THE GREAT EXIT – leaving the rat race for a better life

As an employee, you have no choice but to follow decisions thrown at you from above. My former boss was an insecure man that somehow climbed the ladder but still suffered a massive inferiority complex. I had no incentive to excel because it only stirred up unwanted conflicts with his ego. He needed some real performance to clean up for his mess and yet could not accept nor acknowledge if someone delivered.

In this situation, often the best decision is to stay under the radar and continuously collect your paycheck. To break out of this toxic rat race mindset, you have to understand ownership and that you have none as an employee.

• You do not own the work you produce
• You do not own your time, and most likely
• You do not own your decisions

Rather, most of the times you will be given just the wage increase, bonus or fancy title, that stops you from leaving and saves the company time and money for new recruitment. Another wage increase, another bonus, another fancy title, the hamster wheel can spin like this for years but over time it is toxic, sometimes abusive, and that's why so many are miserable.

How did we get into that? We are cultivated into a system beginning from early childhood education, highschool (and university) preparing you for employment.

To be a successful solopreneur and to step out of the rat race, you need to stop making excuses. The alternative to running in the rat race is to step up and be accountable for everything - a terrifying thought for many. When employed and something goes wrong, you can always find some excuse or someone else to blame. When you blame others, you are not in control and you place yourself in the position of a helpless victim. Step out of being the victim.

Let me give you two examples of how my mind was creating a chain of excuses and messing with my brain.
Because I had a super stressful week in the rat race, taking on orders that I did not agree with, dealing with an incompetent team member which I did not employ - I felt mentally and physically wasted. Therefore, when I returned from work and finally had time on my own to build something that mattered to me, I couldn't do anything and I had to lie down on the sofa... brainlessly consuming social media or watching YouTube for hours.

I granted myself as a poor victim of circumstances to shut down. Sounds familiar?

This negative cycle dragged on and the only progress I saw was an accumulation of frustration and despair.

As a solopreneur, you have the control to make your own business choices - you need to step up and take full responsibility.

#1 Have a daily morning routine

Once you are out of the rat race, the sudden freedom to do whatever you want, whenever you want, can be overwhelming. Days pass by quickly and you will find yourself one day shocked by how fast time has passed and how little productive you have been without a daily routine. There is no boss that will be upset at you for showing up 5 minutes after 9am - it is fully up to you. It is important to have the discipline to follow through with a daily morning routine that sets the groundwork for a focused, high performance day.

Begin your morning by visualizing and connecting to your future. If you'd like, check out TRAIN YOUR BRAIN — a simple way to success for some tips on visualizing and getting your Vision Board ready for action. Commit to your goals. Don’t start the day with world news or social media, keep the distracting noise out and kick off the day with a clear, flow state-of-mind.

#2 Do the hard things first

Are you making a ToDo list and starting with the easiest, most enjoyable tasks? Crossing off a bunch of super easy tasks and giving yourself a fake sense of achievement? So you can trick your mind into believing you accomplished a lot that day and can delay the last three things on the list for tomorrow?

What you are actually doing is delaying those difficult remaining tasks repeatedly. Those last few “difficult” things that constantly get delayed on your ToDo list are probably the ones that have the biggest impact on your life.

Define and separate your important from your urgent problems. Put in the necessary work, refine your plan, persevere and you will see some extraordinary results. When you look back at these challenging periods of your life, they are the most memorable and gratifying.

Release yourself from other people’s personal judgements and other people’s belief systems about how the world should be. Create a state of mental-autonomy.

Your closest family and friends will be the most vocal and eager to offer tips about how you should run your solopreneurial journey and disapproving of your newfound independence. Despite their good, loving intentions, you need to block these emotionally invested, personal inputs out of the early stages to first nurture and establish what you believe in. Think of it as an early stage incubation period where you need undisturbed focus for your idea and plans. I am not saying to betray or abandon your closest people - you will be grateful for their support down the road - but you didn’t take the difficult step of exiting the rat race just to again surrender yourself to someone else’s expectations.

Own your purpose, own your future, own your life.