How to Escape the Rat Race and Avoid Dying Without Ever Really Living
You've been working tirelessly on your big one! You feel like you're putting in more than just your fair share of effort and have been working your plan day in and dayout. It's like every time you make one step closer to your dream, life comes and dumps another heaping load of bull crap on your ethereal desk!
Why can't you just get a break?
Why does everything keep happening to you?
How are you supposed to get excited about what you're looking to do when life keeps dragging you back into the distraction?
I've been watching a show on Netflix called Carol and the End of the World which is a doomsday flick showcasing what the world would look like if it were about to be destroyed. The show follows Carol who is the main protagonist who has spent the majority of her life working and sitting at home. Everyone else has given up "normal" ways of living such as work, money, etc. to go out, be free, and just live while Carol, and a few new friends she's found all struggle to find their way out of the normal routine.
This show is the epitome of life in a nutshell. We never really know when things are going to end, but what we do know is that our time here in this life is finite, so we should live free, be our best selves, and push past the pain of being out of our comfort zones to build a new way of living. I know what you're thinking though. "Josh that's bullshit because I still need to take care of my bills, make sure I have food, blah blah blah." And yes, you're right, but one thing that we can do while existing on this hamster wheel is set a plan and put it in motion.
When I was younger, someone really wise once told me to keep expenses low so that you have more freedom of your time as time is money. If you're wanting to have more freedom of your time and energy to set a plan of action into motion, the best thing to do is to reduce your expenses. The spirit of greed runs so rampant these days. Everyone wants an expansive, luxurious lifestyle but doesn't always realize the price that comes with it. Yes, it's easy to get everything on credit and use someone else's money to make it happen now, but you're now in debt to that person which means you have to slave to pay off the things you've "purchased."
This means, now you have to trade your time and skills for money. So it would follow that to escape this trap, you would reduce your debts and need for things. Keep your life as simple as it can be. You can keep a simple life without absolutely breaking the bank. What are the necessities? A place to live, food, clothing. Find food, clothing, and a living situation that fits within the scope of your finances. Need to expand that scope? Find or create you a job that pays more than what your lifestyle requires. You may have to grind at this for a while until you save enough money to dig your way out of the whole that acquiring debt made for you, but it's a temporary inconvenience for a permenant improvement.
Another tip that I've learned through life is to stop using debts to buy liabilities. Any and EVERYTHING that you purchase using debt should be an assett to bring in income. A business, equipment, something that appreciates over time or an avenue where money can work for you. Everything that you put debt towards should be an investment that appreciates over time rather than something that depreciates over time. It's the difference between filling your cup and having space for overflow or putting a hole in the cup and everything escaping.
The reason the distractions keep getting to us is because we give all of our time and energy to entities that take it for their benefit rather than planning for the benefit of our own future. Do you need the most expensive clothes? Do you have to have the biggest house? Do you need the newest most expensive car? The answer is no. We just glorify things more than we value our time and energy. We prefer what's comfortable for us today rather than doing a bit more work to make our future selves more comfortable. I'm grateful that I have currently have my youth, but I know now that things are not working like they used to. That means I have to prepare for the days to come by making conscious choices today to reduce my debts and increase my assets.
QOTD (Questions of the Day)
What are you doing to ensure your future is secure and comfortable?
What's keeping you from going the extra mile today to plan for your tomorrow?
How can you position yourself so that you don't have to slave to pay back unnecessary dollars?
What do you want to do to escape the rat race?