The Rat Race is Killing You
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. You’re incredibly lucky to be alive in the most abundant time in history. You live in a major city in a rapidly developing country. People would literally kill to have your job.
Yeah, you get it.
At least that’s what you tell people.
And yet every day you wake up at precisely 5 a.m. and you wonder to yourself:
Is this really it?
As you stumble into the kitchen half-awake one Monday morning, you think of the next forty years of your life. How you’ll be stuck working for people you couldn’t give two shits about, for causes you don’t even believe in.
And then you go to work. The drones greet you in that impossibly perky way. You pretend to laugh at your boss’s jokes. You get your work done in exactly 2.2 hours and you spend the rest of the day either looking for jobs or looking at memes.
Again, you wonder:
Is this the rest of my life?
The thought leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
And you know what? It should.
Your dreams, if you can even remember them, are once again pushed aside in favor of the “pragmatic” approach to life.
It’s okay, they assure you.
If you work this much hours for this many years, someday you can afford the down payment on a house and car.
Then you’ll have kids, because of course you will, and when they’re old enough, they’ll be the ones to pay down all your debt.
This is how it’s always been done.
Don’t ask too many questions.
Just count your blessings.
Yeah, okay.
“How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so? ”
— Charles Bukowski
You go home. You plop down onto your bed. You try to fall asleep for several hours until sweet silence finally envelops you. But it doesn’t last. Before you know it, it’s time for work again.
Everything you dread is on repeat.
People always say it would get easier, that you’d get the hang of life eventually. But each passing year only leaves you more confused. More jaded. More anxious about your future–or lack thereof.
College didn’t even teach you anything you could use in the real world. No lectures on taxes or proper nutrition. No meaningful discussions on investing or mental health. Not even a passing mention of how to be in a mature, adult relationship.
If you’re anything like me, then you’ve learned more from books and videos and real life than you ever have in a traditional educational institution.
You learned from poets and philosophers and businessmen rather than professors and middle school teachers.
Notice that all of this points to one thing.
You’re not like the others.
You never have been.
You were born to carve your own path, away from the toxic influence of those who could never understand you.
So why are you still trying to beat them at their own game?
Leave it all. Burn it down. Escape the rat race.
Too many of us have shelved our dreams in the name of practicality.
But is it really practical to spend half your life doing something you don’t even enjoy? Not everyone wants to live The Dream™ and buy a McMansion. You’ve got to understand that you’re not a bad person for wanting something different out of life. You’re allowed to want something different. In fact, I encourage you to want something different.
The herd will call you crazy for abandoning the safe route. Let them.
You can strike out on your own, and when you do, your success will eventually speak for you.
Getting out of the rat race requires a leap of faith. But you already knew that. You know what you have to do, deep down.
All that’s left now is to pull the trigger.
There has never been a better time to start a business. Or take up freelancing. All the barriers to entry are being broken down by modern technology. It was only a decade ago that you needed a significant amount of capital to put up your own business. But now all you need is your phone, an internet connection, and the will to make it work. All around the world, thousands of people like you are waiting to take the next step. Waiting to take the leap.
So what happens next?
Perhaps you’ll start a side hustle. Or quit that job to launch that startup. Or you’ll finally find the time to travel and go on grand adventures halfway across the world. You’ll make crappy art and play broken music. You’ll see the world through a different lens. You’ll discover who you are, and who you’re meant to be.
You’ll relish your newfound freedom to work wherever, whenever, and however you want to. You’ll go to sleep every night knowing that your life is in your own hands, and no one can take that away from you.
At the very least, you’ll find a job that doesn’t make you question your existence at every turn.
And hey, maybe you won’t be dead before then.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.–William Ernest Henley
You are the captain of your soul.
