Escaping The Rat Race To Become A LIP
“Escaping the rat race”…phew, now there’s a phrase that’s gained some momentum in recent years.
I too used to sit at my hotdesk in my company’s offices (if I were lucky) or on a client site somewhere in the wilds of the M4 corridor (if I were unlucky) and wonder just what else I could be doing with my life…
“Surely, I won’t be doing this forever? Surely, there’s more to working than being on this treadmill for the next few years? Or am I destined to be here until I (a) leave (b) get kicked out (c) have a baby (d) retire?”
Ugh, very depressing thoughts. And yet, the rat race for me was not one grey, dull, never-ending cycle of days which ran into each other; it was actually quite exciting. Mostly smart and ambitious people to work with, a job that changed all the time (I was a management consultant), fun and very drunken nights in London and a nice salary to spend when I wasn’t working or commuting. It was actually pretty cool but I knew right after my first year there, that it wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life.
How did I make the leap and escape the rat race?
Well, it was thanks to my Mum really. She died and it gave me the kick up the ass that I needed. I took some time out, decided that yes, life really was too short and “what the hell, even though I still have no idea what else I want to do, I’ll do something, anything, different”. That’s the short story at least.
And here we are four years later fully escaped from the rat race and loving it. Ok, so my experience is a little extreme and hopefully none of you will require such a heart-wrenching episode to propel you towards the life of your dreams. So the question remains…
Just how do you escape the rat race and become a Location Independent Professional?
I believe there are two key things that will give you the impetus to leave your grey, uninspiring cubicle where life perhaps isn’t so bad but it’s not really perfect…
1) Create a vision or a dream that is so utterly compelling that it literally pulls you towards it and creates such a magnetic draw that you are motivated, inspired and energised to make it a reality.
2) Push yourself into action by either taking some radical action which literally forces you to move towards your goal or take smaller, less radical steps which make your current life less appealing and your dream life much more appealing. Greg talked about feeling like he needed to sabotage his current status quo in order to give him that final push and that is exactly what I’m talking about.
I am not however an expert on escaping the rat race because my example is an extreme one so I will happily refer you on to a couple of people who might be a bit more help than me…
Pam Slim at Escape From Cubicle Nation
Sarah Rourke at Rat Race Escape Artist
Note: The fantastic ‘leaping to freedom’ photo is courtesy of my Dad.
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Comments
I just wanted to let you all (or as we say in the south y’all) know that we are jumping into the Location Independent Life.
Both me and my wife are busy looking for income streams that we can do from anywhere in the world.
We have decided that for our first quest we are going to live on a boat for an entire year and travel the waterways of the US. We hope to either leave Nashville in the spring and travel up to the Great Lakes, or purchase a boat that is already in the Great Lakes.
Eventually we are going to make our way down to the Caribbean for the winter. Other than that we will just go with the breeze.
We realize that it is expensive living on a boat, but we are going to sell everything that does not belong on a boat, and live with as few possessions as possible. It will actually be harder for me than for my wife.
This weekend we spend some time with boat owners on a nearby lake, and learned a lot of helpful things. We have a lot of things to learn, but that is going to be a big part of the adventure.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Coach Kip
Fantastic news, Coach Kip! Living on a boat sounds exciting - there are a lot of yachties down here in Grenada (for the hurricane season) and it’s definitely a nice way of life, despite some of its drawbacks. We’ve considered it too - but neither of us have any boating experience to speak of yet, so perhaps that’s one to consider for the future!!
Look forward to hearing about your progress….
I have always wanted to live on a boat for a while as well. Have never had any boating experience though. I will see how I get on living on a sailing boat in the Whitsundays in Oz first and see where to go from there…
Thanks the mention Lea but I have to say you are definitely someone I would say has taken the whole concept of Rat Race Escape to new heights and therefore you are an expert in this. I agree your example is totally extreme but what I find interesting about what you’ve done is the fact that your way of working could just as easily translate to someone who simply wants to run their own business from home (internet connection and phone) or who wants to work around bringing up kids etc.
They would always then have that option of just packing up that laptop and jetting off into the sunset if the mood ever takes them…..
I agree with Sarah, Lea!
The fact that you have actually done what you are talking about makes you the best expert there is.
I live vicariously through your travels as my life is very home-bound at the moment (in a wonderful way, with a new baby).
Once the rugrats are a bit bigger, I look forward to taking them on some wonderful LIP adventures.
Big hugs to you from AZ!
-Pam
Thanks Pam - hope all is going well with the new little bundle of joy - glad to have you back blogging too!
I guess there’s a part of me which wonders whether we would have done this if my Mum hadn’t died - and without that massive change, how I would have made the leap…especially when my life was *relatively* comfortable already. And it’s that part - making the leap - which I think is one of the hardest things to do.
After that of course, it’s all relatively plain sailing 
Ha, I wish!
You are spot on….it is easy to get up and leave when the “job” is horrible.But much harder when it is bearable or even not half bad.
Thanks for this post, I look forward to reading many more of your posts.