This book is not in vain became a bestseller. This is not just a story about how to think and live. This is a clear guide to action, a seven-day intensive course for those who want to reveal their potential.
Larssen’s weekly program is a kind of civilian version of that “Infernal Week”. According to the author, it can be tested by the most common person. At the same time, it is not necessary to break away from production, but it is also not recommended.
The main idea of the book: Live for 7 days at the limit of your abilities. So, how could you live every day, if you were not disturbed by laziness, fears, lack of assortment, bad mood, unimportant weather … Yes, how many obstacles on the way to the goal you can think of!
So, Larssen proposes to spend the week as productive as possible. It is assumed that you will live on a strict schedule.
Basic rules of the hellish week:
- rise at 5:00 (even on weekends);
- going to sleep – at 22:00;
- only healthy food;
- TV is prohibited;
- no social networks and communication is not on business during working hours;
- maximum concentration on the tasks performed;
- training at least once a day for at least 1 hour.
This list only the main recommendations. To the goals of the book you need to add your own, corresponding to your life situation. It will be necessary to make a lot of plans and task lists both for the current week and for the distant future. After all, if there is no goal, then there is nowhere to move. Therefore, before starting the experiment, decide why you need it and what you are driving at.
To live a week at the limit of your possibilities, so that then ordinary tasks seem like a childish babble – such an experience, according to the author, will expand the boundaries of your consciousness. You will cease to be afraid to start a task, and you will know what you are capable of.
Having survived the infernal week, you will begin to achieve your goals more quickly. And in general, you will finally achieve them, and not to stumble on the spot.
The book is divided into two parts: theoretical and practical. The latter is a clear guide to action, painted on days.
Honestly, the theoretical part seemed too dry to me. Maybe it’s just because I’m a woman and I need more epithets … I do not know. But if you read a ton of literature on the topic of self-development, then from the first part of the book nothing new can not stand. To advanced users of knowledge about self-improvement, visualization and planning this part of the book can be simply glimpse. Nevertheless, I recommend not ignoring it at all. It helps to tune in to the author’s wave and understand the course of his thoughts and ideas, which are the basis for the infernal week. This will help you stick to the plan.
The second part deserves special attention. I, after experiencing the infernal week, believe that the section devoted to a day, it is better to read 24-48 hours before the practice. For example, on Monday read on Saturday or Sunday. In advance to read the second part there is no sense: you will forget everything exactly to the beginning of practice.
The author himself recommends first read the book and only after 3 weeks begin to act. However, he does not mention whether it is necessary to read the whole book or only the theoretical part.
Why I decided on the infernal week
For the opportunity to write a review of the book “At the Limit. A week without self-pity “I seized with pleasure.
The fact is that I have been leading a healthy lifestyle for a long time and, due to my profession as a nutritionist, I eat the most correctly. I train with different frequency and intensity, I am engaged in techniques of self-development, I am interested in visualization and other wonderful tools for fulfilling desires. But I always really wanted to put it all in a certain scheme and make it all more systematic. To set up such a life conveyor, from which one could not fall out. If this is even possible …
When you read all these smart books about how it seems, it seems that there are a lot of ideal people in the world who get up early and move towards the goal systematically and persistently, like a herd of buffaloes to watering. That’s it they run in the morning under your dark windows, scrolling in your head the plan for the upcoming day. And you … you dry yourself, and life goes by.
Something like this, I imagined the life of ideal people, to whom, as I thought before the infernal week, I did not relate.
And now the opportunity to become the best version of itself went into the hands. And I decided not just to write a review, but to try out Larssen’s method on myself. I did not have three weeks to prepare: I was running out of time. However, if I caught fire, I need to act urgently, and therefore I would hardly have survived 3 weeks of waiting. Fortunately, the book was small, and its reading did not take long. And so…
I will not describe each day separately, as I did in my blog, but simply share with you my feelings.
What turned out to be the most difficult
1. Sleeping. Contrary to my expectations, the most difficult was not to get up at 5:00, and go to bed at 22:00. On the first evening, I hardly forced myself to turn off the lights at 23:00. The next days it turned out better for me, but, however hard I tried, I could not fall asleep. Despite the early rise, an extremely tight schedule and training at the limit of opportunities (I’m addicted to nature: if it’s reached the gym, then it’s hard for me to stop, especially when time permits). There were evenings when I tossed about until midnight! And this despite the fact that I do not drink coffee and other drinks that prevent us from falling asleep. Why did it happen, I can not explain …
2. Denial of social networks. And in this there was nothing unexpected, alas. I could not apply the Council to not enter the social network, because the main promotion of my services is going on there, it’s part of my job. And having gone there for work, it’s hard not to stumble upon a message from one of your friends. And it always seems that “I’ll just answer him now and …”.
For the truth, I must note that I never look at the tape and I do not like different positions. Not because I’m an angry and terrible woman, whom I also feel sorry for. No. I just prefer living communication to social networks. Dependence has emerged in me on another occasion: I am so drawn to verify that and who wrote about my last article. And this must be stopped. The book “At the Limit” gave me this to understand. It only seems to us that there is only a minute and there are two, but in the end we get a decent time.
3. Lack of sleep. Although Larssen assures that “you will feel what it’s like to be cheerful,” I did exactly the opposite. Already on Tuesday I had to go to bed urgently, otherwise I could not stand my usual schedule. To be fair, I must say that my usual schedule makes many terrified: I manage to do so many things, but still …
One of Larssen’s tasks was to give up sleep for 41 hours. This meant that it was necessary to get up at 5:00 on Thursday and go to bed only at 22:00 on Friday. This task seemed unfounded to me. No matter how I tried to find meaning in this, I did not see it. Assurances that “people who have not slept for more than a day, know something like that …” I was not persuaded. I am a mother of two children and I have firsthand knowledge of both sleepless nights and chronic lack of sleep. And who among us in the student’s years did not have to sleep for days on end for this or that respectful (or not) reason?
Because of my problems with falling asleep by Thursday, I was just cooked, and therefore decided to go to bed on Friday night. Week of weeks, and somehow it is necessary to live.
4. Injuries. Before this experiment, I trained 2-4 times a week with moderate intensity. Immediately I surpassed myself (as intended) and began to train for 1.5 hours a day. At the same time I combined cardio and power loads in one workout. The bottom line: on Thursday night, both my knees and shoulder ached badly … On Friday I had to cancel the training, otherwise I risked not joining the system on Saturday. So I turned my brains on and focused on their Feel.
5. Combine with real life. It was difficult to combine the plan of the hellish week with real life. By the end of the seven-day week, I was even more convinced that the author is still more focused on the male population of the planet than on women with children. I just did not have time to plan and analyze everything that Larssen offers.
For example, on Friday my son got sick, I had to take him to the doctor urgently, and then I was glad that I went to bed on Thursday evening. Otherwise, how would I get behind the wheel? Another example: one day the book asks you to meet your biggest fear. I have a night forest. And here it is asked: how could I be in the nocturnal forest, when two kids sleep happily at my house, but there is no one to leave them? Or advice to move one day only on foot, or even better – running. With two children. Living out of town …
I’m not making excuses, no. But in all the examples that lead the author, the heroes are men, even with the family. A man came home, and he had a wonderful wife there, and he finally appreciated her and finally was able to spare time for the children. For me, a simple woman, this is everyday life. If I do not pay attention to children in the evening, they will remain hungry, unwashed and uncomfortable … Therefore – with all due respect to the author – I would like to see his book soon with advice that is close to the reality of working women with children.
What was easy
1. Planning. It was simple, because there was nothing new for me.
2. Healthy eating. This is my way of life for several years, so there was nothing to change. I made the conditions even tougher and excluded sugar, flour and alcohol.
3. Refusal of the TV. I just do not have it! Larssen rightly suggests that if you refuse to watch TV, then you will be free of time. But if you did not look at it, then you will have to get busy with efficiency, otherwise you will not be able to do all the tasks of the hell of the week.
4. A positive outlook on life. I am by nature an optimist, and lately I have also consciously developed this quality. Therefore, here, too, nothing new for me was not.
What will I leave in my life after the end of the hellish week
1. A modified schedule. I’ll start to go to bed earlier and get up early. I was convinced that at this stage of my life the schedule is not suitable for me at all: 5: 00-22: 00, but 6: 00-23: 00 will quite get accustomed. I’m sure.
2. Workout 4-5 times a week. I decided to increase the number of trainings, but to approach them wisely, without overworking the same muscle groups every day. Sports gives me energy and cheers up. So why not give him even more time?
3. Healthy eating.
4. Refusal of the TV and empty pastime in social networks.
conclusions
They turned out to be ambiguous. I still could not understand what was so hellish this week. When asked by readers of my blog about what turned out to be the most difficult, I answered honestly: “Go to bed at 22:00.” But! This does not mean that the book does not come in handy. No. Just once again I was convinced that it is very difficult to write a universal guide to action. After all, we are all at different stages of our development. In the same week, I realized that already I go in the right direction: so my usual life is close to the infernal week.
I am sure that for many people such changes will become a test. For example, for some, one rejection of a TV is already hell! Also there are people who do not think of life without a liter of cola per day, and she too is banned. What would they be without a favorite drink? This is also a kind of hell. If a person has never trained, then daily exercise will be a serious challenge. There are many examples.
The effect of the book and the complexity of your hellish week depend only on the point at which you are at the moment. You need to carry out the experiment already in order to understand how far you are from the ideal. And what is an ideal? This is when you live at full capacity, make the most of your potential, systematically move towards the goal, take care of your health … In a word, when you are the best version of yourself.
In conclusion, I want to give one piece of advice: after reading the book, start acting as soon as possible. There will never be a suitable moment. Why did you spend 2 hours reading? This book belongs to the category of those that are useful only in practice. So in the way! Become a better version for yourself for a week, but remember: ideal people do not exist. Therefore, advice by councils, and to listen to yourself during the infernal week will be superfluous. Good luck!
“On the limit. A week without self-pity, “Eric Bertrand Larssen
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