress in work and in life. I mean, what is the point in rushing around like busy bees all of the time and yet looking back at the end of the day and wondering what it was all about and what you actually achieved.

With a different approach to planning you can ensure that you are one of the lazy winners and achieve success in what you do at work and in life achieving more impressive results with the minimum of effort.

I want you to make the right decision here about this book and the outline of what it aims to do will, hopefully, put you on the right path. Equally I should be clear about what this book isn't about and what it won't give you.

There are hundreds of self-help books out there that will promise to help you get paid more, laid more and live a longer happier life. This isn't one of them (I may have just lost out on a million sales with that statement but I have to be honest).

What I do believe is that by adopting a few simple rules in your life you can make changes that can be quite significant, depending upon your starting point of course, and what your expectations are of such change.

What this book is then is a roadmap, a route planner, a step-by-step progress plan, to guide you on your way to achieving some level of productive laziness. And that is an important thing to understand. You don't have to go for the big bang approach and you don't have to do 100% of what I suggest to achieve some benefits. I believe that you will achieve some advantage at each stage small incremental gains as each lesson is learned and applied.

Again, many self-help books only work if you entirely immerse yourself in what they have to say and then adopt all the advice to the maximum. And when you fail to make any significant changes it will be your fault for not doing it all properly and thoroughly enough.

This book is not like that.

You need to ask yourself some questions before you make up your mind.

What happens when you get involved in something? Do you get carried along in the excitement of it all, caught up in the rush, or just accept everything that heads your way with a spirit of fatalism? Or do you ever hold back and ask yourself:

Do I want to do this piece of work, job or task? Even if I do want to do it, do I need to do it?

Is the potential result or outcome worth my effort?

Do I have to do it myself ?

If you have to do to it then what is the shortest path to the point of success?