The rat race: why and how to get out of it?
The rat race, what is it?
You have never heard this term? And yet you are probably one of them…
What is the rat race?
To define this term, the "rat race" or rat race in French, means an endless race, according to Wikipedia.
It is based on the image of a lab rat trying to escape by running through a maze or wheel.
The symbolism here is the race of man after time, a salary, a better social status. In short, basically the famous “metro work sleep”.
That obligation you know all too well of having to get up in the morning, to go to work. Working ever harder without being particularly passionate about what you do. With the sole aim of being able to receive a salary, which will allow you to pay your bills and afford things or trips.
And with this are added all the excesses that you may face during a career: burnout, stress, lack of time, etc.
The best illustrations of this are those of Steve Cutts, notably his video "Happiness" which you will find on Youtube at the link below:
You are stuck in this routine. It is hard to get out of it because you have been conditioned into this mold forever.
But recent years have brought a change in everyone's lifestyles with the emergence of new professions in digital. Make way for "Digital Nomad" like influencers, virtual assistants or even travel bloggers who are now the jobs of tomorrow.
No geographical constraints, timetables, freedom of use, the dream you might say?
So if we have to schematize the concept of the rat race, it is working 5 days a week. For only 2 days of freedom in general in the most classic job formats.
All day long you wait tirelessly for the end of the day, all week long you wait for the weekend, then the holidays... A vicious circle.
Schema Type
- Having to get up early and hurry up so as not to be late
- Getting stuck in traffic or packed into public transport
- So, you arrive at work already annoyed (having lived for years on line 13 in Paris, that was my daily life, I know something about it)
- End of the day, same old story, you do the return journey. Taking another hour to get home
- Race results, you barely have time to sit down in front of Netflix, and you have little time left before going to bed to start the same old story again the next day.
Ultimately, one may wonder whether this work model is really good for the balance between personal and professional life.
Especially since over the past two years, the pandemic has taught us a new way of working with teleworking.
It’s hard to come back to work, even if the social contact is missed and feels good when you finally get back to work in person.
And besides, does this model still make sense with our current life?
Why is it difficult to get out?
Many do not dare to leave the rat race because:
- There is an underlying risk-taking and the possibility of losing your financial security (especially if you don't have large savings set aside) is inconceivable.
All the more so in a world where the cost of living continues to increase over the years.
You simply don't know how to do it or aren't ready to step out of your comfort zone
Yet many are not in a job they love. But with high unemployment rates, it is more difficult to change jobs as you would like, especially if you want to change sectors completely.
But by repressing your deep desires too much, by remaining frustrated for too long, the body sends you alarm signals. And you enter into increasingly harmful phases of burn out, bore out, bad mood, health problems, etc.
How to get out of it?
Here are some ideas for escaping this model.
- Start your own business by setting up your own business in a field that you enjoy
Once you have built up your clientele and developed your network, you have flexibility in terms of hours and locations, without a boss to spy on you.
- Stay in this system but in a job that you really like. That gives you a flexible schedule as you wish.
- Invest to generate passive income and develop your financial independence
- Set up a skills assessment to see avenues for retraining, highlight your talents and thus give you food for thought for your professional change.
I am in the middle of it at the moment, in a 3-month assessment, very interesting and educational.
I'm giving you the link to the organization I work with, you can go and see the many testimonials from those I coached to form your own opinion:
