Leave the Rat Race

If you want to change your life nothing will happen until you make that decision. No one will come in on a white horse and do it for you. You’ll get some help along the way if you ask the right people but it’s up to you to make that change.

If you want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse ~Jim Rohn

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Now that said, making that decision needs to have some fuel behind it to be more than just talk. This is why you need to find your WHY and motivation behind why you want to change. (If you haven’t watched the video suggested in Step 1 in the 10 Steps to Getting Off the Hamster Wheel now is a good time.)

Let’s use me as an example:

I wanted to go back to a life that included more free time, less work and more of a freelance kind of lifestyle. I also wanted to be able to work from anywhere, travel and spend more time with my family. Plus I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to wake up everyday feeling as if what I was doing mattered as I was no longer getting that from the situation I was in.

Now wanting that kind of lifestyle and getting that are two different things and we’ll get to how to achieve that down the road but this is where your WHY is coming into play.

That WHY fueled my decision to change. I knew it was up to me to create the kind of life I wanted. Ask yourself:

WHY do you want something different in your life?
WHY do you want to quit your job?
WHY do you want to get out of debt?
WHY do you want to leave the rat race?
WHY?

The more specific you get the better. To just say: “I’m tired of going to a job I don’t love” isn’t enough WHY. You need something stronger than that to motivate you.

“I want to quit my job so that I can spend my days with my kids before they get too old, travel in an RV for a year and then start a non-profit and make a difference” now that is more specific. Those involve goals that you can then break down to smaller pieces and work towards.

Your reason needs to be really STRONG…you need to find that burning desire within you that you are willing to do what it takes to get to your goal.

Think of an athlete that wants to go to the Olympics, let’s say in swimming. That is not an easy goal to achieve. That means that the motivation and the WHY must be there or getting out of a warm, nice bed at 4:30 am in the morning to be in the pool by 5 am is going to be a constant struggle. Without that strong WHY when the going gets tough it’s really easy to get derailed and give up.

Start asking yourself why you want something different in your life. Write those things down. Search for your WHY. Be specific as to why. When you do, changing your life is no longer talk. You get fuel for action. Fuel that serves as your catalyst for change.

Well, that’s all for the first post in the “How to Leave the Rat Race” series. If you haven’t yet, remember to sign up to have all blog posts and more delivered directly to your email, plus you will get your free copy of the 10 Steps to Getting Off the Hamster Wheel guide, which this series is based on.

Now, what action will you take today in order to get closer to finding your WHY?

Pretty much every person I meet wants to quit their job and do something else. Many of them wants to be their own boss so they can design their own schedule and do something they are passionate about.

People daydream about a life away from the 9-5 grind [hint employers – if you were to actually bring your employees in on your vision and listen to theirs, give them flextime and unlimited time off you would have some happy, productive employees that would feel like they are part of something greater than just getting a paycheck for their time].

So why are people not quitting their jobs and pursuing a life they want?

Because it’s not easy to leave and do your own thing. It’s that thing called debt or no savings that may hold you back. Sometimes it’s just not knowing what to pursue or how to make a living on your passion. And a common one, fear of the unknown and fear of failure.

Plus, it’s hard to know where to start. How does one go from full-time employee to working for yourself? What if you fail? Personally I think more stay where they are in the fear of failing than anything else.

Going from working for someone else to working for yourself can be a lot of work. At least that’s my and many others experience. And it takes time. Getting a business up and running is not an overnight thing. It requires doing it in bite size pieces while you still keep your day job and balance the rest of your life.

To be honest with you…working a 9-5 job is easy. You may have a boss that makes your life miserable, you’re restricted in terms of free time but you do get a steady paycheck in exchange for the time you’re there.

When you work for yourself there are no guarantees. You may put in a 16 hour workday and at the end of the day you’ve made zero dollars. Unless you do freelance work where you charge per hour you are no longer being paid in exchange for your time, you are being paid for the value you provide to others, value that someone hopefully is willing to pay for whether that is a product, a service or similar. And even if you do freelance work you spend a lot of time pitching your services to clients hoping to land work.

Same produce the same, different produce different

If you want something different in your life, you need to start working towards that, today. I meet many who feel they need to have everything figured before they can start. You can keep planning forever but unless you start your journey you will never arrive to where you want to be – enjoying life on your terms.

Another thing to remember is that our work landscape is changing from W2’s to 1099’s so even if you feel reluctant getting started doing so will give you an advantage compared to those that didn’t.

I’ve been on this journey now for a while and I’m learning new things every day. It’s always going to be a learning experience. That’s just how this works. I’m learning from those that are ahead of me so that I can get there faster by learning from their experiences and hopefully you can learn from me by avoiding some things I wish I would have done better.

Where are we heading?

Looking back at my blog it’s pretty disjointed. There are a lot of helpful information but it’s like jumping around all over the place. My brain kind of works like that. When I started I wasn’t sure where I was going with it. I just decided to start and let things evolve. I had a general idea but at first I wanted it to be a financial blog, then a pursue your dreams blog, then a mixture, then this and that. I learned as I went. It’s still evolving but my new tagline is now the direction I’m going. When I started I still had a 9-5 job and who was I to write about leaving the wheel when I was still in it? It always felt kind of odd.

I’ll continue to throw in an odd ball here and there, because well, life is more interesting that way but I’m going to follow the theme of “Get Out of Debt, Leave the Rat Race, Pursue Your Passion” by sharing what I’ve learned and what I continue to learn as I’m building my business.

I’m also excited about starting a series called “How To Leave the Rat Race” where I will follow the steps in the “10 Steps to Getting Off the Hamster Wheel” guide that you get when you sign up with your email. That series is meant to help you speed up your process so that you hopefully don’t have to go through as many trial and errors as I did.

Note: if you’re already a subscriber, check your email, confirm and then your next email contains a link to download the guide.

I can’t wait for you to join me on this adventure and leave the rat race…one step at a time! And I love to hear from you. Join in on the conversation by leaving a comment below.

Change Your Life – How to Leave the Rat Race series

Get Out of Debt. Leave the Rat Race. Pursue Your Passion.

So why are people not quitting their jobs and pursuing a life they want?

Same produce the same, different produce different

Where are we heading?