REVIEW: “At the limit. A week without self-pity ", Eric Bertrand Larssen

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you love books about self-development, but you don't go beyond reading, we recommend you another one. Only here you can’t do without action!

This book has not become a bestseller for nothing. 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 looking to reach their potential.

Larssen's weekly program is a kind of civic version of that Hell Week. According to the author, the most ordinary person can try it. At the same time, it is not only not necessary to break away from production, but it is also not recommended.

The main idea of the book: live 7 days at the limit of your capabilities. The way you could live every day, if laziness, fears, lack of concentration, bad mood, unimportant weather did not interfere with you … But you never know what obstacles on the way to the goal you can think of!

So, Larssen suggests spending the week as productive as possible. This assumes that you will live on a tight schedule.

Basic rules of hell week:

• rise - at 5:00 (even on weekends);
• going to bed - at 22:00;
• only healthy food;
• TV banned;
• no social networks and non-business communication during working hours;
• maximum concentration on the tasks being performed;
• workouts at least 1 time per day for at least 1 hour.

This is a list of basic guidelines only. You need to add your own goals to the goals from the book, corresponding to your life situation. It will be necessary to draw up many plans and lists of tasks 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 where you are heading.

To live a week at the limit of your capabilities, so that then ordinary tasks seem like childish babble to you - such an experience, according to the author, will expand the boundaries of your consciousness. You will cease to be afraid of starting a task and find out what you are capable of.

After experiencing a hell of a week, you will begin to achieve your goals faster. Anyway, you will finally achieve them, and not mark time.

The book is divided into two parts: theoretical and practical. The latter is a clear day-to-day guide to action.

To be honest, the theoretical part seemed too dry to me. Maybe it's just because I'm a woman and I need more epithets … I don't know. But if you have read a ton of literature on the topic of self-development, then nothing new will come out of the first part of the book. For advanced users of self-improvement, visualization and planning knowledge, this part of the book can simply be skimmed. However, I recommend that you do not ignore it altogether. It helps to tune in to the author's wave and understand the train of his thoughts and ideas underlying the hellish week. This will help you stick to your plan.

The second part deserves special attention. Having experienced a hellish week, I believe that the section dedicated to a particular day is best read 24-48 hours before practice. For example, read about Monday on Saturday or Sunday. It makes no sense to read the second part in advance: you will definitely forget everything by the beginning of the practice.

The author himself recommends that you first read the book and only after 3 weeks begin to act. True, he does not mention whether it is necessary to read the whole book or only the theoretical part.

Why did I decide for a hell of a 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 fairly healthy lifestyle for a long time and, by virtue of my profession as a nutritionist, I eat as right as possible. I train with different frequency and intensity, I am engaged in self-development techniques, 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. Establish such a life conveyor from which one could not fall out. If this is possible at all …

When you read all these clever books about how to do it, it seems that there are a lot of ideal people in the world who get up early and move towards their goal systematically and persistently, like a herd of buffaloes to a watering hole. They are the ones who run in the morning under your dark windows, scrolling through the plan of the upcoming day in their head. And you … you sleep for yourself, and life goes by.

Something like this I imagined the life of ideal people, which, as it seemed to me until the hellish week, I was not.

And now the opportunity to become the best version of yourself went into your hands. And I decided not just to write a review, but to try Larssen's method on myself. I didn't have three weeks to prepare: we were running out of time. However, if I caught fire, I need to act immediately, and therefore I would hardly have withstood the 3 weeks of waiting. Fortunately, the book turned out to be small, and it did not take long to read it. And so…

I will not describe each day separately, as I did in my blog, but just share my feelings with you.

What turned out to be the most difficult

1. Falling asleep. Contrary to my expectations, the hardest part was not getting up at 5:00, but going to bed at 22:00. On the first evening, I hardly forced myself to turn off the lights at 23:00. In the following days I did it better, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not sleep. Despite the early rise, an extremely busy schedule and training at the limit of possibilities (I am an addicted person: if I have already reached the gym, then it is difficult for me to stop, especially when time permits). There were evenings when I tossed and turned until midnight! And this despite the fact that I do not drink coffee and other drinks that prevent us from falling asleep at all. Why this happened, I cannot explain …

2. Refusal from social networks. And there was nothing unexpected in this, alas. I could not apply the advice not to go to social networks, because the main promotion of my services takes place there, this is part of my job. And after going there for work, it is difficult 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 sake of truth, it should be noted that I never view feeds and do not like different posts. Not because I am an angry and terrible woman who feels sorry for the husky. No. I just prefer live communication over social networks. My addiction came to light for another reason: I am drawn to check what and who wrote about my last article. And this must be stopped. The book "On the Limit" made me understand this. It only seems to us that there is a minute and there are two, but the sum is a decent time.

3. Lack of sleep. Although Larssen assures that “you will feel what it is like to be cheerful,” I did exactly the opposite. Already on Tuesday I had to urgently go to bed during the day, otherwise I would not have resisted my usual schedule. For the sake of truth, it should be noted that my usual schedule terrifies many: I manage to redo so many things, but still …

One of Larssen's assignments was to stop sleeping for 41 hours. This meant that you had to get up at 5:00 on Thursday and go to bed only at 22:00 on Friday. This task seemed to me unreasonable. No matter how I tried to find a 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 convinced. I am a mother of two and am familiar with both sleepless nights and chronic lack of sleep. And who of us in his student years did not have the opportunity to stay awake for days on end for one reason or another (or not so) reason?

Due to my problems with falling asleep by Thursday, I was just boiled, and therefore decided to go to bed on Friday night. A week for a week, but you have to live somehow.

4. Injuries. Prior to this experiment, I trained 2-4 times a week at moderate intensity. Immediately I surpassed myself (as planned) and began to train for 1.5 hours a day. At the same time, I combined cardio and strength training in one workout. Bottom line: on Thursday evening, both knees and shoulder hurt me badly … On Friday the training had to be canceled, otherwise I risked not joining the ranks on Saturday. So I turned on my brains and focused on my feelings.

5. Combining with real life. It was difficult to reconcile the hell week plan with real life. By the end of the seven-day week, I became even more convinced that the author is still more focused on the male population of the planet than on women with children. I just didn't have enough time to make plans and analyze everything that Larssen has to offer.

For example, on Friday my son fell ill, he had to be urgently taken to the doctor, 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 a book asks to face your biggest fear. I have this night forest. And the question is: how could I be in the night forest, when two kids are sleeping peacefully at my house, and there is no one to leave them to? Or advice to move one day only on foot, or even better - by running. With two children. Living outside the city …

I'm not making excuses, no. But in all the examples given by the author, the heroes are men, albeit with a family. So a man came home, and he had a wonderful wife there, and he finally appreciated her and was able to finally devote time to the children. For me, a simple woman, this is an ordinary life. If I do not pay attention to the children in the evening, they will remain hungry, unwashed and disliked … Therefore, with all due respect to the author, I would soon see his book with advice close to the reality of working women with children.

What turned out to be easy

1. Planning. It turned out to be simple, because it was nothing new to me.

2. Healthy eating. This has been my way of life for several years now, so I didn't have to change anything. I made the conditions even stricter and eliminated sugar, flour and alcohol.

3. Refusal from the TV. I just don't have it! Larssen rightly suggests that if you give up watching TV, you will have a lot of time free. But if you have not watched it, then you will have to come to grips with efficiency, otherwise you will not have time to do all the tasks of the hellish week.

4. A positive outlook on life. I am an optimist by nature, and lately I have been consciously developing this quality in myself. Therefore, there was nothing new for me here either.

What will I leave in my life after hell week ends

1. Modified schedule. I'll start going to bed earlier and get up earlier. I was convinced that at this stage of my life the schedule of 5: 00-22: 00 does not suit me at all, but 6: 00-23: 00 will quite take root. Sure.

2. Trainings 4-5 times a week. I decided to increase the number of workouts, but approach them wisely, without overworking the same muscle groups every day. Sport gives me energy and cheers me up. So why not give it even more time?

3. Healthy eating

4. Refusal of TV and empty pastime in social networks

conclusions

They turned out to be ambiguous. I still couldn't understand what was so hellish this week. When asked by the readers of my blog about what turned out to be the most difficult, I honestly answered: "Go to bed at 22:00." But! This does not mean that the book will not be useful to you. No. Just once again, I became convinced that it is very difficult to write a universal guide to action. After all, we are all at different stages of our development. This week I realized that I was already going in the right direction: my ordinary life is so close to hellish week.

I am sure that for many people such changes will be a test. For example, for some people, one rejection of the TV is already hell! There are also people who cannot imagine life without a liter of cola a day, which is also prohibited. What would they be like without their favorite drink? This is also a kind of hell. If the person has never exercised, then daily sports will be a serious challenge. There are many examples.

The effect of the book and the difficulty of your hellish week depend only on where you are at the moment. You need to conduct an experiment in order to understand how far from ideal you are. What is an ideal? This is when you live at full capacity, use your potential to the maximum, systematically move towards your 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. The right moment will never be. Why did you spend 2 hours reading then? This book belongs to the category of those that are useful only in practice. So let's go! Become the best version of yourself for a week, but remember: there are no perfect people. Therefore, advice is advice, and listening to yourself during hellish week will not be out of place. Good luck!